Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival organised by Bath Spa University Professor Lucy English and former Mres student Danny Pandolfi takes place from March 25-April 10, and will feature a range of in-person and online events including readings, performances, workshops, panel discussions, a lecture, family activities, a walking tour, an open mic, poetry slams and a film screening.
The theme for this year’s festival is Breaking Boundaries: New Worlds, which celebrates interdisciplinary poetry across art forms and cultures, translated and multilingual poetry, and poetry as a bridge between groups and communities.
2022 also marks 100 years since the publication of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, and the festival will have both a lecture and workshop responding to the poem and exploring its relevance in the present day.
This year’s programme features the most cherished poets in the UK, including Roger McGough, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Zena Edwards, Anthony Joseph, Inua Ellams, TJ Dema, Michael Rosen, Raymond Antrobus, and the most recent T.S. Eliot Prize winner Joelle Taylor. International poets include Terrance Hayes from the US and Argentina’s Diana Bellissi.
Lyra’s 2022 Festival Poet is writer, poet, performer and historian Edson Burton. Burton will engage in community outreach work, a public performance and workshop, and other activities centred around the festival’s 2022 theme.
Lyra Festival partners include, Bristol University Poetry Institute, Bath Spa University, Apples and Snakes, Poetry By Heart, Culture Weston, Bristol Ideas, Rebecca Swift Foundation, and Destination Bristol.
