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Works by established poets Andrew Motion, Carol Ann Duffy and Lemn Sissay (pictured) will be recommended for this year’s National Poetry Day alongside insta-poet Charly Cox and children’s poets Rachel Rooney and Joseph Coelho.
This year’s National Poetry Day will take place on 4th October and 36 poetry books will be promoted in book groups, libraries, museums and railway stations. Motion’s Essex Clay (Faber) is on this list alongside Lemn Sissay’s Gold from the Stone (Canongate), Imtiaz Dharker’s collection Luck is the Hook (Bloodaxe Books), and new works by Duffy and Cox.
The children’s collection features Rooney’s upcoming A Kid in My Class (Otter-Barry Books) illustrated by Chris Riddell, and a new anthology for National Poetry Day, Poetry for a Change (also published by Otter-Barry Books) featuring contributions by National Poetry Day Ambassadors Joseph Coelho, Brian Moses and Michaela Morgan, who have chosen and written poems for young audiences, around the theme of ‘change’.
Andrea Reece, National Poetry Day manager, said: “Everything we see and everything we hear from our partners demonstrates an ever-growing appetite for poetry, and no wonder. Our recommendations highlight the incredible range of poetry available, and whatever your tastes, there will be a book in this selection to inspire, surprise or move you. We hope that these lists will tempt even those who think they don’t like poetry into their bookshop or library to try poetry for a change.”
Artist Chie Hosaka has created display packs that are available to libraries and bookshops via Gardners and Bertrams, and Browns Books for Students is distributing promotional packs to schools. Libraries will promote National Poetry Day in September and October and The Reading Agency will work with 3,000 reading groups via its ‘Reading Groups for Everyone’ network.
Reece is also working with BBC Local Radio and stations will ask listeners for their stories of changes that mean something to them. Young poets, including Kate Fox and Montaza Mehri, will then use the most inspiring stories to create new poems. And live poetry events will take place Wales, London and Cornwall.
National Poetry Day is sponsored by 36 publishers, including Penguin Random House, Bloomsbury, Macmillan, Carcanet and Bloodaxe Books.