Poetry festival is back
NOTTINGHAM Poetry Festival will be back for the fourth time this spring. Running from April 26 until May 5, it will once again present a line-up of acclaimed national and local poets and performers.
Nottingham’s first Young Poet Laureate Georgina Wilding, founder of Mud Press, will be the festival’s creative director and will work closely with festival founders Henry Normal and Craig Chettle alongside coordinator and promoter Tommy Rosley.
The 2019 line-up features national names Ian Mcmillan, Caroline Bird, Andrew Mcmillan, Lorraine Mariner, Patience Agbabi, John Hegley, Roger Mcgough, Paul Cookson and Val Bloom, together with local poets including Christopher Lanyon, Akor Apaluwah, Jamie Thrasivoulou, Leanne Moden, Stephen Thomas and Jai Verma.
The full line-up will be revealed over the coming weeks.
Henry Normal said: “Thanks to the people of Nottingham we have together built a Poetry Festival worthy of a Unesco City of Literature. It’s now back for a fourth year, bigger, better, broader and more beautiful than before. With Georgina as our new creative director I’m sure the whole city will be engaged in what proves to be an exciting ten days.” The festival was launched in April 2015 by Mr Normal and Mr Chettle and has already become an integral part of Nottingham’s cultural offer, attracting audiences from all over the country. Thirty artists performed at 11 venues growing last year to 50 events with 148 poets, Festival line-ups have included Lemn Sissay MBE, Carol Ann Duffy, Luke Wright, John Cooper Clarke, John Hegley and Roger Mcgough together with many local poets Tony Kirk, Georgina Wilding, Panya Banjoko & Gregory Woods.
Georgina Wilding is a born-andbred Nottinghamite who, after studying creative and professional writing, went on to set up poetry publishing house, Mud Press. She has performed her poetry both nationally and internationally at events such as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Off Milosz festival in Poland. She has been commissioned by organisations such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC Radio Nottingham to write and perform.