Canadian high school students perform poetry in annual competition — 9 headed to final round
More than 10,000 students across the country participated in the 2025 competition
Poetry in Voice has revealed the nine Canadian finalists for its annual poetry recitation contest and the 16 students selected for its FutureVerse poetry intensive.
The annual Poetry in Voice competition challenges Canadian students to learn poems by heart and perform them online for consideration. The organization hosts two national recitation contests — one for students in Grades 7-9 and another for students in Grades 10-12 — and a dozen local team recitation contests.
The competition was established in 2010 by Scott Griffin, chairman and founder of the Griffin Trust for Excellence In Poetry. According to the organization, more than 10,000 students across Canada participated to learn a classic and contemporary poem by heart in 2025.
School champions participated in online qualifiers and the 24 students who obtained the highest scores advanced to the semifinals, where their videos were judged by a panel of Canadian poets.
The semifinalists all received $250 each in prize money. During the national finals, $18,000 more will be awarded to the winners and finalists. Students compete in one of the contest's three streams: English, French or Bilingual.
The 2025 national finalists are:
English:
- Heart Barabad from Kildonan-East Collegiate, Winnipeg
- Isa Torres Rangel from All Saints High School, Calgary
- Annabel Wood from École Secondaire Mont-Bleu, Gatineau, Que.
Bilingual:
- Margot Cadrin from Collège Beaubois, Pierrefonds, Que.
- Nour Snani from Glenforest Secondary School, Mississauga, Ont.
- Zak Tucker from Eric Hamber Secondary School, Vancouver
French:
- Yasmine Aouchiche from École Internationale de Montréal, Montréal
- Victor Dubé-Marcus from Collège St-Alexandre de la Gatineau, Gatineau, Que.
- Omar Elbatouty from École Secondaire Étienne-Brûlé, Toronto
The nine finalists will move on to the national finals at Vancouver's The Centre on May 15. The event will also be available for streaming on the Poetry In Voice website.
The finalists' recitations will be judged by a jury of poets; Wade Compton, Evelyn Lau and Jane Munro Ruffo for the English recitations; Stéphane Despatie, Louise Dupré and Nadine Ltaif for the French recitations.
Over 3,500 votes were cast to choose the winners of the 2025 People's Choice Awards.
Lyric Petty from Elmwood High School in Winnipeg won the English People's Choice prize, worth $500, and Frida Cuaquentzi Piteev from Collège Beaubois in Pierrefonds, Que. won the French People's Choice prize, also worth $500.
The 2025 junior champions, for the competition for students on Grades 7-9, were selected from the videos they submitted online.
For the English stream, Daniel Tiwana from St. George's School in Vancouver won the $500 first place prize. Julia Wang from Unionville High school in Unionville, Ont. won $300 for second place and Jill Robertson from Langley Fine Arts School in Fort Langley, B.C. won $200 for third prize.
For the bilingual stream, Andréa Cunha Maréchal from Collège St-Alexandre de la Gatineau in Gatineau, Que. won the $500 first place prize. Ève-Marie Guay from Collège Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes in Longueil, Que. won $300 for second place and Maeve Shaffer from Lycée International de Calgary won $200 for third prize.
The French stream first place winner was Aïta Diop from Collège de Lévis in Lévis, Que. Angelina Baazak from Collège St-Alexandre de la Gatineau in Gatineau, Que. won $300 for second place and Ava Daneshkhah from École Secondaire Êtienne-Brûlé in Toronto won $200 for third prize.
FutureVerse to bring young poets together
The FutureVerse youth poetry event will be held alongside the Poetry in Voice national finals in Vancouver. An all-expenses-paid poetry intensive, the event brings together young writers from all over the country for four days of workshops, panels, readings and activities with Canadian authors, publishers and activists.
The complete list of FutureVerse participants is:
- Harmony Chen from St. Robert Catholic High School in Thornhill, Ont.
- Natalia Comeau from Charles P. Allen High School in Bedford, N.S.
- Charles Demers from École Polyvalente des Îles in l'Étang-du-Nord, Que.
- Jérémie English from École Secondaire Jules-Verne in Vancouver
- Jonah Harris from Oskāyak High School in Saskatoon
- Shaza Khattab from Halifax West High School in Halifax
- Konstantine Lamouelle from Harry Ainlay School in Edmonton
- Sarah-Jeanne Leclerc from Collège André-Grasset in Montréal
- Julia Li from University of Toronto Schools in Toronto
- Rizwan Moonbow from École Panorama Ridge Secondary School in Surrey, B.C.
- Stacy Ogbuehi from NorKam Senior Secondary School in Kamloops, B.C.
- Amy Savciuc from All Saints High School in Calgary
- Madeleine Semple from Martingrove Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke, Ont.
- Jacky Tang from St. George's School in Vancouver
- Lilah Warren from Island Connected in Nanaimo, B.C.
- Teresa Wu from Bernice MacNaughton High School in Moncton, N.B.
If you are interested in poetry prizes, the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize opens on April 1.
You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems. The submission will be judged as a whole and must be a maximum of 600 words (including titles). There is no minimum word requirement.
The winner will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and have their work published on CBC Books.
