Amanda Gorman

Amanda S. C. Gorman was raised in Los Angeles by her mother, Joan Wicks, a middle-school English teacher, alongside her twin sister, Gabrielle, and another sibling. Gabrielle became an activist and filmmaker, and the sisters later collaborated on projects connected to activism. Gorman attended New Roads School in Santa Monica from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Gorman had an auditory-processing disorder and a childhood speech impediment that made it difficult to pronounce the letter “r.” She participated in speech therapy and used songs, including “Aaron Burr, Sir” from Hamilton, to practice difficult sounds. She has described these challenges as helping her develop a strong sensitivity to sound, pitch, pronunciation, and the structure of language.

Gorman began writing poetry as a child and found it an inexpensive way to express herself. She encountered the work of Black poets including Sonia Sanchez, Audre Lorde, and Phillis Wheatley, while Maya Angelou became one of her major inspirations. She studied sociology at Harvard College, graduated cum laude in 2020, and spent a semester studying in Madrid in 2019.

Gorman became the inaugural Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate in 2014, when she was 16. She published her first poetry collection, The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough, in 2015. In 2016, she founded One Pen One Page, a nonprofit youth writing and leadership program focused on literacy, creativity, and young people's voices.

In April 2017, while attending Harvard, Gorman became the first National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States. She also became the first youth poet to open the Library of Congress literary season, where she performed “In This Place: An American Lyric” for the inauguration of U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith. The Morgan Library and Museum later acquired the poem and displayed it near works by Elizabeth Bishop.

Gorman's writing and activism address feminism, race, marginalization, the African diaspora, education, and climate change. She presented work at venues including the Obama White House, Lincoln Center, and the Library of Congress, and performed for figures such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Malala Yousafzai, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Her climate-focused poem “Earthrise” was presented in 2020.

Dr. Jill Biden recommended Gorman to write for Joe Biden's inauguration, and the Biden Inaugural Committee invited her to perform in December 2020. On January 20, 2021, Gorman delivered “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. At age 22, she became the youngest poet to read at a U.S. presidential inauguration.

Gorman wrote the poem during a period marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. She revised portions of the poem after the Capitol attack, incorporating the country's recent wounds while emphasizing healing, unity, and the possibility of democratic renewal. Her performance brought her international acclaim and made “The Hill We Climb” her best-known work.

A book edition of “The Hill We Climb,” with a foreword by Oprah Winfrey, was published in March 2021 and debuted at number one on several bestseller lists. The poem also became the focus of a 2023 discussion about access to books in schools after a Florida elementary school moved it from an elementary reading shelf to a middle-school shelf following a parent complaint.

After the inauguration, Gorman became the first poet to perform at the Super Bowl. Her poem “Chorus of the Captains” honored three honorary captains at Super Bowl LV: U.S. Marine veteran James Martin, educator Trimaine Davis, and intensive-care nurse manager Suzie Dorner. In 2021, she also signed with IMG Models, appeared on the cover of Vogue, and became Estée Lauder's first Global Changemaker, a role that included work connected to literacy for girls and women.

Gorman co-hosted the 2021 Met Gala with Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish, and Naomi Osaka. She published Change Sings: A Children's Anthem and the poetry collection Call Us What We Carry in 2021. Call Us What We Carry reflects on the COVID-19 pandemic and received a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album, while its audio edition was also recognized by the Grammy Awards.

Her later books include the children's titles Something, Someday, published in 2023, and Girls on the Rise, published in 2025. She has also written poems responding to gun violence, abortion rights, climate change, and other social issues. In 2024, she spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

Gorman's major works combine lyric performance with commentary on race, gender, American history, inequality, and collective responsibility. “The Hill We Climb” presents the United States as unfinished rather than irreparably broken, asking readers and listeners to confront the past while working toward unity and a more inclusive future.

Her published books include The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough (2015), The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country (2021), Change Sings: A Children's Anthem (2021), Call Us What We Carry (2021), and Something, Someday (2023). She has described Change Sings as a poetic call for children to recognize their ability to create change through their actions and voices.

Gorman's work has received literary and cultural recognition beyond publishing. She won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Poetry for both The Hill We Climb and Call Us What We Carry, and a newly identified genus of alga was named Gormaniella in her honor in 2022.