Embodied Word fuses poetry, movement, and self-exploration, for a transformative workshop.
Mary and Zac will guide you in reflective writing, somatic practices, and performance techniques for you to grow in confidence, self-awareness, and creative expression.
Rooted in interdisciplinary influences – including spoken word, embodiment, Tantra, and psychology – this workshop fosters authentic connection and meaningful integration.
Hear Schwa tell the story in music and words of Edna St.Vincent Millay, the Taylor Swift of 1930’s American literature and the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Love Is Not All is an original set of 13 songs setting words by the radical, bisexual poet Edna St. Vincent Millay who filled stadiums in 1930’s America before burning out and dying in her fifties. Millay’s story is one of rural poverty, city riches, art, passion and morphine told in a suite of songs reflecting the musical styles that spoke to her: American Folk, Music Hall and Jazz.
In Wild Women Writing the North, author and poet Rachel Bower is in conversation with poet, academic and folklorist Professor Emily Zobel Marshall. Rachel will talk about, and read from, her debut novel It Comes from the River (Bloomsbury) as well as her new poetry collection, Bee (Hazel Press). Emily will share her insights and also read from her first poetry collection, Bath of Herbs (Peepal Tree Press).
Join Christopher R. Moore (Leeds Poetry Festival Award 2023, Frances Browne Literary Festival Award 2024) for a short lecture on sports, A. E Housman, and the surprising importance of single-syllable words in poetry.
This will be followed by a workshop, which will explore setting, voice, and poetic structure through a series of unique and collaborative prompts.
You will also have the opportunity to perform and receive feedback on the poems created in this workshop. What Have You In Your Heart is designed to help you create cleaner, braver poetry.
Veteran Northern poet James Nash launches his fourth collection of sonnets (and more). Notes of Your Music sets out to celebrate what may be gone, or flag up what might be celebrated before it goes. James is a long-term resident of Leeds and Bridlington. His third collection of poems, Coma Songs, was published in 2003 and reprinted in 2006. Since 2012 his poetry has been published by Valley Press, beginning with a selected poems (A Bit of An Ice Breaker) and his first collection of sonnets, Some Things Matter. Cinema Stories came out in 2015.
In residence at Trinity Shopping Centre
The 'Poetry Chair' is a piece of writing you can sit in, with Rachel Flint's poem ‘Meditation’ screen printed by local artist and poet Bronagh Daly.
This tactile, interactive piece of reclaimed and re-upholstered art was created by 5 women of faith for the 'Chair of Sanctuary' project funded by Leeds Church Institute.
It has recently been in residence at the 'Writing on Air' festival at Chapel FM, renamed as the 'Recovery Chair'.
An exclusive event from Leeds Libraries and Hyde Park Book Club with two legendary grave dwellers who’ve written extensively on goth music and subculture, including Simon’s recent Curepedia and Everything, his extraordinary biography of the Manic Street Preachers; and John Robb's landmark history of goth, Art Of Darkness, published in 2023. The event will feature both writers in conversation with writer, poet and musician Stu Hennigan and there may be a chance to hear some classic goth tunes too.
Join us for an evening of pressure free creativity centered around zines. Zines are small press booklets and have been around since the 1930s as a method of people to communicate their passions, discuss their lives, and find a voice.
We’ll teach you how to make zines, and give you all the materials you need to fill them. Casual self expression in an encouraging environment.
Writers from the Leeds Arts University creative writing course will be sharing their work across poetry, prose and script. Hear from the next generation of Leeds writers. Our writers are already award-winning, have work published in literary magazines and national press, such as The Guardian. A wealth of new ideas and voices.
This performance also marks the start of Leeds Arts University's End of Year Show, which runs 16th - 21st June.
hosted by Gary Wigglesworth
It’s back for a fifth year—bigger, better, and brainier than ever! Join us for this year’s Book Quiz, hosted by the fantastic Gary Wigglesworth!
Whether you’re a book lover, a quiz fanatic, or a literary trivia master, this night is packed with wit, challenge, and nonstop fun!