A pair of Williston Northampton poets from the class of 2025 have been honored by the Academy of American Poets for their contributions to a “Dear Poet” project.
Annika Stackmann ’25 and Dan McBride ’25 both earned distinctions from the Academy. Stackmann’s poet letter, written to Anne Waldman, will be published in a booklet by the organization in August, that will be distributed online and in print to hundreds of schools across the country. McBride’s letter, written to Jericho Brown, received a runner-up award.
The duo wrote the letters as part of a project for Sarah Levine’s AP English Literature class. Over 2,000 letters were submitted to the contest from 11 countries and 34 states.
Levine said that about a dozen Williston students entered the competition this year and that she was thrilled that Stackmann and McBride both received accolades.
Stackmann, for her part, was not expecting an honor—but felt that she put a lot of hard work into the assignment.
“I was really surprised when Ms. Levine told me the news,” said Stackmann when she learned about the honor. “Writing has always been important to me, but during my senior year, I really pushed myself to grow, especially in AP Lit, so to hear from the Academy of American Poets felt like such a meaningful way to close out that chapter. It made me feel like the effort I put in was truly seen and valued, which means a lot.”
Going into the assignment, Stackmann said she didn’t know much about Waldman or her work. But after reading Waldman’s “Anthropocene Blues” poem, Stackmann knew she was going to write about the poet.
“I took my time dissecting every word and recognizing the deliberate choices throughout the poem,” Stackmann said. “Analyzing Anne’s poem definitely helped me improve my poetry analysis skills. Because of this thorough analysis, writing the letter felt natural, I simply wrote from the heart.” Stackmann will head to the University of Colorado Boulder this fall, and McBride will attend Cornell University.
Learn more about Williston’s English department here.
