The school year is upon us, which means that the Texas Commission on the Arts is signing up high schools across the state to participate in the Poetry Out Loud program. Please note that whatever your school's COVID-19 plans are for this semester, Poetry Out Loud will fit with them and will help students become close readers and interpreters of poetry.

Interested educators should contact TCA soon to sign up and to receive materials in the mail to help them conduct the program during the fall semester. The materials are currently being updated but will be available soon; in the meantime, last year's materials are online here.

The Poetry Out Loud recitation contest is a national project of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. This exciting program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage. High school students memorize poems and perform them in competition. Each participating high school will hold its competition to determine its school winner by December 15, 2020. The school winner will go on to compete at the state competition in February 2021.

At the state level, the winner and runner up receive cash awards and their school libraries receive money to help them buy poetry books. The state winner will represent Texas in the national competition, which has a pool of $50,000 in scholarships for students and cash awards for schools. More information on the state competition is here.

For information on participating in the Texas program, please contact Anina Moore at (512) 936-6573 or anina@arts.texas.gov.