2025 Poetry Chapbook Award Winner. Teacher by Gideon Young. 

Gideon Young is a member of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective and the Orange County Arts Commission advisory board. A Fellow for A+ Schools of North Carolina and a stay-at-home dad, his debut haiku collection my hands full of light was published by Backbone Press (2021). His poetry: included in Best Spiritual Literature (Orison Books, 2022), nominated for the Pushcart Prize, selected for the 2025 National Baseball Poetry Festival, and forthcoming in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora. 

Gideon is co-author of One Window’s Light: A Collection of Haiku, published by Unicorn Press, 2017, winner of the Haiku Society of America Merit Award for Best Anthology. In 2026, look for a new collaborative anthology from Unicorn Press—Griots: Keepers of the Story; A Collection of Haibun. A former Title 1 elementary school teacher, Gideon is the North Carolina Poetry Society’s 2025 & 2026 Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for the Eastern North Carolina Region. He lives in Chapel Hill, NC. Discover more at www.gideonyoung.com.