San Mateo County’s Poetry Out Loud 2027

“No matter who you are, where you come from, or what your story is, there is some poem out there you can connect with.”

Poetry Out Loud (POL) gives high school students the confidence to make themselves heard, using one of the most powerful tools at their disposal—poetry. It encourages teens to learn about poetry through memorization, performance, and competition.

We invite educators, youth organization leaders, and high school students to be part of San Mateo County’s Poetry Out Loud 2027 Program. Teens build public speaking skills and self-confidence, while learning about literary history and contemporary life through poetry.

To make the process fun and easy for teachers and youth leaders who want to include POL in their curriculum or programming, digital resources are available:

Although the program is meant to have competitions by class and school, to encourage diversity, equity and inclusion, teachers may also mentor individual students and recommend them to the County competition. Only currently enrolled students in grades 9-12 are eligible, with an exception made for 8th-grade students participating in a 9th- through 12th-grade class.

Unique to San Mateo County's program, all participating students will be mentored by local past Poet Laureates and poetry teachers preparing them to effectively compete at the county, state and national levels if selected.

Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program in partnership with the NEA, the Poetry Foundation, and each state’s arts agency. Important dates:

  • September 1 - November 2, 2026, 5:00pm
  • January 4 - 26, 2027 – Mentoring sessions for teens via Zoom
  • January 28, 2027 – San Mateo County Finals
  • February 28 - March 1, 2027 – State Finals Competition in-person in Sacramento
  • April 26 - 28, 2027 – National Finals in-person in Washington, DC

Contact

Mara Grimes
mgrimes@smcgov.org
OAC Admin-Manager