Regional Finals

The 2023 Poetry Out Loud regional contest will be held at Parkland College in C118 in mid-February.

40 North | 88 West hosts the Poetry Out Loud Regional Finals for Eastern Illinois.

General Information for the Regional Finals:

• Any student in grades 9 through 12 is eligible to compete in Poetry Out Loud. 
• Each school sends 2 students to the Regional Final. These students must have competed in a school competition before competing at the Regional. (The school competition must have at least 2 students competing in it.) 
• Each student competing at the Regional Final will have to recite 2 poems.

Success in Central Illinois:

2012 Illinois Champion - Carolyn Muller, Central High School in Champaign

"Poetry Out Loud really gave me an opportunity to access a creative and emotional aspect of myself and share that with an audience. It immensely helped to improve my public speaking and stage presence in my three years of participation. Going to State twice and Nationals once gave me enormous confidence in myself and also gave me friends and experiences that I will never forget."

Read more about Caroyln's win here!

2009 Illinois Champion - Kareem Sayegh, University High School in Urbana

“I felt like I did my poems the best I could,” Sayegh said. “I put a lot of emotion into them, a lot of myself into the poetry. … Grading a poetry recitation is an extremely subjective thing. I’m just proud of what I did.”

Read more about Kareem's win here.