Caroline Blom wins first place at Giovanni-Steger Poetry Prize ceremony

This year’s Giovanni-Steger Poetry Prize marked the first since its namesake Nikki Giovanni passed away late last year. But the renowned poet’s spirit endured, echoing through her poetry and the poetry of the students she inspired.  

“Through her spirit, her prose, and her fearless truth telling, she didn't just shape literature,” Laura Belmonte, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, said during her opening remarks. “She shaped lives. She challenged perceptions, spoke truth with conviction, and inspired generations to think, to feel, to speak.”

Giovanni, an award-winning writer and University Distinguished Professor Emerita of English, along with the late Charles Steger, Virginia Tech president emeritus, founded the annual competition in 2006. It is open to undergraduate students of all majors and offers one of the largest monetary awards of any university-sponsored poetry prize in the Western Hemisphere.  

Caroline Blom, a sophomore majoring in English literature and professional and technical writing, won first place and $1,500 for her poem “How to Get a Happy Life” during the competition at the Lyric Theatre. When Blom heard her name announced from the podium, surprise flickered across her face.  

“I was not expecting to win,” she said. “I was just really happy to be picked in general and to be able to read here today. So that made me feel very proud.”

Blom, whose poem centered on life advice, said she navigates the world through poetry. 

“Poetry is as close as I can think to something truly honest,” Blom said. “For me, it’s always been a map, not only into myself, but into the world.” 

The $800 second-place prize was awarded to Isabella Korobow-Velez, a senior biological sciences major. Korobow-Velez, who is minoring in creative writing, said inspiration for her poem “A Pinning Board on the Floor” struck during a biology class where she spent 15 weeks pinning bugs for a collection. 

“My goal in writing is to touch people and connect with people, and I did that – and that’s what I’m really happy about – that someone else enjoyed something I wrote,” she said. “We get the same experience and same joy.”

Jennifer Tran, a junior English literature and professional writing major, won third place and $500 for her poem “Garlic Knife.”   

“While the poem was inspired by my relationship with food, it's also about Asian women and their identity and their relationship with the Asian community and the American community and the beauty standards of both,” she said.

The competition was the first time she shared her poetry in a public setting. She said Giovanni’s work is an inspiration for her.  

“Being an English major, I’ve always read her poetry and analyzed it and become so fond of it,” she said. “So being able to be here in her honor is such an amazing opportunity that I’m going to forever hold with me.”

Gena Chandler, associate chair of the Department of English, presented this year’s awards with Aileen Murphy, senior instructor in the department and director of the competition. The top three finalists also received The Steger trophy, a piece of art crafted by students at the Virginia Tech Foundry.  

Other finalists included:

• Grace Belcher, an English major, for “Encore” 
• Morgan Blankenship, and English education major, for “Bluebird”
• Aaliyah Kinsler, a multimedia journalism major, for “Twinship” 
• Elizabeth Klint, an English literature major, for “Spot Survey, Question 2”
• Alyssa Nazigian, an English literature and creative writing major, for “In Response” 
• Rose Puschnik, a clinical neuroscience major, for “Five Pounds of Flesh and Blood”
• Jordyn Styles, an English literature, professional and technical writing, and creative writing major, for “Dorothy Leaves Kansas” 

Several faculty members recited Giovanni’s poems throughout the evening, weaving them in between the student poetry readers. Giovanni’s wife and retired English professor, Virginia Fowler, read the final poem of the evening, Giovanni’s “Vegetable Soup.”

The evening concluded with a toast to poetry – one of Giovanni’s annual traditions. Only this time, the toasts were in her honor and memory.