Reading & Libraries
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Festival Fifteen
Introducing the Festival Fifteen – our carefully curated list of titles published that are available for you to borrow from Inspire Libraries. You’re sure to find something to whet your appetite in our collection of new, contemporary and prize-winning poets, alongside some old favourites.
Inspire Poetry Festival 2024 headliner
Daljit Nagra's mock epic scrutinises the legacies of Empire and issues such as power and status, casteism and colourism, mimicry and mockery. What is Britishness now? How can humour help us survive hardship? The result is a capacious 'talkie'/poem/play of resistance and redress whose ludic structures defy boundaries: a story of intertextual and misplaced identities, gods and miracles, celluloid tragedy and blushing romantic desire amid an awkwardly rolling cricket ball and rioting poodles.
Let the light pour in by Lemn Sissay
For the past decade, Lemn Sissay has composed a short poem as dawn breaks each morning. Life-affirming, witty and full of wonder, these poems chronicle his own battle with the darkness and are fuelled with resilience and defiant joy. Let the Light Pour In is a collection of the best of these poems, and a book celebrating his morning practice.
'How do you do it?' said night
'How do you wake up and shine?'
'I keep it simple,' said light
'One day at a time.'
More fiya:a new collection of black British poetry by Kayo Chingonyi (Editor)
A Sunday Times Best Poetry Book of the Year
Following
in the tread of Lemn Sissay's The Fire People, More Fiya aims to lodge in the
mind of its readers for a lifetime, radiating to touch the lives of many.
Local interest
It's March 1984 and the miners' strike has just started. By exploring both famous and previously unseen photographs through the lens of poetry, Strike captures the turbulence of one of the longest industrial disputes in British history, and the spirit of a marginalised community on the verge of profound change.
'I became fatherless at 26 and a father
at 35 and whenever I look out
the living room window I feel myself
become the child left alone in the house'
- Raymond Antrobus
Signs, music by Raymond Antrobus
The speaker, looking backwards to his late father and forwards to his new son, prepares to become a parent for the first time. Meditating on the cognitive and emotional dissonances between the 'hypothetical' and the 'real' of becoming a father, this irreversible transition causes the poet's 'lines [to] lead towards my father (again!)'.
Laurie Lee is beloved for his writing on a lost rural world. Written during the course of his lifetime, the verses brought together in Collected Poems range over Lee playing his fiddle in a Spanish town; ecstatic in springtime of his beloved Slad valley; or digging for faith in the depths of winter.
Gathered in one volume for the first time, and including a generous selection of previously unseen verses from Lee's archives, these timeless, poignant poems show him expressing the essence of life, love and loss.
100 queer poems by Ocean Vuong, Carol Ann Duffy and Kae Tempest
Curated by two widely acclaimed poets, Mary Jean Chan and Andrew McMillan, 100 Queer Poems moves from childhood and adolescence to forging new homes and relationships with our chosen families, from urban life to the natural world, from explorations of the past to how we find and create our future selves. It deserves a place on the shelf of every reader keen to discover and rediscover how queer poets speak to one another across the generations.
Beautiful chaos: on motherhood, finding yourself and overwhelming love by Jessica Urlichs
Upon becoming a mother, Jessica Urlichs was reminded that the everyday ordinary is extraordinary. As sacred and tender as early motherhood is, it also comes with its struggles. Beautiful Chaos is a collection that chronicles it all - the highs, the lows, the confusion, the loss of identity, the becoming, and the brutal but beautiful ways our children hold mirrors up to us. This collection inspires vulnerability and will be a cathartic, healing read for anyone who needs it.
The catprince & other poems by Michael Pedersen
Winner - Books Are My Bag Reader Awards (Poetry) 2023
From the
brutalising death of a cherished friend comes a gut-wrenching grief. And so
begins a tenacious quest for light, lustre and survival as Pedersen pays tender
tribute to a gorgeous, life-altering friendship. In doing so, he harks back to
the hilarity of being young, reckless and petrified: memories of boys
showboating in a fishing tackle shop, games of feline metamorphosis, laments
for demolished buildings and a case of constipation of the most pernicious
stock.
Fast Music refers as much to the fast dance music that caused Williams to run round the room on the furniture aged three as to the speed of life, thought and to poetry itself, which works harder and faster than ordinary speech. In a poem about his typewriter, the 'undiscovered islands' are the many and various extraordinary subjects which rise out of the sea of his daily life, to be caught between the rollers of his beloved Adler Gabriele.
'Words returning with a bang and a bell
to the left-hand margin,
pausing for a moment to reflect on the scene.'
- Hugo Williams
The orange and other poems by Wendy Cope
In poems that can turn from laugh-out-loud funny to deeply moving, Wendy Cope offers reflections on love and life. From the joy of falling - and being - in love to ways to help you deal with a painful break-up or the memories of people loved and lost, this is a book you will want to savour and share with all your friends.
I wanted to quit too: stories for the heart and soul by Hussain Manawer
I Wanted to Quit was created as medicine for those who feel misunderstood and discouraged, for everyone who faces heartbreak and grief, for anyone who are tired of pursuing those dreams, for those who are lonely or homesick and craving some love, affection, touch and care, for those just trying to face another day. This is for you.
Harmony: poems to find peace by Whitney Hanson
Trending on TikTok
In this
collection of all new poems, Whitney Hanson explores the progression of a life
through the lens of music. We each begin with a simple note, but as life
progresses, we're led to the next note, and the next - all of which combine to
form the melody of a song and the cadence of a life. As life becomes more
complicated and complex, we find that loss, grief, and heartache can muffle our
music, making the world go silent. But as Whitney's poems show, all of these
rests and pauses in the music are part of the magnificent composition of life.
The poetry pharmacy forever: new prescriptions to soothe, revive and inspire by William Sieghart
From weathering sorrow and sudden loss, to dealing with environmental despair and burnout, this new selection speaks directly to a society in urgent need of comfort and compassion. Whether you're searching for guidance, hope, or simply a moment of beauty, The Poetry Pharmacy Forever is here to provide solace, joy and inspiration, one verse at a time.
365 poems for life: an uplifting collection for every day of the year by Allie Esiri
This nourishing poem-a-day collection offers readers a brief moment of escape from daily life through some of the warmest words in the English language. Whether you're searching for wisdom or looking to boost your wellbeing, dip into this anthology to share with others or enjoy a quiet moment of calm every day of the year.
Return to the Inspire Poetry Festival home page to browse the full programme including:
- performances
- workshops
- film
- exhibition
It’s set to be a week of wonderful words!
