In honor of National Poetry Month in April, Deerfield Academy’s Boyden Library hosted its very own Poetry Madness competition. A spinoff of the popular college basketball competition March Madness, eight different poems by various authors went head to head with each other. The ones that received the most student votes would move on to the next round competing with the other victors. Students also had the opportunity to create brackets for their poems, narrowing down their selection to predict the ultimate winner. Much like March Madness, the student who predicted the winning bracket would be crowned the Poetry Madness Champion.

Started in 2019, this contest was intended to spark interest among students, encouraging them to engage with poetry, along with the additional March Madness twist to attract Deerfield Academy students. The creator of this competition, Director of the Boyden Library Marshall Carroll, has been involved with sports and literature his entire life, and thought that this competition would be an excellent way to tie in those two interests together. As a rower in college and the head coach of Deerfield Academy’s varsity wrestling team, Mr. Carroll understands the passion that all Deerfield Academy students have for competition. and created this competition to help students develop an interest for poetry, as he believes “motivation in competition” is the catalyst for success. Now four years later, this contest still attracts much participation, with plenty of Deerfield students each year reading several poems and then making their own brackets.

This year’s Poetry Madness contest winner was Xavier Aviles ’24, a Deerfield scholar who actively participates in the arts events at Deerfield Academy, including Koch Friday Concert and many more.. Aviles said, “ I was simply able to gauge which poem was going to be chosen over the other more commonly”, and his accurate bracket led him to win the whole competition. 

The winning poet of this year’s Poetry Madness was Leah Kindler, a senior at Emerson College who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. A three time member for Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB), the largest  youth poetry fair in the nation and the founder of Emerson College’s Emerson Poetry Project, Kindler’s poem “Why I Write Poetry” was the most well received poem among all the other poems, and was voted as the winner of the Deerfield Academy 2023 Poetry Madness competition.

Overall, Boyden Library’s poetry madness competition benefits both students and poets alike. Young, rising poets gain some recognition for their work, while also inspiring the next generation. Deerfield Academy students like Aviles take time out of their schedules to read and judge poems, growing their and their perception of poetry. A small event created by Mr. Carroll, Poetry Madness has now become a tradition at Deerfield Academy; a tradition with no end in sight.