Phoenix Banks is a first-year student at the University of Virginia, intending to major in English. This is her first year writing for Her Campus with the chapter at the University of Virginia.
Phoenix is the former 2X Hampton Roads Youth Poet Laureate of Chesapeake. She has accepted awards such as 1st in the City of Chesapeake for Literature and 3rd in the State of Virginia for Literature from the Parent Teachers Association for their 2023 Reflections Contest. She also won 1st Place in the 2024 Longwood Young Writers Competition, 2nd in the state in Division 2 Poetry at the 2024 State Beta Club Convention, 1st in the state in Division 2 Poetry at the 2025 State Beta Club Convention, 2nd for Literature in the 2025 Parent Teachers Association Reflections Contest, and was a finalist in the 2025 Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Talent Hunt. She received the Collegeboard’s National African American Recognition Award in 2023 and was accepted into the Muse Teen Writing Fellowship in January 2024. In the Muse Teen Writing Fellowship, Phoenix was mentored by award-winning poet Synnika Lofton. She recorded a video with Southern Word and NTTAC over the summer of 2023. Her work has been published in Musings, and an upcoming collection by Synnika Lofton is titled “We Were Supposed to Be Quiet.”
In the future, Phoenix hopes to work in journalism and media alongside pursuing a career in poetry. She is passionate about writing, especially about issues around race, gender, and other pressing issues.
A Love Letter to Motown: The Music That Shaped My Childhood
Outgrowing the Past: All the Things We Left Behind
Romance Doesn’t Have a Size Limit: Dating While Fat
The Art of Being By Yourself: Appreciating Loneliness