Finding Belonging: A Conversation with 2026 Poetry Out Loud Champion Jayda Dawn

Finding Belonging: A Conversation with 2026 Poetry Out Loud Champion Jayda Dawn Date Tue, 09/08/2026 - 12:00 Carolyn Coons Tue, 09/08/2026 - 09:58 Author By Carolyn Coons pol-8657.jpg State Indiana Body 2026 Poetry Out Loud National Champion Jayda Dawn (Indiana). Photo by James Kegley This past spring, after reciting poems by Langston Hughes, Alice Duer Miller, and Albery Allson Whitman, Jayda Dawn, then an 11th grade student at University High School of Indiana in Carmel, Indiana, was named 2026 Poetry Out Loud National Champion and winner of a $20,000 grand prize. As she stepped forward bene