A Festival of Public Readings and Talks

This event brings together contemporary poets and critics to explore the relationship between poetry and local and national identities.  It will ask how - and why - poets throughout the ages have used their work to make complex connections to the world around them. The areas discussed will range from Viking poets writing in praise of King Cnut, via controversial Romantic bards, to Twenty-First Century Poet Laureates. It will challenge ideas of poetry as self-contained and inward looking, and demonstrate its compelling relevance to our understanding of both key moments in the past and crucial debates in the present.

Speakers include the poets Patience Agbabi, Angela Leighton, Helen Mort and Matt Welton.

Saturday 21 May 2016
10am-5pm

Highfield House, University of Nottingham

All Welcome.  Admission Free of Charge including readings, talks, lunch and refreshments.

To confirm attendance please RSVP.  

Click here for author biographies and a preview of the poets.

Sponsored by the University Research Priority Area 'British Identities: Culture and Communication from the Archipelago to the Globe' and by the Centre for Regional Literature and Culture.