Details

The start of a 10-year adventure.

This is an online event hosted on the British Library platform. Bookers will be sent a link in advance giving access*.

“I want to celebrate the physical space of libraries and take my work back into places that have given me so much.”

Each spring for the next decade, Simon Armitage will give readings across the UK, from the flagship libraries of the big cities to smaller libraries serving rural and remote communities. Using the alphabet as a compass, his journey will celebrate the library as one of the great and necessary institutions. Join us online in the first week of his 10-year adventure for this headline event live-streamed from the grand British Library Entrance Hall.

Simon Armitage will read with award-winning guest poets Joelle Taylor, founder of the national youth slam championships SLAMbassadors, and Theresa Lola, Young People’s Laureate for London 2019-2020.

Tickets for those aged under 26 are free. Otherwise £5. Alternatively, purchase a copy of either Magnetic Field: The Marsden Poems or A Vertical Art: Oxford Lectures by Simon Armitage at checkout and watch the event at no extra cost. A Vertical Art gathers the expansive and spirited public lectures delivered during his acclaimed four-year tenure as Oxford University Professor of Poetry.

The A-B Laureate’s Library Tour is supported by the T. S. Eliot Foundation and using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Simon Armitage is the UK Poet Laureate and was Oxford Professor of Poetry (2015-2019). His numerous accolades include an Ivor Novello Award for songwriting in the BAFTA-winning filmFeltham Sings and the 2018 Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. Armitage has published over a dozen collections of poetry, including Magnetic Field: The Marsden Poems and his acclaimed translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. His forthcoming book is A Vertical Art (Faber). He also writes extensively for theatre, television and radio, and is the author of two novels and the non-fiction bestsellers All Points North, Walking Home and Walking Away. He was appointed Professor of Poetry at Leeds University in 2017. simonarmitage.com

Joelle Taylor is an award-winning poet, playwright, author and editor. A former UK slam champion, she founded SLAMbassadors and was its Artistic Director until 2018. She has performed across the UK and internationally, taking in the 100 Club, O2 Arena, Royal Festival Hall, Ronnie Scott’s, The Globe, Buckingham Palace and various prisons including Pentonville and Holloway. Her latest collection of poetry, Songs My Enemy Taught Me (Out-Spoken Press), powerfully evokes the struggles women still face globally. Her work has been anthologised widely and forms part of OCR’s GCSE English syllabus. Joelle has also written several plays and is currently completing her debut book of short stories, The Night Alphabet. She was awarded a Change Maker prize, in recognition of her life-changing work on the national youth slams, and has a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts. joelletaylor.co.uk

Theresa Lola is a British Nigerian poet. She was appointed Young People’s Laureate for London 2019-2020. She was the joint winner of the 2018 Brunel International African Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the 2017 Bridport Poetry Prize. In April 2018 she was invited by the Mayor of London’s Office to read a commissioned poem at the unveiling of Millicent Fawcett’s statue. She has also been commissioned by the National Gallery and Tate. Theresa was featured in the September 2019 issue of British Vogue, which celebrated people who are forces for change. Her debut poetry collection is In Search of Equilibrium (Nine Arches Press, 2019). theresalola.com

* Please note that unlike most British Library online events, this live stream will only be available to watch live from 19.30.