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2026 Sejong Writing Competition

Sijo Winners

	Adult Division	Pre-college Division
First Place	Lauren Ruth Wiener Port Townsend, WA sijo	Lucas Pai New York, NY Baruch College Campus HS (Rita Ross) sijo
Second Place	Emily Rose Raboy Placerville, CA sijo	Jean-Mann Miguel Arago Chicago, IL William Howard Taft HS (Lucy Luna) sijo
Third Place	Michael Williams Acworth, GA sijo	Solomon Kalusche Hartland, WI Arrowhead Union HS (Terri Carnell) sijo
Honorable Mention*	Hollie Dickson Jeannette, PA sijo Kenny Likis Cambridge, MA sijo Elizabeth Shack Urbana, IL sijo	Bavly Beshai Bayonne, NJ Bayonne HS (Jennie David) sijo Lilly Do New York, NY Hunter College HS (Olivia Byun) sijo Zia Dolland Clarksville, MD The Bryn Mawr School (Sierra Duckworth) sijo Ariana Dominguez Bayonne, NJ Bayonne HS (Jennie David) sijo Zoey Green Baltimore, MD The Bryn Mawr School (Katie Walsh) sijo Claire Park Flower Mound, TX Flower Mound HS (Ji Nang Kim) sijo

*Honorable Mention

( ) Teacher's name

 

Freedom is moving easy in harness, Robert Frost famously observed, and in that spirit I greatly enjoyed exploring sijo and working within their formal structure. I came to sijo, as so many others have, through haiku — I enjoy the challenge of distilling a moment down to just a few syllables. But sijo is a more expansive, and in some ways more complex, form; I look forward to playing with it some more.

This sijo describes a real event from my life—a bout of insomnia that brought me outdoors one night, where to my astonishment and delight, a truly gorgeous aurora borealis covered the northern sky!

I'm a lifelong writer who has published nonfiction books and a memoir, but poetry was my first love. After a hiatus of many years, I began to write poetry again a few years ago and have recently published a few poems in Tricycle.

I live with my husband in Port Townsend, WA, where I enjoy hiking, birding, meditating, writing, and taking in an abundance of live music and art shows.

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Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, I grew up surrounded by art and discovered my love of writing and performing. Though I mostly write plays, songs, and poetry, I was unfamiliar with sijo. One of my recent interests has been writing haiku, and when researching haiku competitions and publishing opportunities, I thankfully learned about the Sejong Writing Competition and haiku’s older, Korean cousin, sijo.

“The Safe” was inspired by my mom’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. My mom’s career was in the stressful world of Silicon Valley high tech, but I knew her best as a talented artist and a wonderful, loving mother. When she got diagnosed, I put my own life and career on hold to move and help take care of her. Though caregiving is often stressful and sad work, I am thankful to still share happy, loving moments with her.

I wrote “The Safe” to commemorate my mother and all those who experience dementia, whether as patient or caregiver. It has been most difficult to watch my incredibly intelligent, creative, kind, and capable mother lose parts of herself (memories, abilities, etc.) to this disease. I wish I had recorded her stories before, because now important details change with each telling or they are forgotten completely.

I found the structure of sijo to be both challenging and ideal for writing about Alzheimer’s, especially with sijo’s twist ending, for being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s is a twist in life for both the patient and their loved ones.

Through the process of reading sijo and writing my own, I gained an appreciation for this respected Korean artform and I plan to continue reading and writing sijo.

I am excited to share that this is my first publication!

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A dyed-in-the-wool Taoist, this part-time poetaster is a longtime admirer of Basho’s haiku. So, it’s only natural—thanks to my former-English-teacher mother, who introduced me to the form (and whom I’ll get to see ‘for free’ later this year, thanks to this greatly appreciated prize ¹)—that I’d feel an affinity for what could be considered the kindred (yet elder ;- ) form of economical expression we call sijo.

Regarding the innocent sijo I submitted—and, indeed, it might best be read as such—it’s also an admittedly subtle meditation on today’s national political climate: one that’s not only a struggle-as-usual, but that seems all too often painfully at loggerheads and verbally abusive.² This little sijo also proposes an antidote: kindness, perhaps best expressed as appreciation. Additionally, it could be read as an ars poetica; its central thesis is the heart of all poetry and sijo quite obviously: that “words matter.”

That’s quite a bit to attempt in approximately 45 syllables, but we believe the intrepid sijo is a sturdy yet flexible form that can handle it.

Phun phakt: Contrary to the characters of the poem, we haven't any children;³ so, that aspect of the sijo’s scenario is purely imaginary. Enjoy.

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Hi! My name is Hollie, I am an aspiring poet and children’s author from Jeannette, Pennsylvania. I have always enjoyed writing, seeing it as a way of dealing with big emotions, but have never had any formal training. My educational background is actually in mental health. I graduated from Shippensburg University with a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling.

I have been blessed to have had some pieces published. I have written a collection of poetry entitled “The She Inside of Me” that was published in 2023, as well as co-authoring a series of children’s stories entitled “The Benny Chronicles.” Benny was a very loved rabbit who lived such a grand life that his owners had to keep his memory alive by sharing all his nonsensical adventures (loosely inspired by true events.) “The Benny Chronicles” have recently been re-released with new art as four individual stories, the first in the series is entitled “Benny King of The Rabbits.” While my work has been available on Amazon for some time, I have not started marketing them until about three months ago.

As of recent, I have had my poem “A Smile That Lights Up A Room” be published in The Blot magazine, my poem “Waves” published in the Haiku Shack magazine Volume 6, and my poem “Eye of the storm” was selected to be included in the 2026 Eastern Pennsylvania Bards Poetry Review.

I heard about the Sijo writing competition after starting a writer facebook page and searching for writing groups and competitions to join. I had never heard of Sijo before encountering the competition but I felt instantly drawn to its complex writing style. Driven by a desire to challenge myself to try something new I researched how to write a sijo. After reading some examples I decided to try it out. I am both shocked and grateful to have my work recognized. I am excited to see where my writing journey takes me next and who I may encounter along the way.

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I learned about sijo, and later the Sejong Poetry Competition, from the leader of my ongoing poetry workshop. Though the form was new to me, I was drawn to the combination of the long line and short verse. I also find “tiny poems” unabashedly ephemeral and pure, and welcomed the impetus to attempt to write one.

Since I was trying a new form, it occurred to me to write about writing. Once I hit on writing “the book of my failures,” my poem had a direction I believed in and wanted to illustrate and own. How to expound on and complicate this notion in just three, longish lines? That was the challenge and delight of the sijo.

I’m a longtime student of poetry who began writing poems in earnest during the pandemic. My work has appeared or will soon in Riddled with Arrows, Duck, Birmingham Poetry Review, and Paterson Literary Review, and in the anthologies Early Innings and In a Nutshell.

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I found sijo and the Sejong Writing Competition a few years ago. Since I was writing poetry, and had started learning Korean for fun, I searched for Korean poetry forms. Sijo attracted me because of its deceptive simplicity, the surprise in the beginning of the third (or fifth) line, and the depth of feeling that the poems evoke.

When I write formal verse, the form becomes a kind of co-author because the restrictions on line length, meter, or rhyme guide the words and phrases I use. That often sends the poem in an unexpected direction. In fact, in this sijo, the last line is almost the opposite of what I started out trying to say. Those contradictions help me think more deeply about things, and hopefully make the poem more interesting.

 

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My name is Lucas Pai, and I am currently a junior at Baruch College Campus High School in New York City, New York. I aspire to pursue my fascinations in the business world, while continuing to further explore my passions in creative writing.

Discovering this competition was something that I found through social media, as I was actively searching to express myself in a way where I could be the one who decides the narrative of the story. This sijo competition stuck out to me immediately and I knew that from the moment I opened the website, this was where I wanted to share my story. The contrast between the limitless amount of topics to talk about, paired up with the steep restrictions of having to condense it all in a handful of syllables, made it important that every single word had a purpose.

I decided to write my sijo behind what is widely considered the most iconic puzzle in the world, the Rubik’s cube. With so much mystery and complexity behind it, it’s so easy to become overwhelmed with the fear of not being good enough. But through the Rubik’s cube, it helped me discover a passion for something that I’ve grown to love over the years, while also reminding me that difficult does not equate to impossible.

Through writing my sijo, I developed a deeper understanding of the lyrical aspect of writing, as well as how important word choice is. While I had so much I wanted to discuss, the difficulty in constructing a whole compelling story within 3 short lines really emphasized the idea of less is more, and I am extremely grateful to have been given the opportunity to learn so much through the writing process.

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I am a sophomore at William Howard Taft High School in Chicago, Illinois.

I first learned about the competition via my English teacher Miss Luna where she asked if we wanted to write a sijo for a contest and potentially win a cash prize. At first I was hesitant to join as I do not see myself as a good writer nor do I like to compete in competitions, but I chose to do it anyways with Miss Luna's encouragement.

I decided to write about a topic that has always stuck in my mind ever since my guardians started talking about it. Moving to another country, it was something I very much was against as I dislike change and I had not lived in other countries before hand. I learned that I can somehow manage to pull through and achieve things beyond my goals with the right motivation.

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My name is Solomon Kalusche from a small little place called Hartland.

My teacher, Mrs. Carnell introduced me to sijos and this competition and it really interested me because it was such a unique was of expressing your feelings through writing.

My inspiration was just how I was feeling about current situations and the anger I was dealing with. It was really about me conveying my emotions onto a written form.

Through sijos I learned an interesting new way to express myself and deal with my emotions.

 

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My name is Bavly Beshai, and I am a senior at Bayonne High School. I first learned about the Sejong Writing Competition through my English class, and I was immediately intrigued by the sijo form because of how it can hold so much meaning and style within so few words.

My sijo was inspired by a personal and emotional experience of the loss of a close family member whom I considered my best friend. While the poem reflects that moment, I also see it as the universal experience of watching a loved one slowly fade and searching for some sense of peace within that loss. I tried to capture both the weight of that moment and the quiet comfort that can come with it through my poem.

Through the process of writing my sijo, I learned how powerful simplicity can be. With such a strict structure every word had to carry weight forcing me to be intentional with my language. Sijo pushed me to express complex emotions into just a few lines. Through Sijo I learned that conveying emotion in poetry does not require many words but rather just the right ones.

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My name is Lilly Do and I am a freshman at Hunter College High School. I have always taken a liking to creative writing and all of its different forms, where I feel free to express myself. I enjoy how powerful writing can be and how we can use it to both challenge and explore our own thoughts. Outside of academics, I enjoy wrestling, swimming, playing the piano, and hanging out with my friends. When we’re not strolling through Central Park, we’re trying new baking recipes or getting frozen yogurt.

I would like to give thanks to my English teacher, Ms. Byun, who introduced me to this writing competition. Despite the mandatory submission, I was excited to try the unfamiliar sijo form and play around with words in a new way.

In my sijo, I chose to write something lighthearted about an overlooked aspect of my daily life. I walk past my brother and his bedroom countless times every day, but until now, have never paid any attention. It’s ironic how my brother is such an important part of my life yet I don’t treat him as such. Maybe other readers with siblings can also relate.

Through the writing process, I realized that there are so many things that I overlook or take for granted. How could I fail to notice a whole other “rainforest” in my apartment? Even though a sijo is only 44-46 syllables, I learned that recognition is its own form of respect and admiration. When writing, maybe the things we deem unimportant and unnecessary are really the most necessary.

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I learnt about this competition from my English teacher, Mrs. Duckworth, during our poetry unit in school.

The inspiration behind my sijo was based on having to get my hair braided every Sunday. The sijo is focused on the transition from my mom doing my hair to me starting to do my own hair. Braiding my hair became a personal moment with myself where I could just relax and remember all the times my mom did my hair.

During this experience I learned that even though you might have to rewrite your sijo one, two, or three times, to get the right syllable count, or the right wording, it is always worth it in the end.

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My name is Ariana Dominguez, and I am a student at Bayonne High School.

I learned about the Sejong Writing Competition from my teacher, Ms. David, and I was curious to try writing a sijo because of its unique form and rhythm.

My inspiration came from everyday experiences and moments that made me think, and I wanted to express that clearly and simply. Working on my poem taught me how much thought goes into word choice and structure, and how paying attention to small details can make a piece of writing more meaningful.

 

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My name is Zoey, and I’m in 8th grade at The Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, Maryland. I enjoy baking, playing soccer and tennis, reading, singing, playing piano, and writing my own songs. Since songs are similar to poems, I was excited when my English teacher added this contest as an assignment.

My sijo was inspired by my experience with music and music lessons. I took classical piano lessons from first to sixth grade, but I found it hard to relate to classical music because it had no words. As I got older, I became more interested in other genres of music, such as pop. Like a lot of people, I especially liked Taylor Swift. In sixth grade, I began taking voice lessons, and over winter break this year, I started teaching myself Swift’s songs on piano. I also began writing my own songs around this time. Through this experience, I learned how to tell stories, both with my own words and someone else’s, and how important it is to share your story with others.

While I was writing my sijo, I learned how to tell a story with very few words and make every one count. When I write songs, I have as much space as I want, but sijos limit you to 46 syllables, and fitting everything I wanted to say into so little space was difficult for me. During this process, I learned that sometimes, you can say more in fewer words.

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I am currently a sophomore student attending Flower Mound Highschool, and first learned about the Sejong Writing Competition thanks to my mom.

Personally, I was immediately taken back by the beauty of an orchid mantis, which inspired me to write a sijo about it. During the writing process, I learned about its beautiful and deceptive nature as, though being appealing and in a way, innocent, it's true nature is hidden—shown by how their spikes are hidden beneath petal-like arms.

From this, I wanted to express the orchid mantis' distinctive nature by compressing it into a short, 3 lined poem that was just enough to get my message across.

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