Line-up confirmed for third Nottingham Poetry Festival

The third Nottingham Poetry Festival is taking place in association with Nottingham Trent University.

Poet Roger McGough

Image by Colin Clarke ARPS

The annual Nottingham Poetry Festival is back – running between 20 April and 29 April with Roger McGough, Jackie Kay and Hollie McNish among the headliners.

Building on the success of the two previous Nottingham Poetry Festivals and working closely with the Nottingham poetry community, Nottingham Poetry Festival 2018 is backed by Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and Confetti Media Group (CMG) with support from Castle Rock Brewery.

Notts TV will produce a series of poetry specials for broadcast while Nottingham’s UNESCO City of Literature Team offer enthusiastic and invaluable support, ideas and resources that enable the festivals continued development.

Produced by Nottingham-born poet Henry Normal, Craig Chettle, chief executive of CMG, and Tommy Rosley, of Farmyard Promotions, the festival presents a diverse programme of more than 50 events over 10 days, combining some of the most renowned poets in the country and showcasing Nottingham’s lyrical literary scene.

The line-up includes national names including Roger McGough CBE, Jackie Kay MBE, Joolz Denby, Mark Grist, Holly McNish, William Sieghart, and Elvis McGonagall, together with many local poets including Nottingham’s Young Poet Laureate Georgina Wilding, the internationally renowned Jai Verma of Kava Rang, Andrew “Mulletproof” Graves, Milla Tebbs, and Stephen Thomas.

There will be a series of FREE 'Poetry Hour' events at Nottinghamshire Libraries hosted by Henry Normal and featuring many local poets. Audiences are invited to bring along a poem to read.

Mr Normal said: "I'd like to personally thank Barbara Matthews, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Culture) and all at Nottingham Trent University for their valuable support, together with Lewis Townsend and the team at Castle Rock who are helping build this festival year on year.

"I'd also like to thank all the local organisers and poets for once again getting involved and making the festival such a diverse and vibrant explosion of poetry encompassing the whole city. It's going to be something special."

Sandeep Mahal, of UNESCO, Nottingham City of Literature, added: "We are delighted to see the triumphant return of the Poetry Festival after its barnstormer last year. Poetry in Nottingham continues not just to thrive, but pack out venues, engage with communities often ignored, and lend our city a unique way to express itself. We now have a wonderful Young Poet Laureate in place for Nottingham, who is riding this wave of excellence with wit and panache. Nottingham Poetry Festival is not just a great way to show this off to ourselves, but to the world."

For more details, visit nottinghampoetryfestival.com.

Notes for editors

Press enquiries please contact Chris Birkle, Public Relations Manager, on telephone +44 (0)115 848 2310, or via email; or Dave Rogers, Public Relations Manager, on telephone +44 (0)115 848 8782, or via email.

Nottingham Trent University was named University of the Year 2017 at The Times Higher Education Awards and Modern University of the Year in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018. The award recognises NTU for its strong student satisfaction, quality of teaching, overall student experience and engagement with employers.
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has been awarded the highest, gold, rating in the Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework for its outstanding teaching and learning.
NTU is one of the largest UK universities with nearly 28,000 students and more than 3,500 staff across four campuses, contributing £496m to the UK economy every year. It is one of the most environmentally-friendly universities, containing some of the country’s most inspiring and efficient award-winning buildings.
The University is passionate about creating opportunities and its extensive outreach programme is designed to enable Nottingham Trent to be a vehicle for social mobility. NTU is the sixth biggest recruiter of students from disadvantaged backgrounds in the country and 95.6% of its graduates go on to employment or further education within six months of leaving.
NTU is home to world-class research, winning The Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2015 - the highest national honour for a UK university. It recognised the University’s pioneering projects to improve weapons and explosives detection in luggage, enable safer production of powdered infant formula and combat food fraud.
With an international student population of approximately 2,600 from around 100 countries, the University prides itself on its global outlook.