Announcing the winners of the inaugural Junior Recitation Competition

MONTRÉAL, QC, January 15, 2019 – Nine students have been named Canada’s top junior reciters in Poetry In Voice's inaugural Junior Recitation Competition.

These top-scoring students are awarded prizes for themselves and for their school libraries for the purchase of poetry books.

The nine student winners are:

English Prize Stream

Yasmeen Mohamed won the first prize of $300 for the best combined score of two recitations in English, and $200 for the library of Edmonton Islamic Academy in Edmonton, Alberta.

Susan Zhang won the second prize of $200, and $200 for the library of Alpha Secondary School in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Precilia Ndah won the third prize of $100, and $200 for the library of Ted Harrison School in Calgary, Alberta.

Bilingual Prize Stream

Salwa Bouchahda won the first prize of $300 for the best combined score of one recitation in English and one recitation in French, and $200 for the library of École secondaire Grande-Rivière in Gatineau, Quebec.

Maya Gauvin won the second prize of $200, and $200 for the library of Cleveland Elementary School in North Vancouver, British Columbia.

Katherine Sneddon-Simons won the third prize of $100, and $200 for the library of Gorsebrook Junior High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

French Prize Stream

Romy Magdalena Pueyo won the first prize of $300 for the best combined score of two recitations in French, and $200 for the library of Collège Beaubois in Pierrefonds, Québec.

Félix Desrochers won the second prize of $200, and $200 for the library of École secondaire Armand-Corbeil in Terrebonne, Québec.

Rosa Saremi Naeeni won the third prize of $100, and $200 for the library of Villa Sainte-Marcelline in Westmount, Québec.

Last Fall, students in grades 6, 7, and 8 from across the country participated in classroom and school contests by learning poems by heart from the Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie online anthology. Each school's champion entered the Junior Online Finals by submitting two recitation videos for consideration. The videos were judged and the winners were selected by a panel of 9 Canadian poets: