Festivals, Poetry Events & Workshops
12
nov
Go to the Poets with Harry Josephine Giles
Hosted by Kim Moore
Wordsworth Grasmere online reading series
Online
£7
Five free places available
EVENT DETAILS
Curated and hosted by poet Kim Moore, our online contemporary poetry reading series ‘Go to the poets, they will speak to thee’ continues throughout 2025. We will be listening to what poets have to say about our turbulent times, and how poetry can cross borders to challenge, delight and inspire us. Each event in the series is part reading, part open mic – and the theme of the open mic changes every month!
Open mic
Our open mic theme this month then is to bring a poem that is a portrait of someone else – whether that is a stranger you met on the bus, or your oldest, closest friend. Embrace complexity, welcome possibility and playfulness, and typographical shenanigans in homage to the work of Harry Josephine Giles are welcome.
Open mic slots are limited and must be booked in advance. Each open mic poem should be no longer than two minutes. Email Kim Moore at wordsworthreadingseries@outlook.com for a slot. Slots do book up quickly, so don’t leave it to the last minute!
How to book and attend
When attendees book a ticket they will receive a confirmation email which includes the Zoom registration link for this event: please use this link to sign up.
This event is a Zoom webinar and the audience will not appear on screen. If you have bought a ticket and signed up to the open mic your audio and video will be enabled during the open mic.
Five free places are available for those experiencing financial hardship that would otherwise not be able to attend. You can select this option during online checkout. If you have booked a free place and find that you can’t attend, please let us know so that we can make this available to someone else.
Automatic live captions will be provided.
Photo credit: Rich Dyson
17
Nov
BREAKING THE LINE - ONLINE POETRY WORKSHOP FOR THE POETRY SOCIETY
Online, 6.30pm-8.30pm
£17-27
In this workshop, we’ll explore the vital art of the line break: how it shapes rhythm, breath, emotion, meaning and echo. Together, we’ll look at diverse and multifarious approaches to line break from poets such as Denise Levertov, Kim Addonizio, Mark Waldron, Isabelle Baafi, and Edward Hirsch, from the intuitive to the deliberate, the musical to the unexpected.
Through discussions of poems and essays as well as writing time, we’ll experiment with different ways of breaking (and remaking) our lines, discovering how shifts in structure can transform tone, pace, and sense, showing the line for what it is: the heartbeat of a poem.
18
Nov
Simon Armitage: Poetry and Land in conversation with Kim Moore
Tuesday 18th November, 7pm-8.40pm
Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster
£12-£16
In partnership with Lancaster Arts, Litfest is delighted to welcome Poet Laureate Simon Armitage to Lancaster’s Nuffield Theatre for a special event on the theme of ‘Land’.
The evening of readings and conversation will focus on three of Simon’s publications over the last two years: two illustrated collections, Blossomise and Dwell, and his latest full collection, New Cemetery.
25
nov
Go to the Poets
Hosted by Kim Moore
Wordsworth Grasmere reading series
Online
£7
Five free places available
EVENT DETAILS
Curated and hosted by poet Kim Moore, our online contemporary poetry reading series ‘Go to the poets, they will speak to thee’ continues throughout 2023. We will be listening to what poets have to say about our turbulent times, and how poetry can cross borders to challenge, delight and inspire us. Each event in the series is part reading, part open mic – and the theme of the open mic changes every month!
25
Nov
Substack Writing Hour
Paid subscribers of the 'Shaw and Moore' substack can join Clare Shaw and Kim Moore for a Writing Hour online
SUBSCRIBE FOR £4 A MONTH HERE
3
DEC
Go to the Poets
Hosted by Kim Moore
Wordsworth Grasmere reading series
Online
£7
Five free places available
EVENT DETAILS
Curated and hosted by poet Kim Moore, our online contemporary poetry reading series ‘Go to the poets, they will speak to thee’ continues throughout 2023. We will be listening to what poets have to say about our turbulent times, and how poetry can cross borders to challenge, delight and inspire us. Each event in the series is part reading, part open mic – and the theme of the open mic changes every month!
1-31
jan
January Writing Hours 2026
1st -31st January
Online: £70 for the month - or £25 per week
Concessions: £0 and pay-what-you-feel
Imagine January...
It's a New Year but the mornings are dark, the evenings are cold and the best Christmas chocolate has been eaten. It's all feeling a bit grim.
January 2026 is going to be different...
because Kim Moore and Clare Shaw will be running an online Writing Hour every morning throughout January! From 10am-11am on Zoom, come prepared to read poems. Come prepared to think about poems. Come prepared to write poems.
Come in your pyjamas. Come with your breakfast. Come every day - or come when you can - and commit an hour to yourself and your writing.
We will provide the inspiration, the poetry fuel. All you need to do is turn up.
Our Writing Hours use simple prompts, readings and reflections to inspire and encourage you to write throughout January. In an interactive Zoom workshop, you'll work interactively with Kim Moore, Clare Shaw and writers from across the UK - and beyond! The emphasis is on generating new work, and writing in company: expect connection, creativity and motivation rather than detailed feedback or instruction.
Accessibility
Bursary Tickets available - a limited number of free tickets are available. You don't need to ask - just head over to the ticket page and book one if you couldn't otherwise afford to come.
Pay-as-you-feel tickets also available - if you can pay a little bit but not the full price, please book a Pay-as-you-feel ticket!
If you are feeling flush, and would like to donate a Bursary Ticket, please pay for either a week ticket or a full month, and drop us a line to let us know that you've paid for another space. We will announce extra free tickets as they are paid for on social media.
We will be using Otter to provide a transcript for all sessions and any poems used during the workshops will be screenshared.
Zoom links
*Zoom links come out direct from Eventbrite at 9.45am each morning. If you buy a ticket before 9.45am, you will receive a link for that day. If you buy after 9.45am, you will not receive a link until the following morning.
29
jun
Poetry and the Lyric 'I'
Residential Writing Course
Mon June 29th - Saturday July 4th 2026
Arvon, Totleigh Barton
Tutors: Kim Moore & Rishi Dastidar
Guest Reader: To Be Announced
Join award-winning poets Kim Moore and John McCullough for a week of playful, energetic and energising workshops exploring the boundaries of the lyric “I”. How can we use the threads of our lives to construct resonant poems? How do we know what to change, what to leave out, and what to make up? In what ways can poetic form be used to reveal emotional truths without giving away more than we feel comfortable with?
During the week you will look closely at approaches to these questions taken by a range of poets. The tutors will discuss experimenting with voice, radical editing and what we mean by confessionalism, with exercises asking you to create voices often untied to single times and places, or which inhabit perspectives beyond the human. They will encourage you to begin your own fresh and surprising poems that take risks in their mapping of encounters between selves and the world.
You will come away equipped with a toolkit of editing techniques to strengthen your work, ideas for further reading and a notebook that fizzes and crackles with drafts of moving poems that head outside the familiar.