This Monday, Jillian Garcia and Ace O’Malley will join 12 other students from around Illinois at the state Poetry Out Loud Contest. Garcia, from Decatur Eisenhower High School, and O’Malley, from Springfield Southeast High School, finished first and second, respectively, at the Feb. 12 regional. The state champion will get a trip to the nation’s capital in late April to join a field of 54 students vying for a top prize of $20,000 at the 2026 Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest. Special guests at the contest will be Illinois’s Poet Laureate Mark Turcotte, who will recite during the competition, and Greg McCormick, director of the Illinois State Library. The Springfield Area Arts Council coordinates this annual Poetry Out Loud competition in partnership with the Illinois Arts Council. For more information, visit springfieldartsco.org. The event is free to attend.
Statewide Poetry Recitation Contest | Monday, March 2, 10 a.m. | Hoogland Center for the Arts, LRS Theatre | 420 S. Sixth St.
This article appears in February 26 – March 4, 2026.
