UAH: Department of English

2009 Region 5 Finalists
At our Region 5 competition in November 2009, first prize winners were Caitlin Varquez, a freshman at St. Bernard Preparatory School in Cullman, for the Poetry Out Loud anthology competition, and for the original poetry competition JC Norman, a sophomore at Bob Jones High School in Madison. The Huntsville Literary Association awarded each first prize winner a check for $100, and UAHuntsville awarded them a $1000 scholarship.

The top five in each competition will go to the state competition in Montgomery on Friday, February 26, 2009, at Alabama State University.

Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry recitation contest for high school students, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation. Dr. Rose Norman, chair of the UAHuntsville English Department, is coordinator for the thirteen counties in Alabama's region 5 (see county map). High school students compete in their classrooms and schools, and school winners go on to a free workshop at UAHuntsville in October and a regional competition at UAHuntsville in November. Regional winners compete for the state championship in Montgomery in February, and the state champion competes at the national competition in Washington, DC in April. There are prizes all along the way, and the national champion wins a $20,000 scholarship.

Teachers must register by September 15 for their classes to participate. These classes may be in any field of study, but most often are from English, Theatre, and Forensics. The NEA and the Poetry Foundation provide teachers with free, standards-based curriculum materials once their schools register to participate. Materials include one teacher's guide with sample lesson plans to help instructors teach recitation and performance, and two audio CDs featuring well-known actors and writers such as James Earl Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Alyssa Milano, and N. Scott Momaday. Teachers also get two Poetry Out Loud Anthologies and two Poetry Out Loud posters. Each participating school gets one instructional DVD for each school participating. The program requires less than two or three weeks of class time. There is no charge to participate.