Program Overview
Through the Poetry Out Loud program, high school students across the country participate in a dynamic poetry recitation competition that is designed to improve their public speaking skills, help build confidence, and teach them about literary history.
A partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and participating state and jurisdictional arts agencies, Poetry Out Loud provides free lesson plans and other educational materials to teachers and organizers, including an online poem anthology.
In recognition of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026, the 2025-2026 Poetry Out Loud program will focus on poems that celebrate the rich tapestry of American history and culture.
Poetry Out Loud is administered in partnership with state arts agencies across the country.
About Poetry Out Loud 2025-2026
Note: This information was provided to Poetry Out Loud state coordinators about the 2025-2026 program.
"As the nation prepares to commemorate its 250th anniversary, the federal government is emphasizing programming in 2026 that honors American history and culture. Accordingly, the poems selected for the 2025-2026 Poetry Out Loud competition highlight American poets as well as poems that embody the nation’s indomitable spirit, creativity, innovation and the nation’s rich cultural and historical heritage. All of the poems for 2025-2026 are in the public domain.
This year’s anthology was released on October 10th, due to substantive programmatic and staffing changes. As additional information, below are a few things to note specific to the 2025-2026 program:
- The Poetry Out Loud anthology prior to 2025-2026 was maintained by the Poetry Foundation, which was formerly responsible for poem rights. Poetry Foundation announced this summer they would no longer play this role for the Poetry Out Loud program, beginning with the 2025-2026 school year. Thus, the previous anthology is no longer available or applicable to the 2025-2026 school year. Only poems available on the Poetry Out Loud website are eligible for students’ POL competition use for the 2025-2026 school year.
- In addition to the updated anthology now available online, please note that for the 2025-2026 program, students can choose any three poems from the anthology. Students do not need to select a poem that is 25 lines or fewer or a pre-20th century poem.
- We anticipate having a printable pdf copy of the updated anthology available to download from the website in the coming days.
- Over the fall, the website will be updated with filters to search by different poem themes, such as nature. We are also looking into the possibility of adding a keyword search."
PA Poetry Out Loud State Championship and National Results
The 2025 state championship took place March 3, 2025 at 9 a.m. in the auditorium of the State Museum, in Harrisburg.
This year's 14 regional finalists were part of the more than 2,250 high school students who participated in the competition in 61 schools across the commonwealth.
Isavel Mendoza, a senior at Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, in Northampton County, is Pennsylvania's 2025 Poetry Out Loud state champion. Mendoza will go on to represent Pennsylvania at the Poetry Out Loud national finals in Washington, D.C., May 5 -7, 2025.
Pennsylvania's 2025 Poetry Out Loud state runner-up is Eden Newman, a junior at Milton Hersehy School, in Dauphin County.
Isavel Mendoza went on to claim first place at the national competition. On behalf of the PCA, we are thrilled and proud!
More details on the national championship: Isavel Mendoza from Pennsylvania Named 2025… | The Poetry Foundation.
Listen to a radio interview from WBUR with Mendoza: Who carries one young poet’s heart? His mom | Here & Now