City-Wide WE READ Youth Voices Writing Contest Returns May 1

2026 Youth Ambassador and Theme

Each year, the contest has a different theme chosen by the WE READ Youth Voices writing contest Youth Ambassador. This year's Youth Ambassador is Octavia Ikard, the City of Madison Youth Poet Laureate for 2025-26. Octavia is a creative writing major and First Wave scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who got their start in spoken word clubs. The 2026 contest theme is Community in Action, and Ikard says that, while they struggled to choose a theme, community spoke to something they felt had been "missing in our nation's history and heart; that we need now more than ever."

"Community serves as a reminder that every action we take plants a seed into something or someone. When we seek connections for the sake of sharing rather than gaining something from them, our care for one another becomes something powerful," said Ikard.

In addition to selecting the theme for the contest, in their role as Youth Ambassador, Ikard will also visit local schools, serve as a judge, and write the foreword for the WE READ Youth Voices Anthology when it's released later this fall.

Contest Kick-Off Event

Kids and families can learn more about the contest's theme at the kick-off event on Saturday, May 16 at the Forward Madison FC home opener against USL Championship club Detroit City FC at Breese Stevens Field [917 E. Mifflin St., 5pm]. A WE READ Youth Voices writing contest representative will kick out the game ball and introduce the contest at half-time. Madison Public Library will also have a table within the stadium from 5-7pm that families can visit to pick up free writer's notebooks, learn more about the contest theme, and snag a WE READ Youth Voices writing contest bookmark. Bookmarks include writing prompts for this year's theme.

"We're so excited to be working with the Madison Public Library again on the WE READ Youth Voices writing contest. This has been a fantastic project for the club and our players to participate in," said Forward Madison FC and Rally Madison FC General Manager Kyler Donovan. "We can't wait to welcome the library to our Home Opener on May 15th and kick off the contest in conjunction with the start of our home season. This initiative is such a great example of ways that people can express themselves and their experiences through writing, and we're thankful for all of the collaboration with the Madison Public Library!"