Poetry Out Loud
In 2005, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) invited the Poetry Foundation to partner on the development of Poetry Out Loud® (POL), a national poetry recitation competition for high school students. Over the course of two decades, more than 4.4 million students across the United States and U.S. territories have participated in the dynamic competition, which was designed to improve public speaking skills, build confidence, and teach about history and contemporary life through the lens of poetry.
Since its inception, Poetry Out Loud has been administered by state and jurisdictional arts agencies and their partners and managed at the local level in classrooms, schools, and by area organizations. Participating students select, memorize, and recite poems from an anthology of classic and contemporary poems. Winners advance to a local/school-wide competition, then to a regional and/or state competition, and ultimately to the Poetry Out Loud National Finals in Washington, DC, which have been produced in collaboration with Mid Atlantic Arts. The school year 2024-2025 marked the 20th anniversary of Poetry Out Loud and the final year of the Poetry Foundation’s participation as a program partner with Poetry Out Loud. The Foundation supported the program as a funder for the 2025-2026 season.
For questions or support related to Poetry Out Loud, please contact poetryoutloud@arts.gov.
Get Involved
Additional Resources for Students and Educators
The Summer Poetry Teachers Institute is a free, 4.5-day program for K-12 and community college educators designed to give teachers the tools to bring poetry into their classrooms and teaching practices with joy and effectiveness.
The Poetry Foundation's online archive of poems includes all of the poems that were available in the Poetry Out Loud online anthology, along with the following resources: