The 2027 Poetry Out Loud National Finals will be held in Washington, DC from April 26-28, 2026. Champions from each state will recite in one of three semifinal groups on Tuesday, April 27, 2027, and the top three students from each semifinal group moved on to the Poetry Out Loud National Finals on Wednesday, April 28, 2027, at 7:00 PM ET.

The 2027 Semifinals times and order of recitation are as follows:

9:00 AM ET— Champions from New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, New  Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware, South Carolina, U.S. Virgin Islands, North Carolina, and Maine.

1:00 PM ET— Champions from Puerto Rico, Louisiana, Alabama, Nebraska, Tennessee, Kansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Indiana, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Florida.

5:00 PM ET— Champions from California, Montana, Arizona, South Dakota, Hawaii, Guam, New Mexico, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nevada, Washington, Wyoming, Utah, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Texas, Idaho, Alaska, Oregon, Colorado, and American Samoa.

Student recitation order is selected each year through a computer generated randomizer.