We’re excited to share that Zoe Byron of Oakdale has been selected as our next youth laureate.
Zoe Byron, a sophomore at Oakdale High School, was selected as the Stanislaus County Youth Poet Laureate for 2024-2025. She will serve a one-year term, participate in several engagements throughout the year, and receive a $500 honorarium. Cameron Cendejo, a junior at Pitman High School, was a finalist.
“Congratulations to Zoe Byron, the newest Stanislaus County Youth Poet Laureate. I know that she’ll carry the poetry torch high, continuing the excellent work that inaugural Youth Poet Laureate, Faith Delgado, began this past year. Thank you to program coordinator Stella Beratlis and to all the judges for their work on this, and congratulations again to Zoe,” shared Gillian Wegener, MoSt Poetry Center president. The Stanislaus County Youth Poet Laureate is a program of the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center (MoSt Poetry), in partnership with Stanislaus County Office of Education, Stanislaus County Library, Modesto Junior College’s School of Language Arts and Education, and Stanislaus Library Foundation.
For more information about the program, please visit the Youth Poet Laureate program page.