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Meet This Year's Poets
Meet This Year's Poets
Vicky Tinnell is honored to be the third Youth Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz, joined by poets Bella Dowd, Ash Raznick, Felice Rickwald, and Ror Spaugh in the 2026-2027 SCCYPL cohort.
Vicky Tinnell, Youth Poet Laureate
Vicky Tinnell, Youth Poet Laureate
Santa Cruz High School
Vicky Tinnell is a high school senior whose poetry is shaped by her Congolese roots and her life in Santa Cruz. She writes about identity, belonging, and resilience, transforming her experiences into poems that give voice to young people navigating a challenging world. She is an active member of the Rising Voices Youth Poetry Collective, and her work appears in local youth anthologies. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys performing, volunteering, and building community through the arts.
Read her poem "The Loudest Gods" here.
Bella Dowd, Finalist
Bella Dowd, Finalist
Delta High School
Bella is an 11th grade student who has loved to write since they were little. They love to play guitar and explore in nature! Bella's poetry work is focused on nostalgia and growing up, as well as moving through time.
Read their poem "Carved Initials" here.
Ash Raznick, Finalist
Ash Raznick, Finalist
Cypress High School
Ash is a poet who is loud with friends and quiet with most other people. In their free time, they like to read books, study random things that interest them, cook, avoid conflict with family, be in nature, and laugh with their sisters (and of course write poetry). Their main inspiration for poetry comes from their life experiences as a person who probably overthinks a lot, as well as the increasingly complex world around them. They go to Cypress High School and they enjoy it a lot. They hope you find their writing nice and maybe relatable.
Read their selected poems here.
Felice Rickwald, Finalist
Felice Rickwald, Finalist
Branciforte Middle School
Felice Rickwald is a Santa Cruz middle schooler who loves writing poetry and sometimes short stories. She stays active with many sports and activities such as archery and cross country, and seems to have something to do every day. In her spare time she enjoys reading, writing, knitting, hanging out with friends and practicing her photography. She likes to share her writing with the community on a website called Daily Prompt and writes under the name “FastWriterFela”. Felice has participated in Word Lab since fourth grade and her poetry has flourished under the loving eye of Wendy Thompson, the Word Lab director. She wouldn’t have been able to do this without the gentle nudge from her mom and her family, friends and teachers support. For Felice, poetry is a place where she can write down her emotions and try to help other people feel heard and understood.
Read Felice's selected poems here.
Ror Spaugh, Finalist
Ror Spaugh, Finalist
Aptos High School
Ror Spaugh is a senior at Aptos High School, using her work of poetry to make people feel seen and heard. She takes inspiration from her mental health and past experiences focusing on the harder hitting topics looking for a sense of belonging with other readers and showing others how they aren’t alone. When she isn’t delving deep into her emotions to bring her thoughts to paper she likes finding herself immersed in theatre, drumming in her band with her brother, watching the Twilight series, or hanging out with her dogs and geckos.
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