
TARA PRAKASH
Founder and President
In May of 2022, for my Eagle Project in Scouts, I created a curriculum and taught creative writing workshops to students at an underserved elementary school in DC. Watching their growth over the course of the workshops was incredible, and I could see their writing and their passion for writing develop. While they had first been so reluctant to write, by the end of the workshops, the students were eagerly writing down and bringing to life memories, experiences, plays, poetry, and stories. The experience opened my eyes to the power of writing in building self-expression and communication, especially in youth. I also had the opportunity to work with Free Minds in February of 2022, a nonprofit that helps incarcerated persons interact with poetry. This work gave me insight into how writing can lead to positive change in communities, so I created Write to Right teach underserved communities creative writing as a tool towards social change.
ABOUT HER
Tara Prakash is a 2025 National Youth Poet Laureate finalist (TBA April), the 9th Youth Poet Laureate of the United States South, the inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of Maryland, and the 2024 Montgomery County Youth Poet Laureate. A three-time National YoungArts Winner and a Scholastic National Gold and Silver Medalist, Tara is one of four 2025 National Youth Poet Laureate finalists and has earned the 2023 First Class Distinction Award by the National Council of Teachers of English. Her work has been recognized by Princeton’s Leonard L. Milberg ‘53 High School Poetry Prize and the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest, among others, and has appeared in publications including Best American High School Writing, Blue Marble Review, and Eunoia Review. A twelfth-grader at Sidwell Friends and an alumni of the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship and Iowa Young Writers’ Studio, she has performed at the Kennedy Center, the National Press Club, and other venues. Her advocacy and writing have been featured in NBC4 News, ABC7 News, Washingtonian Magazine, and more –– you can learn more about her at taraprakashwrites.com.