A high school student from Novato will represent the state of California in a national poetry recitation contest.

Lillian Braly, a student of Marin School of the Arts at Novato High School in Marin County, has been crowned California’s Poetry Out Loud champion for 2026. (Image via California Arts Council)

Lillian Braly, a 17-year-old junior from Marin School of the Arts at Novato High School, has been crowned the 2026 California Poetry Out Loud state champion following the statewide finals held in Sacramento on March 8-9.

Continue reading for free

Sign in to read this story and receive the weekly roundup in your inbox.

Or

Terms & Conditions

Success! Your account was created and you’re signed in.
Please visit My Account to manage your account.

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.