Weinzinger, a junior at Coconino High School in Flagstaff, will  move on to represent Arizona at the 13th Annual Poetry Out Loud national finals competition in Washington, D.C., April 25-26, 2017.

A program of the National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud is a poetry recitation competition delivered in high schools in all 50 states and three territories through partnerships with State Arts Agencies. Arizona’s Poetry Out Loud program is managed by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, an agency of the State of Arizona, with support from regional partners, University of Arizona Poetry Center, Phonetic Spit, and William Cordeiro, PhD, a Flagstaff-based poet and lecturer at Northern Arizona University.

The Arizona Poetry Out Loud State Finals were held at the studios of Arizona PBS in Downtown Phoenix on Saturday, March 3. Ten students, representing schools from Tucson to Ganado, a chapter of the Navajo Nation, recited poems by a diverse array of literary luminaries, including Margaret Atwood, Maya Angelou, and Tato Laviera. After two rounds of recitations, four students advanced to the final round. From these four, Sophie Weinzinger was named State Champion while Antonio Juarez, a senior at Willow Canyon High School in Surprise, was named first runner-up.

View the full list of finalists and read more about the competition here.