Brush up on your verses

~ NEA launches national poetry reading competition for teens.

The National Endowment for the Arts and the publisher of Poetry Magazine have organized a national poetry reading competition for high school students, with the winner receiving a $20,000 college scholarship.

"There's a twofold importance in a program like this," Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, said.

"One half is education; students come into contact with great poetry and language and learn it by heart." But there is a practical side, too. "It will improve the student's command of language, and will provide much needed training for speaking in public. A student speaking well will do better in the job market and better in life."

The program, co-sponsored by the NEA and the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation, was officially announced Thursday in Pittsburgh at the annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English.

"Poetry Out Loud: The National Recitation Contest" starts in early 2006 nationwide, from local classroom readings to state finals in April, then national finals scheduled for May 16 in Washington.

"I think the competitive energy you see in sports can be brought into the English classroom," Gioia said.

Poetry Out Loud is one NEA response to the endowment's 2004 report "Reading at Risk," which noted rapidly expanding numbers of nonreaders.

"We need to find engaging, fun and substantial way of reintroducing arts education in schools," Gioia said. "And the poetry project fits naturally into the high school English curriculum."

The NEA and the Poetry Foundation each will contribute $500,000 to Poetry Out Loud, and Gioia expects at least 250,000 students to participate. Prizes will range from $200 for state winners to $500 stipends for the state winners' schools to a $20,000 college scholarship for the national champion.

Judges have not yet been named.