California State Champions
Riley O’Hara
2024 State champion
Sonoma county
2024 Runner-Up: Mirabelle Lee of Riverside County
2024 Honorable Mention: Selah Johnson of Los Angeles County
Alex Yue
2023 State champion
Sacramento county
"The arts and Poetry Out Loud have been a way for me to express my individuality. Through the poems of my choice, my understanding, my approach, and my few or many victories, I can feel myself interacting with artistically adorned ideas that are depthful and great.”
2023 Runner-Up: Anaiya Asomugha of Los Angeles County
2023 Third Place: Olivia Le of Orange County
Delali Bruce
2021 State champion
Santa Clara county
"Poetry Out Loud is such a warm and inviting space for high-schoolers to come together and find community through the words of other poets. I love poetry because it is a beautiful vessel for self-expression. I feel connected to a poet, their story, their upbringing, and their history, because of their poetry."
2021 Runner-Up: Eden Getahun of Sacramento County
2021 Third Place: Arjun ‘RJ’ Medhekar of Santa Cruz County
Mia Ronn
2022 State champion
LOS ANGELES county
"I am thrilled to be a part of Poetry Out Loud. My biggest passions in life are performance and the literary arts, and to combine these passions is a dream! The arts are a place of expression, growth, understanding of others, and connection, and Poetry Out Loud brilliantly fosters all these facets of creativity. POL provides a place of catharsis and growth for young people, and I am honored to be a part of the process."
2022 Runner-Up: Shreya Nagunuri of Placer County
2022 Third Place: Calliope Klemme of Lake County
Eden Getahun
2020 State champion
Sacramento county
"Poetry Out Loud is a chance for me to express myself through the words of others, finding ways to empathize with new emotions and embody a different character. I love it!"
2020 Runner-Up: Aiyana Sha’neil Da’Briel of Los Angeles County
2020 Third Place: Gabrielle Trapse of Tulare County
Lily Bogas
2019 State champion
Marin county
"I find this opportunity of poetry recitation a really beautiful practice to just come back to yourself, and speak from your soul, because in the end being sincere and true to yourself is really what people in the theater—and everywhere—crave to see in a performance."
VIDEO: Round 3:
Lily Bogas, Marin County
2019 Runner-Up: Penny DellaPelle of San Luis Obispo County
2019 Third Place: Jackson Dean of Riverside County
2018 - Alexis Rangell-Onwuegbuzia, Orange County
2017 - Levi Lowe, Tuolumne County
2016 - Chigozie Maduchukwu, Sacramento County
2015 - Levi Lowe, Tuolumne County
2014 - Shayna Maci Warner, Marin County
2013 - Arwa Arwan, Monterey County
2012 - Corbin Gomez, El Dorado County
2011 - Robert Marchand, Monterey County
2010 - Morgan Brown, Monterey County
2009 - Spencer Klaven, Santa Barbara County
2008 - Roshawnda Bettencourt, Placer County
2007 - Karen Hong, Sonoma County
2006 - Ken Huffman, Sacramento County