New Hampshire Poetry Out Loud Finals Set for March 14 in Concord
The New Hampshire Poetry Out Loud state finals will be held on Friday, March 14. New Hampshire’s top high school poetry competitors will face off at Representatives Hall in Concord….
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The New Hampshire Poetry Out Loud state finals will be held on Friday, March 14. New Hampshire's top high school poetry competitors will face off at Representatives Hall in Concord. The champion of the competition will represent the state at the national Poetry Out Loud championship scheduled for May 5-7 in Washington, D.C.
This year, 11 semifinalists from their representative schools have been selected to compete in Concord for the state championship. Admission is free for students and schools to participate. Among those selected for the 2025 New Hampshire Poetry Out Loud championship are:
- Deepsun Adhikari, The Derryfield School in Manchester
- Lilah Bartholomew, Kearsarge Regional High School in North Sutton
- Natalie Bleiler, Laconia Christian Academy in Laconia
- Summer Brackett, Coe-Brown Northwood Academy in Northwood
- Brooke Cippoletti, Holderness School in Holderness
- Sophie Garcia, Winnacunnet High School in Hampton
- Susanna Hill, Nashua High School South in Nashua
- D'Aleczandria Johnson, Hopkinton High School in Hopkinton, Massachusetts
- Dalton Lylyk, Lin-Wood High School in Lincoln
- Hannah Ruegg, Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro
- Reagan Sutherland, Plymouth Regional High School in Plymouth, New Hampshire
New Hampshire's poetry finals competition consists of two rounds. In the first, each student recites two poems, and a panel of judges rates each student's performance. The four students with the highest scores advance to a final round, where each recites a third poem. Judges tally the scores from all three rounds to determine the New Hampshire champion.
The poetry competition, which is open to the public, begins at 5 p.m. on March 14. Audiences can also watch the competition live on the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts Facebook page.
According to a news release shared with the Patch of Nashua, the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts have provided funding for Poetry Out Loud. In New Hampshire, Brightspot Consultants; the Currier Museum of Art; the Frost Place; North Country Education Service; the Putnam Foundation, a donor-advised fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation; and Slam Free or Die have provided additional support.
