Rishi Janakiraman

Rishi Janakiraman is a poet and essayist from Raleigh. He is the 2025-26 National Student Poet of the Southeast, America’s highest honor for youth poets. He also currently serves as North Carolina’s Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate and has been recognized by The Poetry Society, Bow Seat, and BBC Extra. A Top 15 Foyle Young Poet of the Year, his work has been published in The New York Times, Poetry Daily’s News column, and Rust + Moth, among others. Outside of writing, he serves as the Editor-In-Chief of Polyphony Lit and is always on the lookout for a new ramen place.