Sheaf Poetry Festival has been a part of Sheffield’s artistic and cultural
landscape for almost a decade. Formerly known as Sheffield Poetry Festival and South Yorkshire Poetry Festival, Sheaf returns this year from 15th–24th May, once again boasting a vibrant
programme of world-class poetry, alongside Sheffield’s own inspiring and exciting local voices.
We’re over the moon to have secured Arts Council funding for the 2020 festival, with some extra help from Sheffield Town Trust, and we hope you’re looking forward to the programme as much as we are. We’ve partnered with a host of organisations, including brilliant independent publishers The Poetry Business, Longbarrow Press, Nine Arches Press, Carcanet Press, Bloodaxe Books and Penned in the Margins. We’ll also be co-running events with Hive South Yorkshire and the Festival of Debate again, and will be working with new partner Sheffield Libraries with some events to celebrate their Year of Reading 2020!
As ever, we’d like to offer a huge thank you to Sheffield Hallam University whose Performance Lab on Arundel Gate will be our main base for the festival weekend – just a few minutes’ walk from Sheffield train station. We’ll be presenting student events with both Sheffield Hallam and the University of Sheffield as part of our programme.
Poets already confirmed include Kei Miller, Carolyn Forche, Mona Arshi, Niall Campbell, Isabel Galleymore, Will Harris, Phoebe Stuckes, Abi Palmer, Tom Sastry, Mina Gorji, J. R. Carpenter and Jonathan Davidson. There are many more to be
announced, so watch this space! In the meantime, you can read and download our press release here, and sign up to the Sheaf Poetry Festival mailing list here.
The Festival Team
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