Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman (born March 7, 1998 in Los Angeles, California) is an American poet and activist who gained international recognition for reading her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021, becoming the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history at age 22. She was named the first National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States in 2017 and previously served as the youth poet laureate of Los Angeles.

Gorman graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 2020, where she studied sociology. In addition to The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country, she is the author of the poetry collection The Hill We Climb, the earlier collection The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough (2015), and the bestselling volumes Call Us What We Carry and the picture book Change Sings. Her work often addresses themes of Black identity, feminism, oppression, marginalization, and climate justice, and she is known for her advocacy for racial equality, gender justice, and education.