Amanda Gorman read her poem The Hill We Climb in front of a sea of masked Americans during Joe Biden’s Presidential Inaugural Swearing-In Ceremony. She stood in the U.S. Capitol on January 20th, 2021, to recite a poem about hope and change, echoing some of the messages Biden has used during his campaign…
This amazing young poet is (b. 1998) comes from Los Angeles. Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015.
Gorman grew up it with limited television access and had a speech impediment as a child. She has said she was something of a “weird child” who enjoyed reading and writing and was encouraged by her mother, a teacher. She graduated from Harvard last year with a degree in sociology.
The Hill We Climb is a poem fresh off the page, most of it written while watching pro-Trump extremists storm the Capitol on January 6th. A debut poetry collection is due to be published this autumn (2021), as will a children’s picture book, Change Sings, A Children’s Anthem, llustrated by Loren Long.
Follow Amanda Gorman on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandascgorman/
