Nigerian-American poet becomes the tenth National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States
Eighteen-year-old Nigerian-American poet Daniel Somtochukwu Umemezie, from Cedar Falls, Iowa, has been named the 2026–2027 National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States.
Umemezie was selected from hundreds of young poets across the country and becomes the tenth recipient of the national honour, which recognises young poets whose work demonstrates artistic excellence and engagement with civic and social issues.
According to the National Youth Poet Laureate programme, Umemezie was selected through a national judging process involving hundreds of young poets from more than 120 youth poetry programmes across the United States.
His appointment adds another Nigerian-American name to the history of the award. Salome Agbaroji, who became the National Youth Poet Laureate in 2023, was the first Nigerian-American to receive the honour.
Umemezie was born and raised in Nigeria before moving to the United States as a teenager. His experience of migration and growing up between cultures has become an important part of his poetic identity, with his work engaging questions of memory, belonging, family, language and identity.
In an interview with PBS, Umemezie spoke about poetry as a way of connecting the different worlds that have shaped him. He also performed “Two Nigerias,” the poem with which he won the National Youth Poet Laureate competition.
The poem was subsequently published by the North American Review in its Summer 2026 issue.
Umemezie’s literary work has also appeared in the North American Review, which published his poem “Forma Negata” in 2025.
Before his national appointment, Umemezie served as the 2025–2026 Iowa Student Poet Ambassador, an initiative of the Iowa Poetry Association.
As National Youth Poet Laureate, Umemezie will serve as a national ambassador for youth poetry, using poetry and public performance to engage young people and wider audiences around questions of identity, community and civic life.
His appointment is a notable achievement not only for the young poet himself but also for the growing visibility of Nigerian and African diasporic voices in contemporary American poetry.
At eighteen, Umemezie now joins a distinguished group of young American poets who have held the National Youth Poet Laureate title—and begins a year in which his Nigerian-American perspective will have a national platform.
