Niveah Glover wins $20,000 poetry prize, named U.S. presidential scholar
Douglas Anderson School of the Arts student Niveah Glover was recently named the national grand champion of the 2024 Poetry Out Loud® competition.
Glover recited poems by Patricia Smith, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Ashanti Anderson to take home the $20,000 grand prize in the competition sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.
“It was so interesting to delve into other people’s perspectives and turn it into something that I can relate to,” Glover said.
She was also the runner up in the written Poetry Ourselves category for her original composition, “These Thighs.”
“It’s not an understatement to say Niveah lives up to all the hopes I have for my students,” said Tiffany Melanson, director of Douglas Anderon’s Creative Writing program. “She has taken the lessons she has received on the importance of infusing her art with the truth of her own experiences and used them as fuel to pursue her ambitions as an artist. She truly is an exceptional student, artist and human being, and it’s been a privilege to teach her.”
Glover credited the school’s Creative Writing program with preparing her for both the competition and her future goals. “The Creative Writing Department has pushed me beyond my dreams,” she said. “The department, its teachers and its curriculum have taught me so many important things. I remember feeling so afraid of my own voice before I became a creative writing student, now I am not afraid of it or my potential.”
In addition to winning the poetry competition, Glover was named a presidential scholar. Currently celebrating its 60th anniversary, the U.S. Presidential Scholars program was created by President Lyndon Johnson to honor the nation’s brightest minds.
Glover was the only Jacksonville student to receive the honor, which is given to just 161 students nationwide each year.
