As Kendal Poetry Festival has moved online his year, we’ve also moved our Young Poet in Residence post online for 2021. Heather Hughes is our Young Poet in Residence for 2021, here we get to know her, and get a…
Author: Kendal Poetry Festival
Poetry as an Ever-Changing Beast
Poetry is a political statement, and also serves as historical documents. Wordsworth charted the Lakes and environmentalism, and Carol Ann Duffy maps our current century for future generations. Whether poets think about this while they’re writing is debatable, but the…
Accessibility and poetry
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a disabled poet with a life limiting illness. One of the reasons I decided to join the Kendal Poetry Festival team is that they have shown a commitment to accessibility.…
Free Zoom Workshops!
Free Zoom Workshops! The last ten months have been a crash course in online connection. Workshops, courses, church services, gigs – and now, of course, the Kendal Poetry Festival – are all conducted on Zoom. But a year ago, most…
The Original Dove Cottage Young Poets
If you’re been coming to Kendal Poetry Festival for the past three years, you may have noticed the ever changing faces of those within Dove Cottage Young Poets. So what happened to these previous members? Find out below. Chim…
COME TO MY EVENT, PLEASE
By Jonathan Davidson Sometimes you just have to say what you mean. This blogpost is designed expressly to tempt the many tens of thousands, millions really, probably billions, who have not signed up to come to my talk and discussion…
Disability, Poetry and Kendal Poetry Festival
Following my previous blog about pandemic living, I thought it may be quite apt to review a fellow disabled poet’s recent release focussing on life within a pandemic as a person with serious illness. “…i want to be/ the…
Poetry is Eternal: Pandemic Life and Poetry
I was watching an episode of Torchwood last night in which death no longer existed. On learning this Gwen Cooper said “well, we can’t have that. What’ll the poets write about?” While broody death poems are a staple I think…
HOW NOT TO GIVE A READING AT KENDAL POETRY FESTIVAL
BY ALISON BRACKENBURY How would you prepare to give a reading at one of your favourite festivals? Imagine that you have been asked to take part in the very first Kendal Poetry Festival, back in the days of freedom,…