Lit Preview: National Poetry Day Events

Rachel Holdsworth
By Rachel Holdsworth Last edited 149 months ago
Lit Preview: National Poetry Day Events

National Poetry Day is this Thursday, the theme is 'Games', so get your meter on and prepare to rhyme at some of these events:

Southbank Centre's resident poet Simon Armitage spends the afternoon in the company of Jackie Kay, Michael Rosen, Imtiaz Dharker, Glyn Maxwell, Joelle Taylor, Lemn Sissay and more, roaming the complex performing pop-up poetry, bingo and lots of other jollity. The Poetry Takeaway crew will also be on hand to create you a personalised poem (1-6pm, free).

Poet in the City sets up at Waterstone's Piccadilly to let you have breakfast with Patience Agbabi (8am, free), hear readings from Wendy Cope (6.30pm, £9.50) and - a bit early, but it's not cheating - drop-in to explore the theme of 'London' tonight from 6.30pm.

From 9am on Thursday you can get a free digital download of Ross Sutherland's recasting of the characters from Street Fighter 2 as heroes for our time, in a new sonnet sequence 'Hyakuretsu Kyaku'. Get it from Penned in the Margins.

Carol Ann Duffy reads her work from the big tent on Wimbledon Common, part of Wimbledon Book Fest (7.30pm, £10).

It's not a cliché because it's true: John Hegley is suitable for ages 7 to 70. Catch him at the Bloomsbury Theatre (7pm, £14 / £12 / £9).

Inua Ellams and Nick Makoha host flipped eye publishing's night of poets at the Ritzy in Brixton: Roger Robinson, Janett Plummer, Niall O'Sullivan and Malika Brooker are on the bill (7.30pm, £5).

Donal Cox hosts Irish poets at the Rose and Crown in Ealing (6.30pm, £10).

Farrago's regular SLAM! features Rachel Pantechnicon, Amy McAllister, Jade Anouka, Abraham Gibson, Niall Spooner-Harvey, Ollie Brown and Siam Hurlock (7.30pm, £6 / £5, at the RADA Foyer Bar).

Another regular night happening to fall on Thursday, but excellent enough to warrant a mention, is Bang Said the Gun: Tshaka Campbell is the guest poet alongside the usual team of Dan Cockrill, Martin Galton and Rob Auton (8pm, £5, The Roebuck SE1).

Cinnamon Press launches Sue Rose's new collection, From the Dark Room, at Woolfson & Tay in Bermondsey Square (7pm).

Edit: And Luke Wright at Amnesty International (6.30pm).

Richard Vick, Francesca Beard, Merrin Lazyan, Peter Lemer, Michael Horovitz and Adam Horovitz take part in the Poetry Olympics Superjam in Notting Hill (7pm, free).

Feel free to leave any others in the comments...

Find out more about National Poetry Day events before and after Thursday on their website.

Last Updated 04 October 2011