- Each event includes the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage. He is one of Britain’s best poets, with a superb ear for language.This is a great opportunity to hear Simon read his work from the anthology.
- Carol Ann Duffy is one of the most read, studied and loved of today’s poets. She was an inspiring and transformational Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2019. Her poems are sharp, funny and contemporary, and also full of a literary past, whether from mythology, or Shakespeare.
- John Agard gives one of the most exciting performances in contemporary poetry, not only in the way he delivers his poems, but also in how he talks about them, combining historical awareness, cultural insight and extraordinary humour.
- There will also be unmissable readings from award-winning poets Imtiaz Dharker and Daljit Nagra at every event
- Either Owen Sheers, Grace Nichols, or Maura Dooley will be there to give an absorbing reading of their work.
- Poets will respond to student questions and discuss how poems connect to and influence other poems
- In the examiner sessions our highly experienced Chief Examiners will deal with two skills vital for success in the GCSE English Literature examinations.
- The first session will look at how students might deal with unseen poems in the exam, both how to think about them and how to write for the best possible results.
- The second session will look at comparing poems, whether they are studied poems or unseen, and how to write most effectively in either situation.
- These sessions have proved invaluable to students’ thinking, whether they are in Year 10 or Year 11, and are an outstandingly successful aspect of GCSE Poetry Live!
