$50,000 Scholarship Supports Educational and Artistic Development
MIAMI, FL (February 13, 2023) – YoungArts announces Daniel Liu as the recipient of the 2023 YoungArts Lin Arison Excellence in Writing Award, a $50,000 scholarship given each year to a YoungArts award winner in Writing. Liu may apply the financial award against the cost of tuition, room and board to attend an accredited school of his choice.
Now in its sixth year, the award demonstrates how individual donor support for YoungArts award winners can create transformative opportunities for artists throughout their careers. The Lin Arison Excellence in Writing Award is part of YoungArts’ ongoing programmatic expansion, offering additional creative and professional development opportunities for artists throughout their careers.
“For the 2023 YoungArts Lin Arison Excellence in Writing Award, our panel selected Daniel Liu, whose poems are simply stunning,” said YoungArts Writing Panelist Nicole Cooley (1984 YoungArts Winner in Writing & U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts). “Daniel’s work asks urgent questions—about identity, culture, politics, and the self. His poems take huge risks of form and language, unusual in a young writer, as they reckon with violence and the body and ask us to rethink our understanding of the world. This is luminous and beautiful work, unforgettable, mature, and breathtaking. We have no doubt that Daniel will become an important new voice in contemporary American poetry, and we are thrilled to offer him this award.”
“From when I first got the call that I was a finalist to the tearful morning I had to leave National YoungArts Week, every part of YoungArts was life changing,” said Daniel Liu. “Every artist and friend gave me a new perception of my craft—they assured me that I could be a writer, that I could foster the art in me. I’m going to be the first person in my family to ever graduate high school, and this scholarship will ensure that I will be able to continue my education. YoungArts has allowed me to become a fuller artist and person. I’m so deeply grateful for everyone who made this scholarship possible.”
Daniel Liu is a writer based in Orlando, FL. His poems interrogate the self and its histories, from intimate domestic spaces to lush worlds, looking for hope in all its forms. Liu’s poems have been featured in publications such as The Adroit Journal and Rust and Moth and have been nominated for The Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. He was selected by The Poetry Society as the Foyle Young Poet of the Year and is currently working on a collection of poems surrounding memory.
About YoungArts
Established in 1981 by Lin and Ted Arison, YoungArts identifies exceptional young artists, amplifies their potential, and invests in their lifelong creative freedom. YoungArts provides space, funding, mentorship, professional development and community throughout artists’ careers. Entrance into this prestigious organization starts with a highly competitive application for talented artists ages 15–18, or grades 10–12, in the United States that is judged by esteemed discipline-specific panels of artists through a rigorous blind adjudication process.
For more information, visit youngarts.org, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter.
