Portland’s former poet laureate will host the northern regional Poetry Out Loud finals Tuesday in Presque Isle.
Spoken-word poet Maya Williams, Portland’s seventh poet laureate and Maine Poetry Out Loud 2025-2026 coordinator, said participating gives students the opportunity to express themselves and to learn about the literary arts.
Last year, 35 Maine schools participated in the program. It is especially important to have different regions compete because it gives everyone, even in remote locations, an opportunity to interact with the arts, Williams said.
“Access to literary arts should be a right, and yet in our world it is still a privilege and it shouldn’t be,” Williams said. “What’s great is that we especially have students from rural regions having the opportunity to compete, converse, celebrate poetry and have that access they so deserve.”
The competitors, who come from Aroostook County high schools, home schooling or community organizations, are not performing original work, but will select and recite poems from a National Endowment for the Arts approved anthology of published works.
This year, in order to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary, all poems are from previous centuries, Williams said, adding that the students can select poems that resonate with themes that are important to them.
Poetry Out Loud, designed to help students develop public speaking skills, build confidence, and deepen their understanding of literary arts, is a nationwide poetry recitation program supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. The state’s program is administered through the Maine Arts Commission.
Teachers, educators, and coordinators have access to free, standards-based curriculum materials at PoetryOutLoud.org, including an online poetry anthology, lesson plans, and instructional videos to support classroom and community learning, said Ryan Leighton, communications director for the Maine Arts Commission.
The northern regional finals, slated for 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library in Presque Isle, features students who are competing for a spot at the state-level Poetry Out Loud finals in March at the Waterville Opera House.
The finalists began this journey by first studying and performing poems in their classrooms and then advanced to school-wide competitions, according to Leighton.
One Maine student will be selected from the regional winners to represent the state at the National Poetry Out Loud Finals in Washington, D.C., and have an opportunity to win cash awards. The national winner will receive $20,000.
For the Presque Isle event, organizers are also inviting community members of any age to read a poem during the program, though only students will be competing.