Armitage and McGough on Winchester poetry line-up

Simon Armitage and Roger McGough [pictured] are amongst the line-up for this year’s Winchester Poetry Festival.

The festival, which takes place 7-9th October, will welcome 40 poets and speakers in total. Armitage will talk to letter carver Pip Hall about their collaboration on Stanza Stones, a 45-mile sculpture and poetry trail in the Pennines, whilst McGough, who presents Poetry Please on Radio 4, will speak about the art of broadcasting poetry.

Other poets taking part include Jo Shapcott, who will reveal her five career inspirations, and Sinead Morrissey, who will talk about her visit to the former Soviet Union.

One of the themes will be ‘revolution’ and there will be a ‘spotlight’ on Keats, as 2016 is the 200th anniversary of when he gave up medicine and took up poetry.

For young people, events will include ‘poems from around the world’ and a ‘young ballads’ competitions, and students from Winchester School of Art will be creating their own sculptural interpretation of a single line of poetry.

The festival will also be announcing the winners of its poetry prize, judged by poet Mimi Khalvati.

The Winchester Poetry Festival was set up as a charity in 2013 and the first festival took place in 2014. The artistic directors are Sasha Dugdale and Keiren Phelan and the manager is Madelaine Smith.