Ledbury Poetry Festival programme 2023

Director’s welcome

Guest Curator’s welcome

I am excited to welcome you to Ledbury, the home of poetry in the UK. This year’s eclectic and international Festival welcomes Don Paterson as Poet in Residence and includes a new poetry and dance commission by Ledbury Poetry Critic Oluwaseun Olayiwola. Also featuring: Poet Laureate Simon Armitage with LYR, Michael Morpurgo, Mercury nominated folk artist Sam Lee, Monty Don, worldrenowned Kora virtuoso Seckou Keita, Jackie Morris, and T.S Eliot prize-winner Joelle Taylor. Plus events celebrating poets of the past, from Shakespeare and John Masefield to Christine de Pizan and Rainer Maria Rilke.

Ledbury Poetry is inclusive and nurturing and these values are embodied in the Ledbury Poetry Critics’s programme where huge strides are being made to ensure diversity in poetry criticism. It is in this context that I am proud to welcome Ledbury Poetry Festival’s first ever Guest Curator, Stephanie Sy-Quia, a Ledbury Poetry Critic who won the 2022 Forward Prize for Best First Collection with Amnion. By changing the gatekeepers, Ledbury Poetry Festival looks to build diverse future audiences and a rich and thriving poetry scene. Stephanie’s events are characterised by their intriguing, provocative and thoughtful themes. Grab weekend passes and see them all!

Heartfelt thanks to the volunteers who make this Festival possible – stewarding events, hospitality, driving, accommodating performers – it would not happen without you!

Chloe Garner, Director

Ledbury Poetry Festival has played an invaluable role in my life, one which is hard to overstate. It has helped me to find my vocation when I was first trying to take myself seriously as a writer, it gave me a supportive and inspiring community, and an invigorating sense of purpose through the Ledbury Poetry Critics Programme. The Festival and all those involved with it do so much for poetry in these islands, making it a vibrant, enlivening force which flourishes alongside the other arts. For this year, I wanted events which would look to the old for ways of navigating the new: to that end, we have themes as varied as medieval mysticism and internet fandom; a communal, participatory work of erasure poetry; or tracking the figure of Caliban through the ages. And we have also married poetry with a number of bedfellows, some perhaps stranger than others: poetry and dance, poetry and swimming, poetry and wine. I hope you will find something here to tickle your fancy!

Stephanie Sy-Quia, Guest Curator

1. Poetry Reading and Wild Swim: Nina Mingya Powles and Alycia Pirmohamed

10.30am–12.30pm | Woodside Lodges

Campsite (minibus transport is included in your ticket price and full details will be provided when you book.) | £15

Kick off this year’s festival by diving into a wild swim! Ticket holders will be transported via minibus to Woodside Lodges Campsite, which boasts a lovely swimming pond. There, poets Alycia Pirmohamed and Nina Mingya Powles will give an open-air, pondside reading (bring towels and picnic blankets so as to sit on the grass), and take a dip afterwards. Both Pirmohamed and Powles have written about their relationship(s) to water, which run their course and coalesce in bright, unexpected ways. Please note all bathing is at your own risk.

Sponsored by Woodside Lodges

2. Primary

Schools Performance

with Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho

1.30–2.30pm | The Community Hall

Are you a primary school teacher? Would you like to bring a group of your pupils to a fabulous Festival performance with Waterstones Children’s Laureate, Joseph Coelho? Expect performances and writing prompts in what will be a fun and interactive session. Contact learning@ ledburypoetry.org.uk to find out more and make a group booking (£2 per child).

In association with Booktrust

Sponsored by BRM and The Feathers Hotel

3. Workshop with Andrew McMillan: A Quiet Life

2–4pm | Heritage Centre | £20

What is it to pay attention to the small moments of a quiet life; can there be as much excitement in those things as some of the larger subjects we might tackle, and indeed are those things able to be separated? Come along to wrestle with these questions, and more, in this workshop hosted by Andrew McMillan

4. Dead Poets Society 1: Shakespeare’s Verse with Abigail Rokison-Woodall

4–5pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

The leading Shakespeare scholar, Abigail Rokison-Woodall kicks off our celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the 1623 publication of the First Folio in a wide-ranging conversation about the poetry of the plays, how readers read it and how actors speak it. She is a general editor of the Arden Shakespeare editions, and the author of Shakespearean Verse Speaking.

In association with the University of Birmingham

Poetry Passeggiata

5.15–5.45pm | St Michael & All Angels

Church courtyard | Free

Enjoy the golden hour! Passeggiata is the Italian tradition of stepping out into public space, to enjoy people-watching in the flattering early evening light, and perhaps set out in search of aperitivo. Ledbury may not have a piazza, but the stone of the church will be bathed in a rosy glow, and all are welcome to join us in the courtyard. Poets in the programme will read out works in progress.

Family Event

Joseph Coelho

5. Dead Poets Society 2: Shakespeare’s As You Like It with Omar Elerian and Abigail Rokison-Woodall

6–7pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

The new RSC production of Shakespeare’s most joyous comic masterpiece opens in Stratfordupon-Avon on 17 June. We are delighted to welcome the director, Omar Elerian to Ledbury to talk about the play with Abigail Rokison-Woodall, the Shakespeare Institute professor and author of As You Like It: Language and Writing

In association with the Royal Shakespeare Company

6. swan sequence: a reading and dance inspired by pandemonium

Andrew McMillan and Oluwaseun Olayiwola

8–9pm | Market Theatre | £10 (weekend pass £24) and £5 for Friends of Ledbury Poetry Festival

We are absolutely delighted to announce the debut of this exclusive commission. Andrew McMillan will be reading from the ‘swan’ sequence of his book pandemonium. This sequence is inspired by Matthew Bourne’s reimagining of the classical ballet Swan Lake. Alongside McMillan’s reading is an original contemporary dance, a duet of male dancers, choreographed by Oluwaseun Olayiwola

Oluwaseun is a poet, critic, choreographer, Ledbury Poetry Critic and a winner of the Ledbury Poetry Competition 2022. He has his MFA in Choreography from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. This unique event is sure to be a highlight of this year’s programme.

Sponsored by the Friends of Ledbury Poetry

SATURday

1 JULY

Free Family Fun Day

11am–3.30pm

Ledbury Walled Garden

Altered Postcard Workshop with Jeanette McCulloch

Take a postcard... chop it... change it... collage it...

Under the Poetree

Join artist and writer Emily Wilkinson in making a temporary installation. Using salvaged textiles, natural objects and letter stamping, we will co-create a beautiful poet-tree shrine in the walled garden. Please bring any second hand fabrics you’d like to use up in the workshop. The poetree will also be a place to enjoy creative mindfulness and relaxation, bring a picnic blanket if you’d like to spend some time there!

Mindfulness under the Poetree

12pm and 2pm (for 20 minutes)

Tune into your senses in a guided mindfulness session under the poetree. Suitable for all ages, these relaxing meditation sessions will bring us into our bodies and end with a poem.

7. Dead Poets Society 3:

The Waste Land with Matthew Hollis

10–11am | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

In a remarkable feat of biography, Matthew Hollis reconstructs the intellectual creation of Eliot’s 1922 masterpiece, and brings the material reality of its charged times vividly to life. Presenting a mosaic of historical fragments, diaries, dynamic literary criticism and illuminating new research, he reveals the cultural and personal trauma that forged The Waste Land through the lives of its protagonists - of Ezra Pound, who edited it; of Vivienne Eliot, who sustained it; and of T.S.Eliot himself, whose private torment is woven into the seams of the work.

Sponsored by Vivien Arscott

Book online: ledburypoetry.org.uk

Family Event

8. Workshop: Nasser Hussain, ‘On Joy’

10am–12pm | Heritage Centre | £20

This workshop will consider some very short poems by writers such as Susan Holbrook and BpNichol. We will consider joy in its multiple senses, and consider ways of thinking about joy as form, as content, and most importantly, as a process for writing poetry. Nasser Hussain is a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, and specialises in experimental poetics. He is the author of three collections, including SKY WRI TEI NGS, written entirely in IATA airport codes.

9. Family Histories: Sarala Estruch and Stephanie Sy-Quia

12pm–1pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10 (weekend pass £24)

It is often said that writing is one of many ways to kill your mother. But what if it was a form of honouring, or both, or neither? Join Sarala Estruch and Stephanie Sy-Quia, friends and fellow Ledbury Poetry Critics, as they discuss their debuts, After All We Have Travelled and Amnion. Together, they will probe the modes of writing about family, their many difficulties, anxieties, and joys, and where to write from next.

Sponsored by Mrs Annie Titmas

10. Earthwords: Joseph Coelho presents winners of Ledbury Young Poets Competition

12pm–1pm | The Master’s House

FREE but ticketed.

11. Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho

2–3pm | Community Hall | £5

Family Event

Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho inspires young people through stories and themes including fear, courage, diversity, gratitude, empathy and loss. Coelho is inspired by magic and the ancient world. His award-winning work across poetry includes Werewolf Club Rules, Overheard in a Tower Block and The Girl Who Became a Tree. Other work includes Fairytales

Gone Bad and The Boy Lost in the Maze

Sponsored by Redkite Solicitors and The Feathers Hotel In association with Booktrust

12. Poetry and conversation with Maya C. Popa and Matthew Hollis

2–3pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10 (weekend pass £24)

Maya C. Popa is a Romanian-American writer, academic, and editor whose books include American Faith and, newly released to rapturous acclaim, Wound is the Origin of Wonder Matthew Hollis’s long awaited follow up to Ground Water is ‘a magical combination of the delicate and the intense’ (Julia Blackburn). Hollis is Poetry Editor at Faber & Faber, and author of Now All Roads

Lead to France: the Last Years of Edward Thomas

Hosted by Bloodaxe Books editor, Neil Astley.

Sponsored by Bath Spa University Family Event

A wonderful opportunity to hear the Ledbury

Young Poets read their winning poems, hosted by Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho. In association with Herefordshire Libraries and Booktrust

swan sequence

13. Workshop: Hand Erasures with alice hiller and Wormholes

2–4pm | Ledbury Poetry House | £20

alice hiller is the author of bird of winter, an exploration of her own experience of childhood grooming and sexual violence. Throughout the book, hiller used her teenage medical notes to create erasure poems. alice will guide participants through the process of making hand erasures. This workshop will also lay the groundwork for Wormholes (see next programme item), a participatory work of erasure poetry which will be ongoing throughout the Festival, with erasures available for all to make on a drop-in basis.

14. Wormholes: a Participatory Work of Erasure and Sifting

Ledbury Poetry House | Drop-in | 01–10 July | Free

The purpose of Wormholes is to provide a number of textual materials pertaining to the British Empire – newspaper clippings, constitutions, etc. – as the material from which erasures should be made. Participants are invited to worm their way through these texts, erasing as they go, in order to identify their own undersongs within the texts. The resulting erasures will be put on display at the end of the Festival.

Please note the initial workshop will take place in the Heritage Centre. Thereafter, the erasure materials will be available at the Ledbury Poetry House.

15. Nothing Can Break My Heart Like England Can: Preti Taneja and Zaffar Kunial

4–5pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10 (weekend pass £24)

Preti Taneja and Zaffar Kunial approach the English, and the pastoral, in different and remarkable ways. Taneja is author of the brilliant, blistering piece of experimental writing Aftermath Taneja was part of the Cambridge University outreach programme which taught creative writing in HMP Whitemoor. One of her students was Usman Khan, the Fishmongers’ Hall attacker, and one of her colleagues was Jack Merritt, one of his victims. Aftermath reaches for the lights of African American abolitionist thinkers, resulting in a treatise on English society – how it gets made and maintained, and for whom. In England’s Green, Kunial reprises many of the themes of Us, his T.S.Eliot-shortlisted debut, with a more pastoral bent. The title of this event is taken from Naomi Morris’s Hyperlove (see Stans and Mystics, July 8th). Chaired by Nasser Hussain

Sponsored by Russell & Co

Poetry Passeggiata

5.15–5.45pm | St Michael & All Angels Church courtyard | Free

Enjoy the golden hour! Passeggiata is the Italian tradition of stepping out into public space, to enjoy people-watching in the flattering early evening light, and perhaps set out in search of aperitivo. Ledbury may not have a piazza, but the stone of the church will be bathed in a rosy glow, and all are welcome to join us in the courtyard. Poets in the programme will read out works in progress.

Book online: ledburypoetry.org.uk

16. Brothers and Bonds: Refashioning Masculinities with Anthony Anaxagorou, Will Harris, Omar Bin Musa

6pm–7pm | Burgage Hall and live streamed on Zoom | £10 (weekend pass £24)

Join three of the coolest male poets working today in a conversation about masculinity, undoing its structures, expanding its expectations, and rethinking its bonds against a variety of cultural backdrops. Will Harris’s second collection is the devastatingly hip Brother Poem Anthony Anaxagorou’s Heritage Aesthetics examines the long fall-out of colonialism and immigration, and Omar bin Musa’s Killernova is a gorgeous graphic collection combining text and woodcuts. This event will comprise a short reading followed by a conversation. Introduced by Stephanie Sy-Quia.

Sponsored by J B Gaynan & Son and Juice Collection

17. Jackie Morris and Seckou Keita

8–10pm | Hellens Manor | £30

The alchemy of music, words and pigment are celebrated here in a performance by Seckou Keita and Jackie Morris, which will leave you spellbound and dreaming.

Nicknamed “the Hendrix of the Kora”, Seckou Keita has toured the world with his quintet, in duos with Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Cuban pianist Omar Sosa and with the Spell Songs collective. His latest project African Rhapsodies is launched in May 2023. He is one of the worlds’ most compelling performers.

The artist, illustrator and poet Jackie Morris won the Kate Greenaway medal in 2019. Her collaboration with Robert Macfarlane on The Lost Words and with the Spell Songs collective has brought her love of the natural world to a huge international audience. Her latest book is Feather, Leaf, Bark and Stone. Her live painting performances are spellbinding. Interval with bar.

Sponsored by Ethos

Seckou Keita

Zaffar Kunial

18. An Artist’s TAKE on a Poetic Town

9am–3pm | Exhibition and judging from 4pm | Entry fee £20 | Entrants must be 16 or overbooking essential. Visit take4gallery.com for full details and to book.

During Ledbury Poetry Festival, TAKE 4 Gallery is inviting 70 amateur and professional artists to give their TAKE on the beautiful historic town, capturing a 2D response in their chosen medium. Prizes will be awarded by a panel of judges, including Sir Roy Strong and Sarah Hilary, with the overall winner receiving £500!

In association with Take 4 Gallery

19. Beatriz Chivite Ezkieta, Lidija Dimkovska and Grug Muse

12noon–1pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom

£10 (weekend pass £24)

Three women poets from different parts of Europe who share common themes and whose poetry exists ‘between languages’. Each maintains a strong connection to the language of her childhood while at the same time crossing the bridges of translation to reach a wider readership.

In association with Literature Across Frontiers and with support from Arts Council of Wales, Etxepare Basque Institute and Slovenian Ministry of Culture

20. Form as Radical Midwife: Queering the Page –alice hiller and Padraig Regan

2–3pm | Burgage Hall and live streamed on Zoom | £10 (weekend pass £24)

alice hiller and Padraig Regan are two poets who make use of self-created forms, or formal juxtaposition. In this event, they will discuss how the look of their poetry on the page is critical to their processes of organic exploration and transmission, their ways of registering the bodily and felt selves at a somatic and visual level, and ways of writing the queer body in its many states of joy and overcoming. Chaired by Jennifer Lee Tsai.

Sponsored by Culture Ireland

21. Myths and Mysteries of HereAbouts

2pm–3pm | St Michael & All Angels Church courtyard | Free (ticketed)

The HereAbouts Poets of the Herefordshire Stanza present poems influenced by the stories of myths and mysteries of our region.

22. Workshop: Becky Varley-Winter, Ecopoetics

2–4pm | Heritage Centre | £20

What happens to our ecopoetics if we think of our poems as living landscapes and/or risky ecosystems? Of our language as a vast and shimmering web of interdependence, endangered by parallel forces to those ravaging the natural world? Come explore these questions, and more, with Becky VarleyWinter, author of the forthcoming Dangerous Enough. Her other publications include a collection of short fiction, BLOOM, a poetry pamphlet, Heroines and Reading Fragments and Fragmentation in Modernist Literature

Book online:

ledburypoetry.org.uk

23. Michael Morpurgo: My Heart was a Tree

4–5pm | Community Hall

£15/£8 child (16 & under)

Family Event

The great children’s writer, Michael Morpurgo, introduces his new anthology, a love letter to trees. Inspired by the poem by Ted Hughes which gives this book its title, by the woods around his home, and by the mighty forests that support our life on Earth, A celebration for all ages.

Sponsored by Stuart and Wendy Houghton with Pelham and Melissa Hawker

24. Archive Rage, Archive Love: Kimberly Campanello & So Mayer, chaired by Milena Williamson

4–5pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10 (weekend pass £24)

So Mayer is the author of A Nazi Word for a Nazi Thing, a rousing manifesto for intersectional solidarity and for plunging into the archive, silences and all. Kimberly Campanello is the author of MOTHERBABYHOME, a 796-page work of experimental poetry in response to the 2021 report into the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Ireland, and the remains of 796 infants and children found in a mass grave near the site. Campanello and Mayer will read from their work, followed by a discussion.

Sponsored by Culture Ireland

Poetry Passeggiata

5.15–5.45pm | St Michael & All Angels

Church courtyard | Free

Enjoy the golden hour! Passeggiata is the Italian tradition of stepping out into public space, to enjoy people-watching in the flattering early evening light, and perhaps set out in search of aperitivo. Ledbury may not have a piazza, but the stone of the church will be bathed in a rosy glow, and all are welcome to join us in the courtyard. Poets in the programme will read out works in progress.

Michael Morpurgo

25. Dead Poets Society 4: Lal Ded and Eluned Phillips with Tishani Doshi and Menna Elfyn

6–7pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

We read the work of the C14th Kashmiri mystic poet, Lal Ded, translated for Penguin Classics by Ranjit Hoskote, and introduced in Ledbury by the multi award-winning poet and novelist of Welsh and Gujarati descent, Tishani Doshi

The great Welsh Language poet, Menna Elfyn, celebrates Eluned Phillips, subject of her biography Absolute Optimist, the radical C20th Welsh-language poet, friend of Dylan Thomas and Pablo Picasso, and the only woman to have won the Crown at the National Eisteddfod twice.

Chaired by Peter Florence.

Sponsored by BRM

26. Sam Lee: Desert Island Poems and Songs

8–9pm | Community Hall | £15

Mercury Prize nominated folk singer, conservationist, song collector, broadcaster and activist, Sam Lee plays a unique role in the British music scene, breaking boundaries between folk and contemporary music. His latest critically acclaimed album, Old Wow, is truly compelling and emotional. His debut The Nightingale: Notes on a songbird tells the epic tale of this highly endangered bird and its place in culture folklore, folksong, music and literature.

Sponsored by John Goodwin

Sam Lee Tishani Doshi

27. A-Level Poetry Study Day

10am–3.45pm | Community Hall

Open to all A-Level students. Close readings and insights into the creative process with Tishani Doshi, climate crisis poems and how to read them with Owen Sheers, plus Esther Menon, Consultant & Principal Examiner for Pearson on exams, and poetry writing workshops with Ruth Stacey, Lecturer in Creative Writing. Contact learning@ledburypoetry.org.uk for a full schedule for the day and to make a group booking (£7.50 per student).

Presented in association with Hereford Sixth Form College, University of Worcester and Black Mountains College

28. Workshop: Milena Williamson: Writing the Witch

10am–12pm | Heritage Centre | £20

This workshop will give a brief overview of historical witch persecution before turning to the proliferation of witch poetry in the past ten years. Discuss poems by Rebecca Tamás, Claire Askew and more. Write poems inspired by the witch, investigating how this figure can help challenge cis-heteropatriarchy and centre experiences of gender and sexuality, feminism and social justice. Milena Williamson is currently working on a PhD at Queens Belfast, exploring the life and death of ‘Ireland’s last witch’, Bridget Cleary, killed in 1895.

Sponsored by Culture Ireland

Malvern Writers’ Circle

2–4pm | Trumpet Corner (Trumpet Crossroads HR8 2RA) | Free

A friendly and welcoming space to share your own poems and hear the work of local writers.

29. Dead Poets Society 5: The Psalms with Rowan Williams and Megan Daffern

5–6pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

In a conversation ranging across prayer, poetry and song, and from King David to William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale, the poet and former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams talks with the leading Cambridge Theologian, Megan Daffern, author of Songs of the Spirit: A Psalm a Day for Lent and Easter about the 150 Old Testament Songs that are as fundamental to the English Language as they are to Christian Liturgy. Sponsored by Ann and David Tombs

30. Dead Poets Society 6: Elizabeth Barrett Browning with Don Paterson, Dinah Roe and Claire Armitstead

7–8pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

A celebration of the 44 love sonnets published in 1850 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, superstar poet and linguist of this parish, who grew up at Hope End, just outside Ledbury. Don Paterson’s most recent collections are 40 Poems, Zonal and The Arctic. His criticism includes Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets and The Poem: Lyric, Sign, Metre. Dinah Roe is a leading PreRaphaelite and C19th Literature scholar at Oxford Brookes. The literary and cultural journalist Claire Armitstead is Associate Editor of The Guardian.

Book online: ledburypoetry.org.uk

31. The Art of Poetry: Workshop with Don Paterson

10am–12noon | Heritage Centre | £30

Is there such thing as ‘best practice’ in poetry? Drawing on work by the great poets of the past, Don Paterson will look at the many ways we can make our poems original, musical and memorable through the use of sound pattern, metaphor, metonymy, symbol, form, metre and word-choice.

32. Dead Poets Society 7: Shakespeare’s Sonnets with Don Paterson and Emma Smith

5–6pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

Shakespeare’s Sonnets are as important and vital today as they were when first published four hundred years ago. Perhaps no collection of verse before or since has so captured the imagination of readers and lovers; certainly no poems have come under such intense critical scrutiny, and presented the reader with such a bewildering number of alternative interpretations. Don Paterson’s criticism includes Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford and the author of This is Shakespeare and The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare.

Sponsored by Sir Roy Strong

Homend Poets Open Mic

6.30pm onwards | Pot and Page

(8 New Street, Ledbury, HR8 2DX) | Free

An open evening for poets to perform and share poems. Food and drink available.

33. Dead Poets Society 8: Shakespeare’s First Folio at 400 with Emma Smith

7–8pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

In late November 1623, Edward Blount finally took delivery of a book that had been long in the making. Master William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies was the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, appearing some seven years after their author’s death in 1616. Its 950 folio pages included thirty-six plays, half of which had not previously been printed. Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford and the author of The Making of Shakespeare’s First Folio

34. Attila the Stockbroker

8–10pm | Market Theatre | £12

Radical force of nature performance poet/ musician. Launched into public consciousness by legendary Radio One DJ John Peel in 1982. With over 3000 gigs he has spent 40 plus years touring the world as a self-sustaining DIY one man cottage industry.

Sponsored by Butler & Sweatman

Don Paterson

35. The Practice of Poetry: Workshop with Don Paterson

10am–12noon | Heritage Centre | £30

Where do poems start and where do they end? How do we get the poem from our own heads into the heads of our readers, and keep it there? Don Paterson will look at the entire process of poemmaking from inspiration to publication, and will answer any questions you bring on any aspect of poetry and its composition.

36. Ode to the Ledbury Bells

3–4pm | St Michael and All Angels Church

£12 (to include a copy of the poems)

Tim and Mary Anne Keyes will read Tim’s ten Odes to the Ledbury Bells in the dramatic setting of the bellchamber itself where his poems will reveal the history and character of each bell. If you can manage a climb of 90 steps to the bells and some uneven floors, we promise you a most unusual experience.

37. John Masefield High School showcase event with Karl Nova

4–5pm | Heritage Centre | Free (ticketed)

Come and hear John Masefield High School pupils perform their poems, mentored by Karl Nova who is a hip hop artist, performance poet and award-winning author.

38. Dead Poets Society 9: The Wife of Bath with Marion Turner

4–5pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers—from Shakespeare to Zadie Smith. Marion Turner, Professor of English at the University of Oxford and author of Chaucer: A European Life, tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer’s favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. Chaired by Peter Florence.

Sponsored by Jo Kingham

39. Don Paterson reading and conversation

6–7pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

The Arctic is Don Paterson’s most moving and eclectic collection since Landing Light, Winner of the Whitbread and the T. S. Eliot Prize. Elegies for the poet’s musician father; tales of the love lives of gods and the childhoods of psychopaths; troubled encounters between men and women; odes to movies and the male anatomy; studies of art and ambition, politics and parenthood. By turns urgent, railing and tender, these are poems of and for our times, by one of the UK’s most celebrated and formally adventurous writers. Chaired by Jonathan Davidson, a poet and Chief Executive of Writing West Midlands.

Sponsored by BRM

wednESday 5 JULY

40. Crack the Safe: Riddle Me This 7pm onwards | Book tickets: potandpage.co.uk

£30, including three course meal.

Three riddles you’re given during the night. The answer to each will help with your plight. Each will be written in verses of threeA book, then a word and lastly a key.

Each riddle is served with a dish to delight. Working together will help win this fight. This challenge is not for the faint of heart, Armed with your wits, you’ll finish what you start…

41. An evening celebrating the launch of the Dymock Poets Collection

7.15–8.15pm | The Master’s House

£8 including local cider and local cheeses

Explore the Dymock Poets Collection, hear some fabulous readings, and celebrate these local poets with local cider and local cheeses.

In association with Herefordshire Libraries and sponsored by Weston’s Cider

42. Clive James’s Words and My Music, with Pete Atkin

8.30–9.30pm | Burgage Hall | £10

Pete Atkin is a British singer-songwriter and radio producer, notable for his musical collaborations with poet Clive James, celebrated in the book Loose Canon: The Extraordinary Songs of Clive James and Pete Atkin. Clive James died in 2019, but Pete Atkin still performs their songs as often as he can, in performances that are ‘spellbinding, mesmerising, poignant, rousing, breath taking’. Don’t miss out!

Sponsored by The Uncommon Touch Massage Therapy & Diane & Peter Fullerton

Book online: ledburypoetry.org.uk

43. Women Poets and the Environment: Talk and Seminar

Talk 12noon–1pm | Seminar 2–3.30pm

Burgage Hall | £10 each or £16 for both talk and seminar

A specialist on ecology and contemporary poetry (especially Jorie Graham, Kathleen Jamie, Mary Oliver) and Professor of English at the University of Bristol, Ralph Pite will give a talk exploring why poetry might matter in addressing the environmental crisis. What can it contribute?

How have women poets particularly addressed the crisis in their poetry?

Then in the seminar participants will read some instances of the poetry, both British and American and discuss what approaches seem most successful and/or valuable.

In association with the University of Bristol

44. Ode to the Ledbury Bells

3–4pm | St Michael and All Angels Church

£12 (to include a copy of the poems)

Tim and Mary Anne Keyes will read Tim’s ten Odes to the Ledbury Bells in the dramatic setting of the bellchamber itself where his poems will reveal the history and character of each bell. If you can manage a climb of 90 steps to the bells and some uneven floors, we promise you a most unusual experience.

45. Dead Poets Society 10: John Masefield with Philip W Errington

6–7pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

Philip W Errington, the antiquarian bookdealer and bibliographer, and pre-eminent Masefield scholar, celebrates the poetry of Ledbury’s most famous literary son, C20th Poet Laureate and author of The Everlasting Mercy and Sea-Fever

In association with The John Masefield Society

46. Monty Don

8–9pm | Community Hall | £15

Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers The gardener, broadcaster and writer introduces and reads his selection of poetry celebrating gardens and nature.

Sponsored by Forrest Optical Styling Studio

Monty Don

47. Finding Words & Hiding Words

10am–4pm (with a break for lunch)

Heritage Centre | £65

An inspiring workshop that combines creative writing and art. Make your own small book, filled with pockets, tags and envelopes, and fill it with words you choose to reveal or conceal’. Led by Sara-Jane Arbury, poet, writer and performer and Jeanette McCulloch artist and illustrator, from Red Earth Arts C.I.C.

Poetry Passeggiata

5.15–5.45pm | St Michael & All Angels Church courtyard | Free

Enjoy the golden hour! Passeggiata is the Italian tradition of stepping out into public space, to enjoy people-watching in the flattering early evening light, and perhaps set out in search of aperitivo. Ledbury may not have a piazza, but the stone of the church will be bathed in a rosy glow, and all are welcome to join us in the courtyard. Poets in the programme will read out works in progress.

48. Dead Poets Society 11: Christine de Pizan with Charlotte Cooper-Davis

6–7pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

The daughter of a court intellectual, Christine de Pizan dwelled within the heart of late-medieval Paris. In the face of personal tragedy, she learned the tools of the booktrade, writing more than 40 works including poetry, historical and political treatises and defenses of women. Charlotte Cooper-Davis’ biography is Christine de Pizan: Life, Work, Legacy.

49. Hay Wines Presents: Poetry Tasting

7–8.30pm | Hay Wines | £30

Have you ever wondered what Keats and Cabernet have in common? Come to this wine and poetry tasting to find out! Hay Wines, beloved local purveyors of fine wines and high spirits, host an evening of side-by-side wine and poetry tasting, with Festival Guest Curator Stephanie Sy-Quia acting as Poetry Sommelier.

In association with Hay Wines

50. Diversion with Joelle Taylor and Jess Silk

8–10.45pm | Market Theatre | £12

Joelle Taylor won the T.S Eliot prize for C+nto & Othered Poems. Taylor is a shape shifter, myth maker, linguistic risk taker, poetical activist, surrealist with a raised fist. Jess Silk is a guitarist, singer/songwriter. Her shouty, melodic brand of folk/punk music often sees her likened to a female Frank Turner or Billy Bragg. Open mic spaces available, sign up on the door!

Sponsored by Sitara Restaurant

Book online: ledburypoetry.org.uk

Joelle Taylor

51. Dead Poets Society 12: The Duino Elegies

by Rainer Maria Rilke with Karen Leeder, Ulrike Almut Sandig and Martyn Crucefix

10–11am | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10

Completed in 1922, the same year as the publication of Eliot’s The Waste Land, Rilke’s Elegies constitute a magnificent godless poem in their rejection of the transcendent and their passionate celebration of the here and now. The Elegies are populated by a throng of vivid and affecting figures: acrobats, lovers, angels, mothers, fathers, statues, salesmen, actors and children. With Karen Leeder, Professor of Modern German Literature at Oxford, poet Ulrike Almut Sandig and Martyn Crucefix, translator of The Duino Elegies.

Sponsored by Nigel and Alison Falls

52. Ledbury Poetry Competition

Winners hosted by Joelle Taylor

12noon–1pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom

Free (ticketed)

An event to celebrate recent winners of Ledbury Poetry Competition. In person, 2022 first prize winner Naoise Gale, second prize winner

Oluwaseun Olayiwola and third prize winner

Toby Campion. Plus 2021 first prize winner

Jess Murrain. The event will also feature online appearances from Clare Haywood, Kizziah Burton and Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer.

53. Stans and Mystics: Abi Palmer and Naomi Morris

2–3pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom

£10 (weekend pass £24)

What subject links religious rapture, chronic illness, and celebrity culture? Abi Palmer and Naomi Morris believe that medieval mysticism is the answer. In Sanatorium, Palmer looks to St Teresa of Avila for a map of how to live with chronic illness; whereas for Morris, Julian of Norwich is her mystic of choice. Both posit that these holy women could have a lot to teach us about how we live now: fandom, being a little too online, ecstasy. This conversation is set to be an exciting one, grounded in the old but bounding into newer vistas: ableist poetics, the particular kitsch of Catholic rapture, and the quirks of the internet.

Chaired by Stephanie Sy-Quia.

Sponsored by Ledbury Funeral Services

54. Trip Literature: Peter Scalpello and Nisha Ramayya

4–5pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom

£10 (weekend pass £24)

What is the formal impact of a trip? In States of the Body Produced by Love, Nisha Ramayya burrowed into Sanskrit, one of her lost ancestral languages, via the means of a imperialist and imperialising dictionary, ‘dragging lamps’ into the shafts she’d dug. Now, the trips which concern her most recent work are of a more hallucinatory, ascendant nature. Peter Scalpello explores the formal potentialities of chemsex (use of drugs in sex), and a foray into modes of queer becoming or evasion–which is complemented with work in their day job as a sexual health therapist.

Chaired by Oluwaseun Olayiwola

Poetry Passeggiata

5.15–5.45pm | St Michael & All Angels Church courtyard | Free

Enjoy the golden hour! Passeggiata is the Italian tradition of stepping out into public space, to enjoy people-watching in the flattering early evening light, and perhaps set out in search of aperitivo. Ledbury may not have a piazza, but the stone of the church will be bathed in a rosy glow, and all are welcome to join us in the courtyard. Poets in the programme will read out works in progress.

55. Artistic Obsessions:

Tom de Freston and Amy Key

6–7pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom

£10 (weekend pass £24)

Amy Key’s non-fiction debut Arrangements in Blue is a mellifluously beautiful homage to the art of others and what we can do with it. It springs from her lifelong love of Joni Mitchell’s album Blue, and explores the many ways to love and live - both with others and alone.

Tom de Freston’s Wreck is a multi-layered work: a piece of fevered historical research into the life of painter Théodore Géricault and the stories around his most famous work, The Raft of the Medusa. This talk will explore the preoccupations which spurred de Freston and Key to write about these figures they’ve never met, and the modes they might offer for making art and living life. Chaired by Dzifa Benson

2.30–4.30pm | St Michael & All Angels

Church | Free (ticketed) for 11–18 years

For anyone interested in composition, this workshop led by Fraz Ireland, offers composing activities, suggestions on how to progress, useful tips, and a deeper look at some of the music that’s been composed for the evening’s concert.

57. Hereford Chamber Choir presents: “The Dymock Poets re-imagined”

a choral interpretation of works by the much loved Dymock Poets

St Michael & All Angels Church

7.30–8.40pm | £15 (£5 students)

This innovative project focuses on seven contemporary composers and their choral settings of works by the Dymock Poets. The composers, whose paths in different ways touch those of the poets, include: Kerensa Briggs, Liz Dilnot Johnson, Fraz Ireland, Esther Kay, Robert Peate, Simon Peberdy and Susannah Self. The performance will be introduced by the Friends of the Dymock Poets and will also feature the winner of their Young Composers Competition. Abercrombie, Brooke, Drinkwater, Frost, Gibson and Thomas will be brought to life through a contemporary lens distilling sound and sense, sense and sound.

58. Ledbury Poetry Slam

7.30–10pm | Market Theatre and live-streamed on Zoom | £12

Brace yourselves for a knockout night of poetry as worldly wordsmiths take the page onto the stage to compete for points that lead to prizes! In this popular contest, brave bards parade their poems in a bid to reach the hearts and hearing parts of the public. Random judges award points for the quality of writing, performance, and the warmth of the applaudience, so who will fire on all syllables into the final and become this year’s Ledbury Slam Champion? Join the Master and Mistress of Ceremonies Elvis McGonagall and Sara-Jane

Arbury for an energetic evening of good verbal vibrations and lend your support for the do-or-die versifiers taking the risk to stanza and deliver on stage. To enter the Slam as a competitor, please contact Sara-Jane on 07814 830031 or email sjarbury@gmail.com (two online competitor places available).

PLEASE NOTE: This event may contain adult language and subject matter.

56. Young Composers Workshop

Ledbury Celebration

“the last day of magic”

11am–4pm (entertainment from 12 noon)

St Katherine’s Car Park, just off Ledbury High Street

l An outdoor food and drink market featuring the best of local produce and street-food to enjoy at the event or take home

l Al fresco poetic entertainment provided by Ledbury Poetry, including The Poetry Machine creating your own personal poems

l A magical miscellany of entertainment featuring local musicians

l Local ceramics and other attractions

This free public event is organised by Ledbury Food Group in association with Ledbury Poetry and local musicians.

Full programme available at ledburyfoodgroup.org

59. A Celebration of Poetry and Translation

10–11.30am | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom

£10 (weekend pass £24)

The Poetry Translation Centre is delighted to bring two new publications to Ledbury: I Will Not Fold These Maps by internationally acclaimed Bidoon poet Mona Kareem and A Friend’s Kitchen by Sudanese poet Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi. Both originally written in Arabic and presented in English for the first time, these bilingual collections overlap in language and theme but have a distinct identity of their own. Join them and their translators Sara Elkamel, Bryar Bajalan and Shook, for a morning of moving bilingual readings and in-depth exploration of their work.

Sponsored by the Poetry Translation Centre

60. Versopolis: A Celebration of European Poetry

12noon–1pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | Free (ticketed)

Danish poet, Theresa Salomonsen, was born in Århus. Her award-winning poetry collections include, Throw the Sky into the Sea and the long-form poem Song of Songs. In some ways, Salmonsen resembles the famous Danish poet Inger Christensen (author of Alphabet), as she deals with the tragedies of the world and an almost apocalyptic sense of loss of innocence. Supported Versopolis and the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union

61. Critics’ Club: Caliban(s); Cannibals; Creatures: Shalini Sengupta and Dzifa Benson

2–3pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom

£10 (weekend pass £24)

Join Ledbury Poetry Critics Shalini Sengupta and Dzifa Benson as they explore the figure of Caliban from Shakespeare’s The Tempest and his varied afterlives. This discussion will range across numerous texts which have made use of Caliban to various ends, from Rachel Ingalls, to Aimé Césaire, to 2017 Oscar winner for Best Picture, The Shape of Water

There will be particular emphasis on Safiya Sinclair’s poetry collection Cannibal and Nitty Scott’s album Creature!

Book online: ledburypoetry.org.uk

62. Complex Matters of State with Gail McConnell and Meena Kandasamy

4–5pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom | £10 (weekend pass £24)

Gail McConnell is the author of, most recently, The Sun is Open – a staggering work which manages to hold the pain of both a personal loss (the killing of the author’s father by the IRA) – and a larger colonial conflict. Meena Kandasamy’s Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest

You is her third collection of poetry, and follows her formally brilliant, wry book Exquisite Cadavers. Chaired by Stephanie Sy-Quia.

Sponsored by Culture Ireland

Poetry Passeggiata

5.15–5.45pm | St Michael & All Angels Church courtyard | Free

Enjoy the golden hour! Passeggiata is the Italian tradition of stepping out into public space, to enjoy people-watching in the flattering early evening light, and perhaps set out in search of aperitivo. Ledbury may not have a piazza, but the stone of the church will be bathed in a rosy glow, and all are welcome to join us in the courtyard. Poets in the programme will read out works in progress.

63. Poetry & Céilí Music

6–7pm | Burgage Hall and live-streamed on Zoom

£10 (weekend pass £24)

Éadaoín Lynch is the author of the pamphlet Fierce Scrow, where the butane flame of Irish myth flickers bright, blue, and (re)invigorated. And they also play the fiddle! Join Lynch for a reading interspersed with pieces of céilí music.

Sponsored by Culture Ireland

In memory of Jim Dening

64. LYR

8–9.30pm | Hellens Manor | £30

LYR are Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, singer-songwriter Richard Walters, and multi-instrumentalist/producer Patrick James Pearson. Formed in 2018, LYR are now a firmly established part of the contemporary music scene with memorable songs, melodies and words. Simon Armitage’s book Never Good With Horses: Assembled Lyrics is published this spring. This will be an unmissable Festival finale. Sponsored by University of Worcester

LYR Éadaoín Lynch

EXHIBITIONS

When We Were Very Young: An exhibition of stitched textiles inspired by children’s poetry

30 June–9 July | Open daily 10am–5pm Weavers Gallery | Free

The poems and songs we learn as children often stay with us all our lives. This is the inspiration behind a display by local textile artists using a wide variety of media and styles.

Ledbury BookArt Exhibition

30 June–9 July | 10am-4pm

Weavers Gallery | Free

Now in its 10th year this popular annual exhibition features BookArt made by 12 Ledbury artists, who use cloth, clay, print, and mixed media in creative and intriguing ways.

Ledbury Poetry Competition

This year’s judge is Philip Gross. Over 40 years he has published 27 collections, for adults and for young people. His latest, The Thirteenth Angel, was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize (which he won in 2009).

The first prize for the competition is £1,000 and, in a partnership with Arvon, a week’s poetry course. Arvon is the UK’s leading creative writing charity with a wide range of residential and online writing courses.

Deadline Monday 10 July 2023

Visit ledburypoetry.org.uk for full details and to enter the competition.

Become A Friend of Ledbury Poetry

Friends donations play a vital role in continuing the development and success of Ledbury Poetry. Your support helps us to:

l Promote high quality poetry that is accessible and relevant to a growing live and digital audience.

l Deliver engagement activities for children, young people and a wide range of communities.

l Nurture the careers of professional poets and critics.

Membership is a charitable donation that supports the future of Ledbury Poetry.

For full details and to become a Friend visit ledburypoetry.org.uk

Autumn at Ledbury Poetry House!

Intimate monthly seminars with Angela France

We are proud to present a series of monthly seminar groups with Angela France, featuring close reading, in-depth discussion, and feedback on your poems-in-progress, as well guidance on your next steps as a poet and conversation around contemporary poetry. With a maximum of eight students, these seminars provide an intimate setting and generate supportive and critical friendships, helping you to become part of your local poetry community.

8 x monthly sessions starting on Tuesday

3 October 2023 to May 2024. Classes will run 6–8.30pm at Ledbury Poetry House

For full details and to register an interest, email administration@poetryschool.com Places will cost £286 (Full Price) for all 8 sessions, with concessions and bursaries available. In partnership with the Poetry School

The Word Crew

Monthly writing workshop for young people with Sara-Jane Arbury at Ledbury Poetry House. Email learning@ledburypoetry.org.uk for details and to join.

Poetry London in Ledbury

Thursday 19 October

Ledbury Poetry House | £8

Launching a new collaboration, Poetry London in Ledbury Presents: Jesse Nathan, founding editor of the McSweeney’s Poetry Series, whose reviews and interviews appear online in “Short Conversations with Poets.” In September 2023, Unbound Edition Press will publish Nathan’s highly anticipated debut poetry collection, Eggtooth. This is his first visit to the UK.

Poetry Society Futures

Eric Yip, Tife Kusoro and Freya Bantiff

3–4pm | Saturday 21 October

Ledbury Poetry House | Free (ticketed)

The Poetry Society showcases three of the most exciting young poets to have emerged through talent development programmes such as its National Poetry Competition.

Sponsored by The Poetry Society

SPONSORS

Ledbury Poetry acknowledges with grateful thanks the vital support of Arts Council England (West Midlands) and the donations, sponsorship and assistance of the following:

HOW TO BOOK tickets

Online at ledburypoetry.org.uk

In person at Ledbury Poetry House, The Barrett Browning Institute, Ledbury HR8 2AA

If you have any questions or problems, please do call 01531 636232 or email boxoffice@ledburypoetry.org.uk and we will do our best to assist you. Please note that you cannot book tickets over the phone.

Weekend Pass events are clearly marked. Each weekend pass is £24 and represents a substantial discount on a range of stimulating events for poetry enthusiasts.

Digital pass

All 30 events that are live-streamed on Zoom can be accessed with a digital pass for £20.

Ledbury Poetry House Key

If you are 16-25 you can sign up for the Ledbury Poetry House Key for free, and you will be able to access early information for live and online young people’s workshops and student tickets ledburypoetry.org.uk/youngpeople

Sign up to our Mailing List for all the Latest news from Ledbury Poetry ledburypoetry.org.uk

With thanks to all our volunteers including volunteers working with us through Creative Pathways. Brochure design: David Caines Unlimited davidcaines.co.uk

Friends of Ledbury Poetry, J B Gaynan & Son, Juice Collection, Pelham and Melissa Hawker, Sir Roy Strong, Jo Kingham, Mrs Annie Titmas, Ann and David Tombs, Wendy and Stuart Houghton, BRM, Vivien Arscott, Ledbury Funeral Services, Mo Dening, Nigel and Alison Falls, Diane and Peter Fullerton, The Uncommon Touch Massage Therapy, Woodside Lodges, John Masefield Society, University of Bristol

Performers’ Gifts

The Festival is grateful to John Burns, instigator of the Ledbury Poetry Festival, for funding the commemorative presents given to every performer made by Ledbury potter Fleen Doran fleendoran.com

Festival photographs by Sam Hardwick and Chris Athanasiou. Photographs of poets and speakers with their permission.

No photography or recording is allowed in any events. You may see a photographer clearly marked as working with Ledbury Poetry who will be taking photographs for our own marketing.

Ledbury Poetry Festival Limited is a Registered Charity number 1059465.

The Feathers Hotel

Friends of Ledbury and District Healthcare

Pennington Mellor Munthe Charity Trust

Hawthornden Foundation

Ledbury is well served by bus, coach and train services from London and the Midlands as well as being within a few minutes of the M50 motorway. For further information and details of travel and accommodation, visitherefordshire.co.uk