A glorious weekend of poetry for readers and writers of all ages in beautiful surroundings, with dramatic sea views – that’s the promise from Bridlington poetry festival, being staged at Sewerby Hall this weekend. Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy headlines, performing her long children’s poem, The Princess’ Blanket, on Saturday lunchtime, and will be reading from some of her latest work and from many of her best-selling collections, including Rapture and The World’s Wife on Saturday evening.

Other big names appearing include Christopher Reid, Sean O’Brien, Penelope Shuttle, Carol Rumens, and Douglas Dunn, pictured, who will also be announcing the results of the East Rding Open Poetry Competion, whose hundreds of entries he has judged. Other highlights include a reading by Yorkshire poet  Ian McMillan and his son, Andrew McMillan, a rising star of the poetry scene. 

There will be poetry workshops throughout the weekend, and special poetry and visual art workshops for children on all three days. And there’s an opportunity for anyone to get up and perform their poetry at Saturday night’s open mic session. You never know who might be in the audience.

More details and Map