It’s fair to say that, year after year, our students win more writing awards than any other program in the city.

In the 2023 Junior League of Washington’s Youth Poetry Contest, our middle school students swept both the sixth grade and eighth grade prizes: first, second and third place in each category. They also won first and third place for the seventh grade. This is particularly impressive because it’s a citywide competition with 161 entries from more than a dozen schools. In the 2023 Parkmont Poetry Festival, seventeen Workshop students were finalists and five were winners, four from Hart and one from Ballou. Hart had the second-most winners in the middle school division, one fewer than the prestigious Sidwell Friends School, and Hart had more winners than Georgetown Day, Meret, Washington Latin and other fine schools. More important, our students were the only winners from any DCPS school in the city. And three students won awards in the 2023 D.C. Public Library (Southeast) Haiku Contest.

In the 2022 Parkmont Poetry Contest, 17 Workshop students were finalists and seven were winners—five from Hart and two from Ballou. Hart tied with Sidwell Friends School for most winners. In the Junior League of Washington Citywide Poetry Contest, our writers swept the 6th grade prizes—first, second and third place, a 7th grader won second place, and an 8th grader won both second place and honorable mention with two separate poems. A Hart student won the Washington Post KidsPost contest for the ten best student poems, a nationwide contest, and was published in the newspaper on April 26. And three students won awards in the 2022 D.C. Library Haiku Contest: first and second place in the teen division and third place in the children’s division.

Because of COVID and the resulting closure of schools, we had fewer opportunities to win awards. Nevertheless, in the Parkmont Poetry Contest, we had ten finalists and seven winners in 2020 as well as nine finalists and five winner in 2021.

In the 2019 Parkmont Poetry Contest, nine of the 40 winners were ours. Eight of the 20 winners in the middle school division were our Hart students and one of the high school winners was our Ballou student. Hart tied with the prestigious Sidwell Friends School for most winners. The Workshop was also one of five nonprofits to win the “Impact Across Generations” award from the Bainum Family Foundation.

In the 2018 Parkmont Poetry Contest, nine of the 40 winners were Workshop students. Five in the middle school division were students at Charles Hart Middle School, two of the high school winners were our students at Ballou Senior High, and two other Workshop winners attended nearby charter schools. In the 2018 Finding Gabriela DC Youth Bilingual Poetry Contest, sponsored by the Gabriela Mistral Foundation, our students won six of the 18 prizes awarded. They won first and second place in teen poetry (high school), as well as first and third place and two honorable mentions in youth poetry (middle school).

In the 2017 Parkmont Poetry Contest, nine of the 40 winners were ours, including five from Hart Middle School and two from Ballou Senior High. Those seven were the only neighborhood public school students to win. In the 2017 Junior League Youth Poetry Contest, our students won first place for both 6th and 7th grades and another won honorable mention in the 7th grade competition. In the 2017 Finding Gabriela DC Youth Bilingual Poetry Contest, sponsored by the Gabriela Mistral Foundation, our students won eight of the 18 prizes awarded. They won first and second place and two honorable mentions in teen poetry, as well as first and third place and two honorable mentions in youth poetry.

In the 2016 Parkmont Poetry Contest, 12 of the 40 winners were ours and ten of the 20 winners in the middle school division were our Hart students. In the 2016 Larry Neal Awards, sponsored by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, all three of the finalists in Youth Poetry were Workshop students from Hart; two of them tied for first place. In the 2016 Junior League Youth Poetry Contest, one of our students won the 6th grade citywide award and four other children won honorable mentions in the 7th and 8th grade competitions. In the 2016 Finding Gabriela DC Youth Bilingual Poetry Contest, sponsored by the Gabriela Mistral Foundation, one of our students won first place in teen poetry, one was third place in youth poetry, and three others won honorable mentions.

In 2015, we had 13 winners in the Parkmont Poetry Contest, including nine of the 20 winners in the middle school division. All five finalists for Larry Neal Awards in Youth Poetry were Workshop students from Hart and our Executive Director was also a finalist in Adult Fiction. In the 2015 Gabriela Mistral DC Youth Poetry Contest, nine of the winners were from the Workshop. Six were Hart Middle School students, two represented Ballou High School, and the last was a Ballou graduate who is one of our Young Writers-in-Residence.

Workshop students have also won the District Lines Poetry on Metro Contest and the Washington Post KidsPost Poetry Contest. They have had their poetry published in the Potomac Review, and have represented the District of Columbia at the National Teen Poetry Slam. The Workshop was declared “One of the Best” by the Catalogue for Philanthropy in 2021-22, 2017-18, 2013-14 and 2004-05, and was one of five nonprofits to win the “Impact Across Generations” award from the Bainum Family Foundation in December 2018. Executive Director Nancy Schwalb received 2002 “Shayne” NonProfit Leadership Award and she has won six Larry Neal awards for fiction and essays.