Winchester Poetry Festival 2025 - Revisiting the Classics
- Winchester Poetry Festival
- Jul 3
- 3 min read
The programme for Winchester Poetry Festival 2025 is live and tickets are on sale now.
We invite readers, writers, poetry-lovers and the poetry-curious to join us to explore fresh approaches to the canon at Winchester Poetry Festival 2025.
The dynamic programme for Winchester Poetry Festival 2025 launched on Mon 30 June to a room bursting with poets, funders and supporters at The Railway Inn, Winchester.
There are 23 events you can book onto as of now, which centre around the festival theme of ‘Revisiting the Classics’.
Poets set to appear at Winchester Poetry Festival 2025 include Pulitzer Prize-winner Diane Seuss; Forward Prize-winners Mona Arshi and Luke Kennard; triple T S Eliot Prize shortlisted poet Fiona Benson; a musical poetry performance ‘Take Flight’ from acclaimed writer and performer Roy McFarlane and world-class vocalist and composer Randolph Matthews. The most exciting contemporary poets will be in Winchester exploring poems you know, and some that will be new, through readings, workshops, drop-in sessions, lectures and playful activities.
Winchester Poetry Festival Artistic Director, Clare Pollard, says:
“I am a book worm. In other countries we are apparently known as book moths, book weevils, library mice, reading rats and ink-drinkers. To me, reading is life. Libraries and literary festivals – and library adjacent-literary-festivals like the Winchester Poetry Festival – are my idea of a great time. I am honoured to have been able to curate this year’s programme, and our theme – Revisiting The Classics – is a wonderful excuse to indulge in books about books, and poems about poems! Join us as we celebrate some of the all-time literary greats: Jane Austen, of course, on this 250th anniversary year, who is buried in Winchester Cathedral; John Keats, who was inspired to write the glorious To Autumn in the city; and also many others, including Shakespeare, Rimbaud, Marvell, the playwrights of Ancient Greece, Bing Xin 冰心 and Adrienne Rich. There will be a ‘séance’ from The Dead [Women] Poets Society; Julia Copus will help you write poems inspired by those who’ve come before; a children’s workshop will draw on medieval riddles and alliterative verse; and some contemporary poets will stand on the shoulders of giants, including Richard Scott, Mona Arshi, Luke Kennard, and Diane Seuss. Add in Roy McFarlane and Randolph Matthews blending poetry with Jazz in the acclaimed Take Flight, a showcase of the hottest debuts, some of the brightest stars from the local poetry scene, and our Winchester Poetry Prize Winners as judged by Fiona Benson, and there should be something for every ink-drinker.”
Our festival programme for 2025 brings a wealth of experienced poets to Winchester alongside the opportunity to discover major new talents. There are varied access points throughout the programme, with BSL interpreters and live streaming at key events, “relaxed performances”, online workshops and almost half of the events completely free to attend. Winchester Poetry Festival 2025 aims to be a celebration of poetry where everyone feels included and welcome.
Join us at The ARC, Winchester 10-12 October to revisit and celebrate classic poetry, and to see it anew through the eyes of this impressive literary line-up.
Winchester Poetry Festival is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England
Winchester Poetry Festival is supported by Hampshire Cultural Trust, University Of Winchester, Winchester BID and Paris Smith.
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