Ilkley’s Poetic Past Celebrated In Festival’s 50th Year

Opened in 1973 by the poet W.H. Auden, the Ilkley Literature Festival has been a dedicated champion of poetry ever since, with appearances from luminaries including Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, and Carol Ann Duffy.

This year it continues its legacy as a platform for new and emerging poets. On Saturday 14 October, it hosts a full Poetry Day at the Armitage Building at Ilkley Grammar School.

Other highlights include an evening with the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, poetry workshops with John Whale, a University of Leeds Poetry Showcase, poetry networking events, and events with Ilkley Literature Festival’s current Poets in Residence, Chris Singleton and Freya Bantiff.

Four of its past Poets in Residence will also return this October to read from their latest collections: Antony Dunn, Seni Seneviratne, Kim Moore and Daljit Nagra. What’s more, the festival has granted special access to four new Northern poets to attend the festival to help develop their work: Emma Conally-Barklem, Charlotte Oliver, Kristina Diprose and Daniel Hinds.

Ilkley Literature Festival has been commissioning new poetry since its earliest days. In 1975, it commissioned Ted Hughes to produce and perform a poem sequence inspired by the drawings of Leonard Baskin, Cave Birds.

As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, Emma Conally-Barklem has been commissioned to explore the echoes of the festival’s rich literary past. The result is a brand-new poetry commission, inspired by lines from Ted Hughes’ Cave Birds, Bitter Linnet.

The poem traces threads of influence found in Hughes’ work circling round Plath and stretching back to Blake and Brontë. You can watch Conally-Barklem perform her commission on the festival’s YouTube channel as part of National Poetry Day on Thursday 5 October.

For those seeking poetic inspiration from Yorkshire's countryside, there's always the chance to check out the permanent Poetry Trail - the Stanza Stones - the result of a past collaboration with Simon Armitage and Ilkley Literature Festival, which consists of Armitage's poems carved into stones, stretching from his home town of Marsden to the Festival's base in Ilkley.