Archives: Podcast

This event showcases poets at all stages of their development. Starting with John Masefield High School pupils. Then Foyle Young Poets Ankita Saxena, Jade Cuttle and Charlotte Wetton. Plus renowned …[Read More]

One of Scotland’s most celebrated writers, reading and talking about her new collection Bantam. ‘Jackie Kay depicts a world of grief, joy, love and humour in the sparest terms’ (The Guardian). …[Read More]

Two supreme performers and a relaxed Friday night atmosphere! ‘Joelle Taylor’s a shape-shifter, mythmaker, linguistic risk-taker, poetical activist, surrealist with a raised fist’ (Patience Agbabi). Sabrina Mahfouz is ‘in quite …[Read More]

Showcasing an anthology in which poets and novelists retell the stories of asylum seekers who have suffered at the hands of Britain’s policy of ‘indefinite detention’. In Refugee Tales, poets …[Read More]

Expect lots of discussion around class, politics, poetry and the age of austerity and its general effect on the arts, and also barriers to participation. What is the role of …[Read More]

Reading and discussion. As part of a fifty year anniversary and celebration, this anthology gathers poets from both sides of the Atlantic to address the challenges set out by Dr …[Read More]

Hosted by Neil Astley, Editor of Bloodaxe Books, this event will celebrate Helen Dunmore’s life, work and particularly her poetry. Helen Dunmore was a great supporter of Ledbury Poetry Festival, …[Read More]

Join the 2017 Ledbury International Poetry Competition Winners as they read their winning poems! These are the freshest voices of their generation. LPFPC has been instrumental in launching  many poets’ …[Read More]

Featuring stories about his remarkable life, including his friendship with Nelson Mandela, his musical career with The Wailers, his political campaigns and how he became one of Britain’s most popular …[Read More]

Lachlan MacKinnon’s Doves is a ‘magnificent collection, suffused with gentle wisdom and studded with moments of quiet revelation’ (Scotsman). American poet Linda Gregerson ‘produces lyrical poems informed by her expansive reading …[Read More]

T.S.Eliot Prize shortlisted, Caroline Bird’s ‘poems burst with linguistic energy’ (TLS). ‘Nia Davies quietly dismembers the world around her with a gleeful irreverence and quirky humour’ (Geraldine Monk). Bodies. Rhythms. …[Read More]

Step into the betwixt and between time of ritual to celebrate a new issue of Poetry Wales. Nisha Ramayya invokes a tantric poetics, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett takes a transformative wild swim …[Read More]

The magical Liz Berry’s new pamphlet is The Republic of Motherhood. Her first book of poems, Black Country (Chatto 2014) described as a ‘sooty, soaring hymn top her native West …[Read More]

Sara-Jane Arbury introduces a number of poets from the community who read their poems in front of an audience in The Burgage Hall. Some of these poets have never performed …[Read More]

As Herefordshire Mind celebrates its 40th Birthday, join us to reflect but, more importantly, look forward to how we should consider mental health in the 21st Century. With a rise …[Read More]

Sarah Churchwell is Professorial Fellow in American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She is the author of …[Read More]

Wallace Stevens: The Whole Harmonium – ‘The belief in poetry is a magnificent fury, or it is nothing’ – Wallace Stevens. See also events 33. 34. and 35. A day …[Read More]

Maitreyabandhu hosts a panel with Ledbury Emerging Poetry Critics, Maryam Hessavi, Srishti Krishnamoorthy-Cavell and Dzifa Benson, discussing Wallace Stevens’ reputation as a poet, and as a man. Includes discussion and …[Read More]

‘Stevens is a vital part of the American mythology’ – Harold Bloom Part of Wallace Stevens: The Whole Harmonium, a day bringing to life the poetry of Wallace Stevens. The …[Read More]

Love Songs of WW3 is a tribute to Adrian Mitchell performed by comedian, actor, writer and television presenter Michael Palin, Adrian Mitchell’s daughter Sasha Mitchell, as well as by Peter …[Read More]

Talk focused on the poem, In Praise of Limestone, exploring the reasons why such a landscape came to be described by Auden as ‘sacred’. ‘When I try to imagine a …[Read More]

Matthew Clegg offers a personal and creative appreciation of the poetry of Derek Walcott – one of the most respected poets to emerge from the Caribbean, and a recipient of the …[Read More]

Chris Difford is co-founder of Squeeze, one of Britain’s best loved bands famous for their hit songs “Cool For Cats”, “Up The Junction”, “Another Nail In My Heart”, “Is This Love” …[Read More]

Including Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, three Dymock poets, Eleanor Farjeon, Vera Brittain, Carola Oman and the American, Alan Seeger. The poems are read by Marilyn Birks and Jake Herbst. (Unfortunately the …[Read More]

An incredible opportunity to hear and witness a selection of young people’s poetry. Written by young people from SHYPP (Supported Housing for Young People Project) as part of the Festival’s …[Read More]

This year’s winners Dom Bury, Mary Jean Chan and Momtaza Mehri read alongside two poetry greats from the competition’s heritage Jo Shapcott and Pascale Petit. Plus short discussion and Q&A. …[Read More]

Join Pascale Petit, Kim Moore and Deborah Alma with Roz Goddard, in conversation and reading from #MeToo – rallying against sexual assault and harassment: A women’s poetry anthology – edited …[Read More]

The Eric Gregory Awards consistently identify some of the best young poets including Sarah Howe, Andrew McMillan and many of the poets who headline the Festival. Come and hear this …[Read More]

An entertaining poetry salon in which poet Jill Abram is in conversation with Paul Henry, Kim Moore and Jonathan Edwards from Seren Press who discuss and read some of their poetry. …[Read More]

Polly Clark’s novel Larchfield is inspired in part by WH Auden’s time teaching at Larchfield Academy and includes her own poetry. Reading and discussion event.

Sinéad Morrisey reads poetry from her Forward winning collection On Balance and chat about her poetry and writing life with Virago founder and editor Ursula Owen. On Balance ‘is a …[Read More]

‘A set of rollicking dispatches from a Britain rarely ever heard from except in the disparaging tones of others. Peter Raynard details the toll this exacts on all of us …[Read More]

How do poetry reviews reflect diversity and the value of poetry in society? Who are they written for? Panel discussion with Sandeep Parmar, Telegraph poetry critic Tristram Fane Saunders and two Ledbury Emerging …[Read More]

Colombian poet George Mario Angel Quintero and translator and editor of The Other Tiger, Recent Poetry from Latin America, Richard Gwynn take a whirlwind tour of South American poetry. Discussion …[Read More]

In early 2018, Joined Up Heritage commissioned Sara-Jane Arbury to write poems inspired by eight Ledbury heritage sites using words found within the buildings themselves, and from First World War …[Read More]

With winner Sandeep Parmar and shortlisted poets Judy Brown, Emma Hammond, John McCullough and John Clegg. Find out more about each poet below. For more information about the prize, see …[Read More]

The British stage and screen actor, director and writer Michael Pennington in conversation with Mark Fisher and with Prue Skene reading the selected poems.

Join Modern Poetry in Translation’s editor Clare Pollard to celebrate the summer’s LGBTQ focus. With Mary Jean Chan discussing queerness and the concept of ‘Playtime’; Richard Scott reading versions of …[Read More]

Henry Normal, co-writer of The Royle Family and other comedy hits, presents his unique brand of poetry, stories and humour as heard on BBC Radio 4. Henry Normal’s poetry collections include The …[Read More]

Hosted by Bloodaxe Books editor Neil Astley. Marie Howe’s poetry is ‘luminous, intense, and eloquent, rooted in an abundant  inner life’ (Stanley Kunitz). Howe’s latest collection is Magdalene and Jericho Brown’s …[Read More]

Translators Uilleam Blacker and Iryna Shuvalova are en garde to fight a poetry translation duel at Ledbury Festival 2018. Uilleam and Iryna discuss their different translations of a single poem …[Read More]

Jan Wagner is one of the most important German-language poets of the younger generation. Poetry readings and discussion with his award-winning translator Iain Galbraith. Jan Wagner was born in Hamburg …[Read More]

A grand finale of readings by Versopolis poets Kateryna Kalytko (Ukraine), Tomica Bajsic (Croatia), Michal Sobol (Poland), Lou Raoul (France/Brittany) and UK poets for 2018 Sasha Dugdale, Sandeep Parmar and Mererid Hopwood …[Read More]

Showcase and Celebration This event showcases poets at all stages of their development: John Masefield High School Students have worked with the school’s poet in residence Brenda Read-Brown to create their poems. The Foyle …[Read More]

Sean Hughes is best known for being a team captain on the BBC’s hit quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks. He has toured up and down the country as well as abroad with …[Read More]

Acclaimed Kurdish poet Bejan Matur presents a new chapbook of her poems, in English translation by T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet Jen Hadfield. This was an electrifying hour of poetry in Kurdish, Turkish and English, …[Read More]

An event celebrating poetry that uses rhyme and meter. A.E. Stallings is an American poet, a MacArthur Fellow, who studied Classics. She has published three collections of poetry, Archaic Smile, …[Read More]

Two American poets who share a wry, dark humour: Thomas Lynch, hailed by The New York Times as a cross between Garrison Keillor and William Butler Yeats, gives us glimpses …[Read More]

Hosted by Imtiaz Dharker, with guest appearance from previous winner Jacqueline Saphra. The prestigious Ledbury Poetry Competition has helped many emerging poets including Jacob Polley who won the 2016 T.S. Eliot Prize. ‘ Winning the …[Read More]

This event is curated by our poet in residence Fiona Sampson. She says, ‘Poetry opens a door on the world. Right now, Romania’s women poets are among the best writing anywhere. I love …[Read More]

Mslexia is making an appearance at ‘the UK’s most popular poetry festival’. This time poets are invited to come along to our Meet the Poetry Editors event featuring an informal Q&A session …[Read More]

Born and educated in Gaya, a small town in Bihar, India, Tabish Khair is the author of various acclaimed books, including the poetry collections, Where Parallel Lines Meet and Man of Glass. In 2016, …[Read More]

Join the Herefordshire Stanza Poets in the Baptist Hall as they mark the 50th Anniversary of the death of Ledbury’s Poet Laureate as they read their own poems inspired by his life and …[Read More]

Richard Dawkins is one of the most respected scientists in the world and from 1995 to 2008 was the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. His most recent …[Read More]

Choman Hardi was born in Sulaimani, Kurdistan, and lived in Iraq and Iran before seeking asylum in the UK in 1993. Her collection Considering the Women explores the equivocal relationship between immigrants and their …[Read More]

Poems and Music This specially devised performance combines musical ‘miniatures’ by composer Benjamin Tassie and readings from All My Mad Mothers, which explores love, sex and family relationships in vivacious, lush poems that span …[Read More]

With Christopher Merrill, Maria Galina and Patrick Dubost. Hosted by Fiona Sampson Curated by poet in residence Fiona Sampson who says, ‘To work internationally is to understand that poets’ working lives differ according to their …[Read More]

The first half of Event 33 is stand-up poet, armchair revolutionary and recumbent rocker, Elvis McGonagall. He is the sole resident of The Graceland Caravan Park. Laugh and cry over poems including …[Read More]

Having stolen the show from John Cooper Clarke in 2015, Luke Wright returns with The Toll Discover a country riven by inequality and corruption but sustained by a surreal, gallows humour. This is the …[Read More]

What is most distinctive about the American contemporary poetic voice? It may be its democratic vernacular, its elasticity, its plainness of style, its life-giving vulgarity, its pragmatism, its materialism, its self-regard, or its humour. …[Read More]

The novelist Andrew O’Hagan travelled with Seamus Heaney, and their friend the great editor Karl Miller, to Scotland, Ireland and Wales, In this talk he describes those journeys traversing over language and language, in …[Read More]

Why we must not untangle Pablo Neruda’s life from his work, nor the music from the poetry A seminar by Adam Feinstein As Neruda’s acclaimed biographer, Adam Feinstein, demonstrates in this seminar, the extraordinary …[Read More]

Roy McFarlane reads from his first collection Beginning With Your Last Breath which opens with a deeply moving account of the discovery of an adoption and moves through lost love and friendships, the politics …[Read More]

Hugh Dennis found fame with The Mary Whitehouse Experience and as an actor and comedian is known and loved for The Now Show, Outnumbered, Mock the Week and cult hit …[Read More]

Paddy Ashdown was the Liberal Party leader. He is the author of seven books and an outspoken critic of Brexit. He shares the poems that have travelled with him though his life …[Read More]

Peace, Love and Potatoes One of the country’s most popular poets – eccentric and very funny – John Hegley returns to Ledbury! The reading (and singing) consists largely of poems from John Hegley’s …[Read More]

‘The Cause’ was the Victorian name for what we now call feminism and was adopted by women’s movements as they fought for the vote. Jan Long takes you on an immersive journey exploring …[Read More]

The Eric Gregory Awards consistently identify some of the best young poets including Sarah Howe, Andrew McMillan and many of the poets who headline the Festival. Listen to this year’s winners, Rachael Allen, …[Read More]

Hear poems read by the three winners of the the 2016 National Poetry Competition run by The Poetry Society. First prize winner Stephen Sexton lives in Belfast where he is studying …[Read More]

Three Irish poets all published by Bloodaxe. Jane Clarke’s first collection is The River. ‘Clear, direct, lovely: Jane Clarke’s voice slips into the Irish tradition with such ease, it is as though …[Read More]

Say Something Back, described by The Guardian as ‘heartfelt and deeply necessary’, will allow readers to see just why the name of Denise Riley has been held in such high regard by her fellow …[Read More]

Next Generation Poet Melissa Lee-Houghton has been affected by mental health issues. The themes this event explores include trauma/anguish, mental health and the therapeutic benefits of writing poetry.   Melissa …[Read More]

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Hope End and anti-slavery poetry In 1847 The Liberty Bell, a Boston Anti-slavery annual, published Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point, one of the most powerful, shocking poems …[Read More]

Voices of the Isle of Erraid echo through Miriam Nash’s first collection, All the Prayers in the House. The poems take the form of songs, letters, fragments, formal verse – many kinds of …[Read More]

Malika’s Poetry Kitchen is a community of poets dedicated to developing their craft. Founded in 2001 and based in London, the collective’s influence on the contemporary poetry and spoken word scene has reached …[Read More]

Unfortunately Helen Mort, who was scheduled to appear at this event, was unavoidably delayed so Jacob Sam La Rose, one of the founding members of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, stepped in at …[Read More]

Two poet-translators rattle their sabres and sharpen their swords for a duel of words and French poetry.  Join Sasha Dugdale who talks to Olivia McCannon and Susan Wicks to compare their translations …[Read More]

A poetry salon with Roger Robinson, Nick Makoha and Seni Seneviratne from Peepal Tree Press. Roger Robinson is a dub poet writing songs about common people and their plight. He co-founded Malika’s Poetry …[Read More]

Versopolis is a platform that unites 13 European Festivals to promote and translate their most exciting new poets. Tiziano Fratus (Italy), Charlotte Van den Broeck (Belgium), Nikolina Andova (Macedonia), Veronika Dintinjana (Slovenia), Yekta (France) share …[Read More]

This 20th birthday celebration is not only about looking back. We launch the festival with a celebration of young poets of the future. A showcase of winners and former winners …[Read More]

Community Hall Anniversary Anthology Showcase Hear a selection of poems from poets who have read at Ledbury since the Festival started, all of whom feature in Hwaet!, a Festival anthology …[Read More]

Burgage Hall We Are All from Somewhere Else: Writing Between World and Identity. Ruth Padel and Daljit Nagra both write on an edge between myth and experience; between different cultures …[Read More]

Burgage Hall Much-loved poet Fleur Adcock makes a welcome return to Ledbury. Her poems are remarkable for their wry wit, conversational tone and psychological insight, unmasking the deceptions of love …[Read More]

Burgage Hall Versopolis is a platform that unites 13 European Festivals to promote and translate their most exciting new poets. André Rudolph (Germany), Goran Colakhodžic (Croatia), Monica Aasprong (Norway), Samantha …[Read More]

Burgage Hall Versopolis is a platform that unites 13 European Festivals to promote and translate their most exciting new poets. André Rudolph (Germany), Goran Colakhodžic (Croatia), Monica Aasprong (Norway), Samantha …[Read More]

Community Hall Peter Tatchell has campaigned since 1967 on issues of human rights, democracy, LGBT freedom and global justice. In 1994, he named 10 Anglican bishops and urged them to …[Read More]

Burgage Hall Frank O’Hara, a poet whom Mark Doty described as “Urbane, ironic, sometimes genuinely celebratory and often wildly funny”, was simultaneously a subtle elegist. Daniel Kane’s talk will explore …[Read More]

Burgage Hall James Fenton travels from New York to Ledbury to give a rare performance. This is an opportunity to hear “a modern master” according to Ian McEwan who says, …[Read More]

Burgage Hall Aonghas MacNeacail is one of the best Gaelic poets writing today. He was born in Uig, on the Isle of Skye and writes in Gaelic, Scots and English. …[Read More]

Burgage Hall Mark Waldron is a brilliant and highly engaging reader of his work. He began writing poetry in his early 40s, has published The Brand New Dark and The …[Read More]

Community Hall Dame Eileen Atkins was born in a Salvation Army Women’s Hostel in north London. Her father was a gas meter reader; her mother, a seamstress and barmaid. A …[Read More]

Burgage Hall Mark Doty’s many honours include the T. S. Eliot Prize. His poetry has long been celebrated for its risk and candour, an ability to find transcendent beauty even …[Read More]