31 March 2011

Simon Armitage to launch city’s first poetry festival

Simon Armitage, the University’s Professor of Poetry will open the first Sheffield Poetry Festival on Friday 1 April. His readings from Selected Poems and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight will be the first of the official launch night of the festival which runs until Sunday 3 April.

One of the most popular and prominent poets of our generation, Simon is playing a key role at the University, in both a one-year HEIF 4 funded project entitled Creative Writing in the Community and the Creative Writing MA pathway run by the School of English.

Sheffield-based award winning poet Rob Hindle, Chair of Sheffield Poetry Festival, commented: "We are delighted that Simon Armitage, one of our Patrons, is leading the opening reading of Sheffield's first dedicated poetry festival. As one of the most important poets in the UK, and with his recent appointment as Professor of Poetry at the University of Sheffield, it is great that he is playing so prominent a role in the Festival."

Sheffield Poetry Festival is the first festival of its kind in the city. The event will see the different poetry communities of Sheffield coming together in a series of workshops, readings and performance events, some of which are free to the public. From small writers’ groups to national voices, mainstream readings to poetry slams, the festival aims to showcase the breadth of Sheffield’s thriving poetry scene.

Professor Adam Piette from the University’s School of English commented: "As Professor of Modern Literature at the University, I'm really pleased to be part of this great cultural event. The University is one of the major stakeholders in the new Sheffield Poetry Festival and we have worked hard to provide a good show, with readings by the new Professor of Poetry, Simon Armitage, by Creative Writing Tutor, Agi Lehoczky, plus writers from our MA pathway in Creative Writing.

"We are also very happy to have organised a reading with Sheffield poets Geraldine Monk, Ben Wilkinson and Helen Mort along with Peter Robinson, plus a conversation between George Szirtes and Simon Armitage on poetry and translation."

For more information on Sheffield Poetry Festival please see their website:

http://www.sheffieldpoetryfestival.org.uk/