Â鶹´«Ã½ Poetry Festival
The Â鶹´«Ã½ Poetry Festival was established in 2015 by Professor Linda Anderson of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Centre for the Literary Arts (NCLA).
About Â鶹´«Ã½ Poetry Festival
The Â鶹´«Ã½ Poetry Festival was established in 2015 with the aim of bringing national and international poets, as well as exhibitions, musical collaborations, films and artworks, to our region. The Festival used poetry to create inclusive spaces and build opportunities for people in our local communities.
The first Festival was the culmination of The Poetics of the Archive, an AHRC-funded project led by Linda Anderson exploring the Bloodaxe Archive. In 2016, the Festival hosted commissions at the Ex-Libris Gallery and panels on Poetry and Urban Regeneration. Subsequent festival themes included ‘In Time: 2017’, which explored poetry in relation to current events, technology and language; ‘Crossings: 2018’, which focused on cross-genre collaborations; ‘Transformations: 2018’, an exploration of poetic practice; and ‘Emergency 2022’ which discussed poetry in relation to the global pandemic. ‘Community: 2023’ explored the power of collectives to inspire creativity and 2024’s ‘In/Out of Place’ put its emphasis on local places.
The Festival’s range of events included the Northern Poetry Symposium (in partnership with the Poetry Book Society), musical collaborations, workshops, lectures, readings and panel discussions and its event for schools, Poetry Live. It also included poetry apps, sound and art installations, and commissioned poems on art, music, and the environment from students and the local writing community. Since 2022, the festival went hybrid, with live-streaming and captioning of events.
The Festival hosted an array of national and international voices, including Carolyn Forché, Patricia Smith, Jericho Brown, Mary Ruefle, Terrance Hayes and Valzhyna Mort. It also hosted UK Poet Laurates and Scots Makars such as Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitage, Jackie Kay and Kathleen Jamie.
It was generously supported by Â鶹´«Ã½, Arts Council England, the Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust, Â鶹´«Ã½ Institute for Creative Arts Practice, Â鶹´«Ã½ Humanities Research Institute and the Golsoncott Foundation. It also had partnerships with Northern Stage, Poetry Book Society, The Poetry School, the Institute of English Studies, the T.S, Eliot Foundation, High Commission of Canada to the UK, Poetry Translation Centre, and the Lannan Centre for Poetics and Social Practice.
in 2026, it became an independent charity with the object of promoting the arts for public benefit. This gives details of the annual festival and includes reviews, readings, and news of poetry events throughout the region.
