
DHS student Luc Perrault earned the right to represent Deming at the contest being held Sunday in the St. Francis Auditorium of the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe by competing locally.
Other schools participating include Bosque School, La Cueva High School, the Public Academy for Performing Arts, Oñate High School, Rio Grande Preparatory Institute and Pojoaque Valley High School.
The state winner will receive $200, plus $500 for their school library for the purchase of poetry books.
In addition, the state champion will receive an all-expense-paid trip, with an adult chaperone, to Washington, D.C., to compete at the national finals in May. The national champion receives $20,000 in prizes.
Poetry Out Loud is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation and state arts agencies. The New Mexico portion of the national poetry recitation contest is sponsored by New Mexico Arts, a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.