[SOPHIA HALL]

GIRLS OVERHEARD WHILE PLAYING CHESS

[about]

Sophia Hall represents her hometown, Washington DC, as the 2023 Youth Poet Laureate. She lives a double life: 18-year-old poet by day, secret agent by night. She was selected to represent DC as a 2023 Presidential Scholar by President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden. Her writing has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the Library of Congress, Button Poetry, and several other organizations. Her poem “Multiple Choice,” won grand prize in the Sixteen River Press’s Youth Poetry Contest and was subsequently nominated for the Pushcart Prize. In 2022, she won the Smith College Poetry Prize for High School Girls, selected by Leila Chatti. Sophia is also the Art and Social Justice Fellow at Strathmore and Woolly Mammoth Theater. Her haiku, selected from 2900-plus submissions from 71 countries, have been displayed in prominent locations in the Washington DC Business District. She posts her writing and artwork on her instagram account @estelleuphoria, reaching an audience of over 100k users. She will be teaching a workshop at Politics and Prose later this month about the power of response poetry. She attends the University of Pennsylvania as a first-year student, where she was recruited for creative writing.