SUMMIT: A Poetry School Festival

The University of Leeds Poetry Centre is co-hosting Summit: A Poetry School Festival, a landmark ecopoetry, nature, and climate writing festival, in collaboration with Poetry School, National Landscapes, the Laurel Prize, the National Poetry Centre, and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

The inaugural edition of the event will bring together some of the UK’s most celebrated writers and ecological thinkers for two days of performances, workshops, poetry surgeries, and panel discussions. Summit takes place 19 and 20 October at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the University of Leeds Poetry Centre, respectively.

Speakers include the University of Leeds Poetry Centre’s Simon Armitage, J.R. Carpenter, and John Whale, as well as previous Douglas Caster Fellows Anthony Vahni Capildeo, Matt Howard, Zaffar Kunial, and Helen Mort. Rachael Allen, Khairani Barokka, Caroline Bird, Sean Borodale, Niall Campbell, Antony Dunn, Ella Duffy, Matthew Hollis, Caleb Parkin, Alycia Pirmohamed, Yvonne Reddick, and John Wedgwood Clarke will also be speaking at the event.

Festival entry will be sold separately for Saturday 19 October and Sunday 20 October.

Tickets for the Saturday are sold through Yorkshire Sculpture Park. A Saturday Festival Pass is £9.50 and includes access to all readings in YSP’s historic chapel, a family-friendly workshop with arts facilitator Nat Bellingham, and general entry into the park. In addition to the festival readings, we have 3 writing workshops available; get one workshop for £29.50 (includes general entry), or buy a Festival Pass for £55 which entitles you to up to all 3 workshops. Purchase your Saturday Festival Pass here and all other Saturday tickets here.

Tickets for the Sunday are sold through Poetry School. A Sunday Festival Pass is £10. Workshops are an additional £20. 1-2-1 Surgery slots are £105, and require work to be sent in advance, with 4–6 poems centred around an ecological theme.

Festival entry, on both days, includes automatic entry into readings and panel discussions. Workshops and surgeries are sold at additional cost, and should be booked in advance.

“We’re delighted to be able to collaborate on this year’s Laurel Prize. It’s a wonderful opportunity for our poets and researchers in the School of English, as well as colleagues in the Priestley Centre, to showcase their exciting work on the environmental challenges that face us all. Poetry offers us a vital means of facing these challenges with imagination.”

Professor John Whale, Director of University of Leeds Poetry Centre