Wonder and Awe Poetry Reading: SB Unified Student Poetry Contest Winners

Santa Barbara Public Library and Santa Barbara Unified present a reading by winners of the 2026 SB Unified School District Poetry Contest with Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, George Yatchisin, emceeing the event. 

This year’s theme, Wonder and Awe, invited students to dive into a theme that asked them to slow down and look closer. All students at SB Unified were invited to participate and now we get to celebrate their poetic voices and creativity! 

 George Yatchisin is Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, 2025-2027, and the author of the chapbook Feast Days (Flutter Press 2016) and the full length The First Night We Thought the World Would End (Brandenburg Press 2019). His poems have been published in numerous journals including Antioch Review, Askew, and Zocalo Public Square. He is the co-editor of the anthology Big Enough for Words: Poems and Vintage Photographs from California’s Central Coast (Gunpowder Press 2021), and his poetry appears in several anthologies including California Fire & Water: A Climate Anthology (Story Street Press 2020), Reel Verse: Poems About the Movies (Everyman's Library 2019), and Clash by Night (City Lit Press 2015).