In this episode, host Sandy Lee Carlson interviews Pavan Kumar Pillapalem, a sophomore at Connecticut IB Academy who was recognized as the second-prize winner for his poem, The Things That Remember, in the 2026 Lynn DeCaro Contest, presented by the Connecticut Poetry Society (CPS) and sponsored by the DeCaro Family.

Said contest judge Margaret Hunt about the winning piece: “For me, the power of this poem resides in the author’s choices of personification, irony, and imagery to capture the pain of watching a loved one descend into Alzheimer’s disease.”

You can read Pavan's winning poem at the CPS website (https://ctpoetry.org/lynn-decaro-award).