An Evening with Carol Ann Duffy and Friends

Birmingham Literature Festival

An Evening with Carol Ann Duffy and Friends

Our outgoing Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, presents an evening of performance and poetry, with readings of old and new work from herself and selected poets. Joining Carol Ann will be Keith Hutson, Mark Pajak and Carol Ann’s daughter, Ella Duffy.

One of the UK’s best-loved writers, Carol Ann Duffy used her time as Poet Laureate to encourage and support other poets more than any of her predecessors. Increasingly, Carol Ann has chosen to showcase other poets alongside her at events in recent years. After 10 years in the role, she handed it over to Simon Armitage earlier in 2019, and we are delighted she is joining us this year for our National Poetry Day celebration.

Sponsored by Birmingham City University.

About the speakers:

Carol Ann Duffy is professor and creative director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has written for both children and adults, and her poetry has received many awards, including the Signal Prize for Children’s Verse, the Whitbread, Forward and TS Eliot Prizes, and the Lannan and EM Forster Prize in America. She was appointed Poet Laureate in 2009.

Ella Duffy is a London-based poet. Her work has appeared in The Rialto, The Guardian Review, The Poetry Salzburg Review and The Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual. She has poems in Off the Shelf: A Celebration of Bookshops in Verse (Pan MacMillan) and Pale Fire: New Writing on the Moon (The Frogmore Press). Ella was a runner-up in The Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry (2018) and has been shortlisted for The Bridport Prize (2018) and The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award (2018).

Keith Hutson has written for Coronation Street and for many well-known comedians. His award-winning poetry has been widely-published both in the UK and internationally. His two pamphlets, Routines (Poetry Salzburg, 2016) and Troupers (Smith Doorstop, 2018) were followed by his first book-length collection, Baldwin’s Catholic Geese, published by Bloodaxe in February 2019.

Mark Pajak’s work has appeared in The London Review of Books, Poetry London, The North, The Rialto and Magma. He has been commended in the National Poetry Competition, awarded first place in The Bridport Prize and has also received a Northern Writers’ Award, an Eric Gregory Award and an UNESCO international writing residency.