Despite only being a sixth grade student at Ronkonkoma Middle School, Cristian Martinez has already garnered an impressive number of accolades due to his profound work in the world of poetry.

Most recently, Cristian was awarded the title of Grand Champion at the Walt Whitman Student Poetry Contest of 2019 for his poem a “A Glimpse of Tomorrow” out of a total of 2,500 other entries. Due to his successes, his poem will be published in the anthology, “Whitman’s Apprentice Anthology.”

He will also be published in the “Poets to Come Anthology” for his original work “Unanswered Questions,” along with two poems in the “Leaves for Me Anthology” for his other works “The Glory” and “My Mentor Robert,” and the Suffolk County Poetry Review for his poem, “Winter.”

In addition to his multiple publications, he won first place for his poem, “Clouds Have Secrets” in the Princess Ronkonkoma 2019 Poetry Contest.

Cristian was also a featured poet at his first poetry reading which was held at the Barnes & Noble in Lake Grove in April. He shared that this experience was amazing because he was able to read several poems on different themes that he is concerned about.