National Poetry Day (Thursday 9th October) highlights:
(Apologies in advance for UK-centricism.) This year is the 10th National Poetry Day, and the theme is ‘Britain’ and national identity. That should bring in the punters…
The big guns can be found at St Paul’s Church, Bedford Street, London, for a Poetry Society reading in association with Faber & Faber and Penguin – Lavinia Greenlaw, Roger McGough, Andrew Motion and Don Paterson. It starts at 7pm and is cheap at the price (‘6).
Radio 4 will feature National Poetry Day content all day, including a programme announcing the winners of A Poem For Britain. The competition was the brainchild of evil poetry populiser extraordinaire Daisy Goodwin, who earlier this year launched this national search for new poetry summing up 21st century Britain. I dread to think, frankly.
More interestingly on the theme of ‘Britain’, the Poetry Society has developed a Poetry Landmarks website, which takes the form of an interactive map of British poetic heritage and activity, each Landmark nominated by the public: www.poetrysociety.org.uk/landmark/front.php
Again there will be a tie-in Radio 4 programme, presented by Ian McMillan.
It’s also worth looking out for the Poetry Jukebox Tour (2nd October – 27th November), marking the launch of 57 Productions’ www.poetryjukebox.com and their 2nd CD of performance poetry.