Pictured: Outgoing 2025-26 Youth Poet Laureate Kurn Sundaram.
The 2026 San José Poetry Festival continues!
This 12th annual festival event is free to the public. It will take place under the oak tree in front of Markham House inside History Park.
2026-27 SCC YOUTH POET LAUREATE COMMENCEMENT
Our third night of poetry introduces Santa Clara County to the incoming Youth Poet Laureate and 2026 finalists! Outgoing 2025-26 Youth Poet Laureate Kurn Sundaram will read a couple of poems and pass the baton. The new YPL will be announced on the SCC YPL Instagram.
Program Update: Please note that Laya Krishnan is unfortunately unable to appear. This event will feature Kurn Sundaram and some of this year’s incoming Youth Poet Laureate finalists as scheduled.
Tonight's Poets
Kurn Sundaram is a performance poet based in Northern California and the 2025-26 Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate. He is the editor-in-chief of JADE&COMPASS, a literary magazine that advocates for marginalized voices across the globe. A YoungArts Winner with Distinction and a Scholastic National Gold Medal Portfolio Scholarship recipient, he is also an incoming freshman at Stanford University.
The new 2026-27 SCC Youth Poet Laureate is Sierra Elman.
Sierra Elman is a poet from the San Francisco Bay Area and the 2024–2025 Burlingame-Hillsborough Youth Poet Laureate. She has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, The Adroit Journal, Bow Seat Ocean Awareness, DePaul’s Blue Book: Best American High School Writing, and many more. An alumna of The Adroit Journal's Summer Mentorship Program and the Kenyon Review’s Young Writers Workshop, she is also the co-founder and editor-in-chief of international youth literary magazine Marmalade Lit. Outside of writing, she can be found playing the guitar or trying to get her dog to come when called.
The new SCC Vice Youth Poet Laureate is Rohan Mahapatra.
Rohan Mahapatra is a student poet and musician from Santa Clara County. Years of studying the percussion instrument, the tabla, have shaped his attention to rhythm and cadence, while his background in choir and musical theater informs the performative voice of his poetry. Beyond writing, he volunteers through music therapy programs serving autistic children, experiences that continue to deepen his understanding of communication, patience, and artistic connection.
Rohan’s work often explores impermanence, family, and the ubiquity of loss. He is a two-time Scholastic Art & Writing Awards national silver medalist and was selected for the 2026 Adroit Writing Mentorship Program. His poetry is forthcoming in the 1455 Young Poets Anthology and the National Federation of State Poetry Societies’ 2026 Youth Poetry Book. He has also received recognition from the Literacy in Place Rural Teen Writing Awards.
He developed his poetic foundations through the University of Massachusetts’ Juniper Institute for Young Writers and the University of the South’s Sewanee Young Writers’ Winter Conference. As a poetry editor for Eucalyptus Lit and a reporter in his school’s journalism program, he is continually interested in how language can preserve memory, foster empathy, and strengthen community.
Photos to come…
Here is a map of History Park. Click image to expand it in a new tab. There are three parking lot options.
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The San José Poetry Festival is possible thanks to the support of these organizations.
San José Poetry Festival 2026 is presented by Poetry Center San José and sponsored in part by a Cultural Affairs grant from the City of San José; a grant from SVCreates, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara and the California Arts Council; and additional support from Anne & Mark’s Art Party and the Brandenburg Family Foundation. Many thanks to Four Points by Sheraton for hotel accommodations and Robertino R. Ragazza for his guidance and hospitality. We would like to acknowledge and offer our deepest gratitude to past and current venues worthy of your support: San José Stage, Central Park Library Santa Clara, Convergence Arts Center, SJZ Break Room, Art Boutiki (R.I.P.), Books Inc., Caravan Lounge, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, First Unitarian Church of San José, History/San José, MACLA, Cafe Stritch / Mama Kin (R.I.P.), Recycle Bookstore, The School of Arts and Culture (R.I.P.), Mexican Heritage Plaza, Tabard Theatre (R.I.P.), Willow Glen Public Library, Works/San José art & performance center and Hillbrook Upper School of San José. Please support these spaces however you can. And we thank all our volunteers whose time and effort make this festival possible.