Washington State Final
The 2025 Washington State POL Final Competition will take place on Saturday, March 8th beginning at 1pm at Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 North I Street in Tacoma. A video of the 2025 State Final is available on ArtsWA’s You Tube Channel.
A digital program of the 2025 Washington State Poetry Out Loud Final Competition is available here.
Congratulations to Sydney Frost of Mt. Spokane High School in Spokane County who will represent Washington State as the 2025 POL State Champion at the National Finals in Washington D.C., May 5-7. Nascha Martinez, a senior at Stanford Online High School representing the POL Virtual cohort, was named runner-up. Honorable mention went to Elizabeth McAleer, a senior at Battle Ground High School in Clark County.
Poetry Forward (formerly known as Poetry Ourselves) is an optional, original poetry contest open to all Poetry Out Loud school champions and students participating in POL Virtual. The poem “Home” by Sidra Marshall (Anacortes) was awarded first place, and poems by Luis Mata and Elizabeth McAleer (Lacey and Battle Ground, respectively) were recognized with To
Learn more about POETRY FORWARD.
National Final
The National Final champion receives a $25,000 scholarship and school stipends for poetry books. A total of $50,000 in prizes are awarded to the top students.
The 2025 National Finals
The National Poetry Out Loud Semifinals and Final will take place at the Lisner Auditorium at the George Washington University May 6th and 7th. They will be available through a one-time only webcast at Arts.gov/Poetry-Out-Loud. The webcast is embedded in the page. No need for an additional link.
- Washington State Champion Sydney Frost will compete in the Western Semi-Final on Tuesday, May 6 at 5:00pm ET. (2pm Pacific)
- The top three students from each of the three semi-finals (nine students in total) will compete in the National Final on Wednesday, May 7 at 7:00pm ET. (4pm Pacific)
