Over 1,700 public high school students from 12 New Hampshire public high schools will participate in the 2006 New Hampshire Poetry Out Loud pilot program. The final statewide competition will be held at Representatives' Hall in the State House, Concord, at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, April 10th. The event is free and open to the public.

Participating high schools will include: Bow; Exeter; Gilford; John Stark Regional; Milford; Newmarket; Pembroke Academy; Pittsfield Middle High; Plymouth Regional; Portsmouth; and Timberlane Regional. The New Hampshire champion and chaperone will receive an all-expenses paid trip to compete at the national finals in Washington, D.C. on May 16, 2006.

The winner and runner-up will each receive cash awards from The Poetry Foundation and their respective school libraries will receive $500 and $200 for the purchase of poetry books. Additional prizes for the state contenders will include gift certificates from New Hampshire bookstores, a book of poetry from CavanKerry Press, and one year's free memberships to the New Hampshire Writers' Project and Poetry Society of New Hampshire. In addition, the State Arts Council will provide funding to each participating high school for a one-day residency with a New Hampshire Poet. The dates of participating high school's school-wide competitions will be posted on the State Arts Council's website.

New Hampshire Judges for the April 10th event include former New Hampshire Poet Laureate Marie Harris, poet and National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Fellow Alice Fogel, poet and scholar Bill Doreski from Keene State College, New England College Senior Vice President and actor Michele Perkins, playwright and performance poet Paul Rogalus of Plymouth State University, State Representative Peter Allen of Harrisville, and State Arts Councilor Rusty McLear.

The emcee will be two-time Emmy Award winner Ira Joe Fisher, weatherman and special features commentator for the CBS national network's Saturday Early Show. Fisher is a poet and graduate of the MFA in writing program at New England College.

Students will choose and memorize a poem from an on-line anthology of 400 poems at www.poetryoutloud.org. Poems range in length from eight to 60 lines. Students who compete in their classroom competition, and later at the high school level, will memorize additional poems. School competitions will be completed by the end of March. Rodger Martin, the State Arts Council's New Hampshire Poetry Out Loud Coordinator, states that, "The goal of this program is to encourage high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition."

Teachers from across the state have included over 83 classes as part of this pilot project sponsored by the State Arts Council, the NEA and The Poetry Foundation of Chicago. Local partners and sponsors include the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, New Hampshire Writers' Project, Toadstool Bookstores, CavanKerry Press, The Frost Place in Franconia and the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire. Catherine O'Brian, Arts in Education Coordinator for the NHSCA notes that "The Poetry Out Loud program is more than just an exercise in competition and memorization, it fulfills twelve of the standards cited by The National Council of Teachers of English. In addition, the website provides valuable resources to all teachers, homeschoolers or others with a love of poetry."

For more information visit www.poetryoutloud.org or www.nh.gov/nharts; contact Rodger Martin at Rodgerwriter@netzeo.net; or, Catherine O'Brian at cobrian@nharts.state.nh.us, (603) 271-0795.