Sweetness of the Spoil
YPL 2025–26
Sweetness of the Spoil is a tender coming of age, a powerful exploration of self at the threshold of adulthood. In the eleventh installment of the Seattle Youth Poet Laureate Series, Alfedil delivers a haunting lyric voice that interweaves stories of family and lineage into not mirror but prism as her light and language casts new ways of seeing out onto the reader.
The Seattle Youth Poet Laureate (YPL) program identifies, supports, and celebrates a young writer who is committed to both poetic excellence and civic engagement. The program is designed to enhance the development of a young writer, while providing resources, mentorship, and opportunities for growth. The Youth Poet Laureate serves as a vital youth voice to the broader literary community. Seattle Arts & Lectures is honored to partner with the National Youth Poet Laureate Program, an initiative of Urban Word, an award-winning youth literary arts and development organization.
Ahsenti Alfedil, the 2025/26 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate, is a first-generation American of Ethio-Sudanese descent and a student at the Bush School. A multidisciplinary Piscean, she moves fluidly between poetry, acrylic/oil painting, and movement-always led by curiosity and feeling. As a writer, Ahsenti turns most often to poetry. Her work shows resistance to categorization because she follows her intrigue; the fleeting moments that spark inspiration to create. Through her writing, she hopes to make space for those navigating layered identities, vulnerability, and for stories that make people feel seen in their most intricate and unspoken parts.
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