Arts & Culture
July 2014Ledbury Poetry Festival
Spread over ten days in July, Britain's biggest poetry festival was established in 1997.
Ledbury Poetry Festival takes over a picturesque medieval market town in the Malvern Hills boasting many links with poets over the centuries, most notably John Masefield and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
On the agenda are readings, performances and talks by contemporary poets and actors, workshops, exhibitions, live music and walks, and there's an international poetry competition judged by each year's poet in residence. Previous judges have included Ruth Padel, Matthew Sweeney, Jo Shapcott, Mark Doty, Gillian Clarke, Don Paterson, Paula Meehan and Theo Dorgan. The judge in 2012 was Ian Duhig.
Highlights of the 2012 Ledbury Poetry Festival included live readings by Tony Harrison, Jane Hirshfield, Wes Brown, Esther Morgan, Chrissie Gittins, Simon Armitage, Helen Dunmore and Sophie Hannah.
