Saturday 7th May, 5.30-6.30pm Northern Stage £5/£3 This hybrid event is generously sponsored by The High Commission of Canada in the UK and with media support from the Griffin Poetry Prize. Bridging together literary talent from Canada and the UK, we present poets associated with the Griffin Poetry Prize, one of world’s most generous international… Continue reading The High Commission of Canada in the UK and Griffin Poetry Prize event: Eve Joseph, Billy-Ray Belcourt, and Kathleen Jamie
Category: 2022
Workshop 1: Jennifer Wong (online)
Friday 6 May, 10.00-12.00 Online workshop via Zoom £15 Breaking down stereotypes through poetry Stereotypes exist everywhere we look. In the way we name people and places, in the purchase of ready-made language, themes and forms. In this 21st century, how do we advocate change and equality through our writing? What language do we claim… Continue reading Workshop 1: Jennifer Wong (online)
Hannah Lowe and Joelle Taylor
Saturday 7th May, 7-8.15pm Northern Stage £5/£3 Our final event celebrates two phenomenal prize-winning poets. Hannah Lowe is the author of the 2021 Costa Book of the Year, The Kids (Bloodaxe), a book of sonnets about teaching and learning, inspired by Lowe’s own experience working as a teacher at an inner-city London sixth form. Joelle… Continue reading Hannah Lowe and Joelle Taylor
Workshop 2: Polly Atkin (online)
Friday 6 May, 12.00-14.00 Online workshop via Zoom £15 To speak the impossible hope of the firefly: trying to notice joy in a time of ecological crisis How can we write through, about and against ecological crisis without being eaten by despair? In this workshop we will look at poems that address climate emergency, apocalyptic… Continue reading Workshop 2: Polly Atkin (online)
Newcastle University Open Mic
Friday 6th May, 1-2pm Northern Stage Free event, all welcome Are you an NCL student who has some poems you can’t wait to share? Then we invite you to take part in our inaugural open mic for students at this year’s Newcastle Poetry Festival. 5-minute slots are available to those who sign up via email. … Continue reading Newcastle University Open Mic
Simon Armitage (in person only)
Friday 6th May, 4-5pm Northern Stage £5/£3 Simon Armitage, the UK’s poet laurate, joins us for a unique performance of his own poetry themed around the environment. Simon was born and grew up in West Yorkshire. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. He has published over a… Continue reading Simon Armitage (in person only)
John Agard, Grace Nichols, and Imtiaz Dharker
Friday 6th May, 6.30-7:30pm Northern Stage £5/£3 This evening’s reading presents three internationally acclaimed poets whose diasporic work is central to British literature. Grace Nichols’ most recent collection Passport To Here and There captures a journey that moves from coastal memories of a Guyana childhood to life in her adoptive Sussex landscape (Bloodaxe, 2020). John… Continue reading John Agard, Grace Nichols, and Imtiaz Dharker
Anne Ryland, David Spittle, and Linda France
Friday 6th May, 2.30-3.30pm Northern Stage £5/£3 Three acclaimed poets take us on a journey through ruins and wilderness to find new sanctuaries. Linda France’s The Knucklebone Floor (Smokestack) is a book about fragility and resilience, flora and fauna, people and places, the human world and the natural world; Anne Ryland, in Unruled Journal (Valley… Continue reading Anne Ryland, David Spittle, and Linda France
Born Lippy with Rowan McCabe, Georgia Bartlett-McNeil and Jonny Fluffypunk, plus Open Mic
Friday 6th May, 8-9.30pm Northern Stage Free event, all welcome Newcastle’s leading spoken word night, Born Lippy, presents a unique takeover event hosted by Rowan McCabe, with headline performances from spoken word poets Georgia Bartlett-McNeil and Jonny Fluffypunk. There will also be an Open Mic, giving you the opportunity to share your words. If you… Continue reading Born Lippy with Rowan McCabe, Georgia Bartlett-McNeil and Jonny Fluffypunk, plus Open Mic
Hannah Hodgson
Hannah Hodgon is an award-winning poet and a palliative care patient. In her compelling debut collection 163 Days, she uses a panoply of medical, legal, and personal vocabularies to explore what illness, death and dying does to a person as both patient and witness.