Press

In this pretty market town set in England’s cider country, attend readings, talks, walks, open mics and collaborations of poetry and music, and listen to actors Juliet Stevenson and Michael Pennington perform poems based on World War I.

Financial Times

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/ced275e2-f611-11e3-a038-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3JWjvutQV

Juliet Stevenson is appearing at the Ledbury Poetry Festival, July 4-13; poetry-festival.co.uk

2013 press

BBC Midlands – Life Loves To Change

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b036p8xj/Midlands_Today_09_07_2013/

The Independent

Twihaiku? Micropoetry? The rise of Twitter poetry

Poetry in 140 characters? What would Sylvia Plath have made of tweet poems? Twitter poetry (also known as “twihaiku” or “micropoetry”) is still in its early stages, but could it bring poetry back to the forefront of the modern world? “I think Twitter poems will become a new form, the modern-day version of the haiku,” says Chloe Garner, artistic director of the Ledbury Poetry Festival. “Poets love writing to different forms, even just as a way of exercising the poetic muscles.” See rest of article below

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/twihaiku-micropoetry-the-rise-of-twitter-poetry-8711637.html

One To Watch – Sophie Robinson

‘I usually gravitate towards work that is both vulnerable and violent, and that’s something I aim for in my own work.” In 2011 she was poet in residence at the V&A. She reads from her new book, How To Be a Complete Nobody, at the Ledbury Poetry Festival in July.’

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/one-to-watch-sophie-robinson-poet-27-8647852.html

The Telegraph

www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/10151158/Ten-reasons-to-travel-in-July-2013.html

The Guardian – Lyn Gardner

Meanwhile, Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing is at the Ledbury Poetry Festival today

www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2013/jul/05/theatre-tips-what-to-see-lyn-gardner

Dead Curious – 10 Days Of Rhythm, Rhyme and Verse

This Friday Ledbury, Herefordshire will become home to the world’s largest poetry festival: ten days of all things rhythm, rhyme and verse in the picture book town, nestled deep in the heart of cider country. The Ledbury festival is taking on the behemoth task of dusting poetry off and resurrecting the underappreciated art form – at best forgotten along with GCSE English and Shakespearean sonnets, at worst openly scorned – and re-inventing it for the modern palate. – See more at: http://deadcurious.com/2013/07/03/the-ledbury-poetry-festival-10-days-of-rhythm-rhyme-verse-in-cider-country/#sthash.ebLY9GOB.dpuf

www.deadcurious.com/2013/07/03/the-ledbury-poetry-festival-10-days-of-rhythm-rhyme-verse-in-cider-country/

The Lady – review
5 stars
This is the longest running and easily the most important such festival in Britain and offers a chance to experience an extraordinary range of poetry and events that focus on the glory of the spoken word. It is a cornucopia of poetic delights and there really was something for everyone, no matter what your taste.
This year it ran from 5th- 14th July 2013 and while I couldn’t go for more than a day, I could have easily spent a week there enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes – there was a special edition Ledbury Poetry Festival cider and plenty of welcoming cafes and cake shops- of what is also a rather lovely Herefordshire town filled with timber-framed mediaeval architecture. Carol Anne Duffy was quite right when she called the Ledbury festival: ‘A rare, genuine joining of poetry, people and place.’

www.lady.co.uk/blogs/tags/tag/ledbury-poetry-2013-festival

2012

The Guardian

The Week in Books, July 7 2012 To Ledbury, in pursuit of the Herefordshire market town’s twin contributions to poetry (in the shape of the annual festival) and inebriety (not only is the giant Westons cider mill down the road in Much Marcle, the area is rich in scrumpy production). The two activities are of course connected, not least in the person of the festival-goer who blundered through the fire door into my room in the small hours of Monday morning. Or indeed in the poets who gathered four miles south of here, in Dymock, nearly 100 years ago. After a particularly raucous evening of cider drinking in Lascelles Abercrombie’s garden, Eleanor Farjeon recalled the sight of Edward Thomas and Robert Frost clinging to each other for support, only to collapse back to the floor, allowing her to make the unlikely boast that “I drank all the poets of Gloucestershire under the table.”

The festival in Ledbury is mostly a more sedate affair these days, as perhaps befits the birthplace of William Langland and John Masefield. Paul Muldoon discussed poetry and song; we have had a psychogeographical account of Ivor Gurney’s Gloucestershire poems; and Nicola Shulman entertained the audiences with her talk on Thomas Wyatt, which was aptly illustrated with a heart-shaped squeaky toy. Alas, poor planning led to my departing before the orchard walk and the event on “Poems and Cider”. The festival concludes tomorrow, when are events with Andrew Motion, Simon Armitage, Helen Dunmore and Sophie Hannah, among others. The children’s poetry festival also has talks and activities throughout the weekend. Adam Newey

guardian.co.uk, 19 June 2012 Live chat roundup: what does a poetry town look like?

We round up all the best bits from our last live chat, which examined the role and importance of poetry in our local communities Live chat roundup: what does a poetry town look like? | Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional