Alpharetta Teen Wins 2nd Place in National Poetry Contest

Sign up for the Alpharetta-Milton Patch newsletter!

---

ALPHARETTA, GA -- An 18-year-old student put Cambridge High School on the map with her impressive performance during the 2016 Poetry Out Loud national competition.

Marta Palombo came in second place in the contest. The national title went to 17-year-old Akhei Togun, a senior at Tallwood High School in Virginia Beach, Va., and Nicholas Amador, 15, a sophomore at Punahou High School in Honolulu, HI, won third place. 

Palombo performed "Mingus at the Showplace" by William Matthews during the finals.

Students and schools received $50,000 in awards and school stipends at the finals, including $20,000 for the Poetry Out Loud National Champion, and $10,000 and $5,000 for the second- and third-place finalists.

The fourth- to ninth-place finalists each received $1,000. The schools of the top nine finalists also received $500 for the purchase of poetry books.

Now celebrating its 11th year of national competition, Poetry Out Loud is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

The program encourages the study of great poetry by offering educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition to high school students across the country.

The Poetry Out Loud National Finals are the culmination of a yearlong poetry education program involving some 317,000 students from more than 2,300 high schools around the country.

High school teachers who want to learn how to get involved in next year's program can visit www.poetryoutloud.org. Read more about the 2016 Poetry Out Loud National Finals at the NEA Art Works blog.

---

Images via National Endowment for the Arts