Sarah Ibrahim wins Ohio State poetry contest
Poem honors Iraqi resilience, humanity
Sarah Ibrahim, an undergraduate student at the College of Public Health, was awarded the top prize in Ohio State’s 2026 Medicine & the Arts Student Poetry Contest.
Her poem “Between Two Rivers We Refuse to Drown” honors the resilience, humanity and history of Iraq, she said.
“Writing has always been one of the ways I process emotions, history and identity,” Ibrahim said. “I also take a lot of pride in being Iraqi, and Iraq has such a rich history and culture that I feel is sometimes overlooked because of how it’s often portrayed in the news today.”
CPH student Paige Lange received an honorable mention for her poem “The Window.”
Read the winning poems.