Wells Poetry Festival - Poetry-next-the-sea May 8 to 10

Poetry-next-the-Sea is running a packed programme of poetry performances and workshops and art exhibitions for its annual festival in Wells-next-the-Sea, North Norfolk, Friday, May 8 to Sunday, May 10, www.poetry-next-the-sea.com.

Celebrated author, Louis de Bernières, will be introducing and reading some of his favourite poems and Dame Gillian Beer will explain why we cannot do without rhyme.
There will be sessions with East Anglian poets Dean Parkin and Andrea Porter and young Cambridge poets, Ian Cartland, Benjamin Morris and Helen Mort.

Fleur Adcock and Hugo Williams, both winners of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, will be in town, as will Michael Symmons Roberts, poet, dramatist and novelist, and Annie Freud, daughter of Lucian Freud, and a popular live poetry performer. On Sunday morning Meirion Jordan, Kelly Kanayama and Ben Parker, winners of the Norwich Café Writers commission, will read their winning poems.

In a change to the programme, composer Anthony Powers and local writer and poet Irene Noel-Baker will combine with Michael Chance (alto) and James Boyd (guitar) in Lyric Poetry: Where Words and Music Meet at The Maltings, 7pm on Sunday, May 10.

Anthony Powers and Irene Noel-Baker will discuss Mr Powers’ settings of poetry by Philip Larkin, Seamus Heaney and Lawrence Durrell, as well as their own collaboration, the song cycle Changing the Story. They will talk about the link between poetry and song – rhyme, rhythm, imagery and phrasing. The evening will feature both words and music to illustrate the discussion.

The festival also includes a series of voice, poetry and art workshops, plus
one-to-one sessions with poet Andrea Porter, and an exhibition of work by festival artist, Gillian Crossley-Holland and sculptor, Graham High.

The winners of Poetry-next-the-Sea’s second open competition will be announced at an Open Floor event at 1 pm on Sunday, May 10, a session at which all local poets are invited to read their work.

Full details of all events and activities are at www.poetry-next-the-sea.com. Brochures can be picked up in local libraries. For further information and ticket bookings contact Susan Marshall tel. 01328 711813, suzy948@btinternet.com. Festival season tickets, for all events except workshops are £36.