Nottingham Poetry Festival announces next festival dates and new Creative Director

The Nottingham Poetry Festival will return for its sixth outing in 2021, under the direction of newly appointed Creative Director Anne Holloway (pictured).

Running from 12-21 November 2021, the festival will offer a blend of online and live events and will continue to celebrate and champion Nottingham’s thriving creative and literary scene.

Creative Director Anne Holloway is a Nottingham-based poet and performer and founding editor at Big White Shed publishing. An experienced performer and practitioner, her first poetry collection, There Are No Photographs, was published in 2018.

Anne picks up the festival baton from outgoing Director Georgina Wilding who, as a professional poet, is leaving to take up a new endeavour.

Festival founders Henry Normal and Craig Chettle MBE comment:

“We are delighted to have Anne as Creative Director of our great team and we look forward to seeing how the festival evolves under her guidance. She'll join Bridie Squires, Manjit Sahota, Tommy Rosley and all those unsung heroes who get involved in helping to bring the Nottingham Poetry Festival together. Anne's extensive insight into the local poetry scene, her drive, energy and commitment should be key to the success of the 6th NPF in November”.

“Our special thanks go to Georgina, who has helped deliver two successful iterations of the festival, most recently in 2020 in the most challenging of circumstances. Despite the pandemic, audiences were treated to live streams and online performances from Lemn Sissay, Vanessa Kisuule, Anthony Anaxagorou and Panya Banjoko, and workshops with Sean Hewitt, Ruth Padel and Dr Jack McGowan, amongst others. We know Georgina is especially proud of the education work developed under her leadership”.

Anne Holloway comments:

“I am thrilled to be taking up this opportunity. I can’t wait to get involved with planning for the next festival and share my passion for the power of poetry with as many people as possible. I found ‘my tribe’ in the creative community here, and the Nottingham Poetry Festival is part of that support network, as a space where new and emerging poets can share the stage with more established artists and develop their careers in whatever direction they choose. But without our readers and our audiences, we poets would be pretty lonely, so as well as working hard to support everyone within the poetry community to get involved, I’ll be working equally hard to reach new audiences. I believe we are all poets, at heart”.

Georgina Wilding comments:

“Poetic education is something I’m incredibly passionate about, I’ve seen first-hand the benefits not only to people’s work, but to their self-esteem and even careers after having attended workshops, talks and the like. Nottingham is most definitely thirsty for it too, thank you so much to all of you who took the time to write in and tell us how much you enjoyed it. It has been an absolute joy to add my building block to the force that is Nottingham Poetry Festival, and I very much look forward to seeing what the new director will add in to the mix for their term”.

The festival will once again be supported by Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature. Director Sandeep Mahal comments:

“I am absolutely delighted that Anne will spearhead Nottingham Poetry Festival. Anne’s vision, talent and energy will be a huge asset for the festival. At Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, we're thrilled to work with partners like the poetry festival, who share our mission of building a better world with words. I am sure that Anne will build on the impressive work that Georgina Wilding and her team have done over the past two years”.

The Nottingham Poetry Festival is a popular event in Nottingham’s cultural calendar. In 2020, the festival adapted its plans in line with coronavirus restrictions and moved online, making every event free to watch. Audiences were able to see renowned acts direct from their living rooms, creating a sense of intimacy and opening the festival up to new audiences. Capitalising on that success and to keep the momentum going until November, the festival has recently launched a new partnership with Nottingham venue Metronome and the New Poetry Society, broadcasting a series of free online poetry events, fronted by Henry Normal.