Top Student Poet Heads To Regionals

One Souhegan junior is one step closer to bringing her talents in the literary arts to the national stage.

Emmy McGuy won the Poetry Out Loud school-wide final at Souhegan High School last night for her performance of the poem "Famous" by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Her poetic performance skills beat out eighteen students last night, who themselves were chosen out of the 800 other participants in the school for the finals. Their poems ranged all from serious to light-hearted and the poets were judged by performance, difficult of the poem and accuracy.

Last night's victory sends McGuy to the regional competition in March, which will catapult her to the Poetry Out Loud National Finals in April in Washington, DC, where $50,000 dollars in awards and school prizes will be distributed. She will have to choose two more poetic works for this next level of competition.

"I have no idea what is going to happen," said McGuy last night. "I am just here for the ride and will have so much fun with it."

Souhegan student Olivia Vordenberg represented the state of New Hampshire at the national competition in Washington, D.C., where she finished in tenth place.

She served as one of the judges at the high school competition this year, which was coordinated by Jeanne Sturges.

McGuy said that she had a "strong connection" with the poem she chose to perform on stage last night.

"I feel like I wrote that poem," she said. "I feel like it is a part of me and is really everything I stand for."

Hannah Whitney earned runner-up for her performance of "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold. Both McGuy and Whitney receive four-year $15,000 renewable merit scholarships from New England College for placing in the school-wide contest.

For more information on Poetry Out Loud, visit their website at poetryoutloud.org