John Oliver Simon Award
The John Oliver Simon Award (formerly the Poetry Promise Award) celebrates a full time student poet in or from Clark County, NV for exceptional promise in poetry and is selected by the Clark County Poet Laureate and Poetry Promise Board of Directors. Past winners:
2024 1st Place: Asa Baker
2024 2nd Place: Blu Mehari
2024 Runner-up: Bobby Morris
2023 1st Place: Naya Hudson
2023 2nd Place: Eduardo Bouchard
2022 1st Place: Elizabeth Galvez
2022 2nd Place: Jalees Tamayo
2021 1st Place: Sara Paye
2021 2nd Place: Ruby Burch
2019 1st Place: Katelynn Richardson
2019 2nd Place: Jessica Kokayko
2018 Winner: Andrew Romanelli
2017 Winner: Ariel Horton
2016 Winner: Lila Brissette
Thanks to Lila Brissette for endowing a second place prize for her Girl Scouts Gold Award!
Pictured above are the 2024 John Oliver Simon Award Winners: First place winner Asa Baker (left), second place winner Blu Mehari (via Zoom, top right), and runner-up Bobby Morris. A total of $750 in prizes were given away! Each winner was also a featured performer at the John Oliver Simon Award Ceremony on May 18th, 2024 at the Winchester Cultural Center. Congratulations to these students for their accomplishments and amazing work! We were also pleased to feature notable community poets A.J. Houston and Brooke-Arita Zamora, and we are grateful to award coordinator Liz Galvez.
Above photo pictures the 2023 John Oliver Simon Award Winners, Naya Hudson, UNLV Honors College and Eduardo Bouchard, Sunrise Mountain High School.
Our first place winner gets $500, and second place gets $200! Each winner will also be a featured performer at the John Oliver Simon Award Ceremony. Congratulations to these students for their amazing work!
What to Submit and When
Submissions open February 1, 2024. The application and 3 pages of original poetry are due on Monday, March 25, 2024. Label each poem with a title or number so we know when a new poem begins. Be sure to include page numbers. Only provide your name on the application. Do not put your name on any other pages.
Who Is Eligible to Apply
Full-time students in Clark County are eligible for the award if they are over the age of fifteen.
Download the application to get started. Please email [email protected] with any questions.
About the John Oliver Simon Award
John Oliver Simon, one of the Bay Area’s most beloved poets, died in the early hours of January 16, 2018. As an educator, Simon devoted himself to teaching children to write poetry. He co-founded and taught at the People’s Community School in Berkeley, 1969-1973. He was a former president and board member of California Poets in the Schools (CalPoets) and served as the artistic director of Poetry Inside Out, a program of the Center for the Art of Translation. In 2013, he was named the River of Words Teacher of the Year by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass.
The John Oliver Simon scholarship was initiated by Bruce Isaacson, Emeritus Poet Laureate, and continued through Poetry Promise, Inc. John and Bruce were colleagues and John encouraged Bruce to create a Nevada Poets in the Schools program. He offered guidance, a listening ear, and encouragement. Isaacson says, “My hope in establishing the award and local workshops is to provide constructive avenues of engagement. We hope to encourage literary understanding and achievement by promising writers.” Indeed, John Oliver Simon was the catalyst for our Nevada Poets in the Schools program. We have renamed the Poetry Promise Award to honor John Oliver Simon.
Inspiration for the award also came from Bruce Isaacson’s reading of the life of Arthur Rimbaud.
Arthur Rimbaud was the most talented writer of his era, and was perhaps born with this gift. A lack of local understanding and opportunities led to his abandoning poetry at the age of 21 to become an adventurer and gun runner in colonial Africa. He has since been claimed as a prime inspiration by literary movements from the French Symbolists, Surrealists, Existentialists, Beats, Punk movement, and on…
Our hope in establishing the award and local workshops is to provide constructive avenues of engagement. We want to encourage literary understanding and achievement by promising writers.
