Well-RED Reading Series featuring Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate Sierra Elman, Vice-Laureate Rohan Mahapatra and Ambassadors Polina Korobitsyna & Makela Shen
Co-sponsored by Works/San José art and performance center!
38 South Second Street, downtown San José.
If you are unable to attend in person, we welcome you to join via Zoom! Register in advance for this event via Zoom.
Link: https://bit.ly/Well-RED_December2026
Downtown SJ provides free parking on the street after 6:00 p.m. Available street parking is difficult to find after 6:30 p.m.
If you are unable to find parking on the street, there are two parking garages of note:
1.) 25 S. 3rd Street PARKSJ Garage (located underground, under The Globe Apartments), about 300 meters from Works/San Jose;
2.) 2nd & San Carlos PARKSJ Garage (first 90 minutes are free). This is a 5-10 minute walk to Works/San Jose.
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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 Adroit Journal, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, 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.
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Rohan Mahapatra is a high school student poet and Santa Clara County’s honorary Vice-Youth Poet Laureate for 2026-2027. Years of studying tabla have shaped his attention to rhythm and cadence, while his background in choir and musical theater informs the musicality and performative voice of his poetry. Beyond writing, he volunteers with programs serving neurodivergent individuals, 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 in poetry. His poems have been published in the National Federation of State Poetry Societies’ 2026 Youth Poetry Book and the 1455 Young Poets Anthology, both available on Amazon.com. He has also received recognition from Voces de Sacramento and the Literacy in Place Rural Teen Writing Awards. Rohan 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 journalism program, he is continually interested in how language can preserve memory, foster empathy, and strengthen community.
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Polina Korobitsyna is a student poet at Silicon Valley International School from San Jose, California. Her poetry explores intersections between gender, society, and family. Her work is featured or forthcoming in the Minnesota Review, Narrative Magazine, and the South Carolina Review, and was recently recognized with a National Scholastic Writing Awards Silver Medal and Second Place in the Narrative High School Poetry Contest. Her poems have also been recognized in contests sponsored by 1455, Interlochen Arts Academy, the Roanoke Review, and Woorilla Poetry.
Polina currently serves as a Poetry Reader for Afterbodies, an international literary magazine that seeks to unite students across cultures and experiences by platforming diverse youth voices.
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Makela Shen is a high-school writer from California. She is a Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Gold Medalist and has been recognized by JUST POETRY!!!, Writers of the Future, and more. Her work appears in Blue Marble Review, Eunoia Review, Rogue Agent, and The Weight Journal. On any given day, you might also find her debating mid-round or rewatching Hamilton for the 200th time.
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