Tara Gontkovic, a junior at Westerville Central High School, is headed to the Poetry Out Loud state competition after winning the regional semifinal contest on Feb. 8 at the Thurber House.
“I was very shocked,” Gontkovic said. “I think I’m OK at it but everyone is telling me I’m good. So it was nice because it kind of feels like validation.”
Gontkovic, who has acted in theater productions, started competing in poetry contests for the first time this year. She said poetry offers her another avenue to perform and showcase a side of herself she rarely presents to the world.
That was the case behind the two poems she chose to recite for the regional Poetry Out Loud competition: “All Hallows’ Eve” by Dorothea Tanning​​, which has a “creepy, eerie tone” that appealed to her; and “Love's Philosophy” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, where she took a gentler approach in reciting the poem about a man trying to convince women to fall in love with him.
“It’s really stuff I don’t get to say or do when I’m in theater,” she said.
Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of poetry by offering free educational materials and a recitation competition for high school students that starts at their schools. Winners can advance to a regional and/or state competition before moving onto the national finals.
State-level winners receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip (with an adult chaperone) to Washington, DC, to compete at the national finals. The state winner’s school/organization receives $500 for the purchase of poetry materials. At the national finals, a total of $50,000 in awards and school/organizational stipends are awarded annually including a $20,000 award for the national champion, $10,000 for second place, $5,000 for third place, and $1,000 for fourth-12th places.
Since 2005, Poetry Out Loud has grown to reach more than 4.1 million students and 68,000 teachers from 17,000 schools and organizations in every state, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.