Ian Parks and Andrew Oldham are reading at 7.30pm on Monday 6 June at  The Carriageworks, 3 Millennium Square, Leeds, in one of a series of events in the run-up to Leeds Lippfest. Entry: £4/£3. Ian Parks was one of the Poetry Society New Poets in 1996. His collections include Shell Island, Love Poems : 1970-2009, and The Landing Stage. He has taught creative writing at the universities of Sheffield, Hull, Oxford and Leeds. A new collection, The Exile's House, is due from Waterloo Press in 2011. Andrew Oldham is an award - winning writer and poet whose work has featured in the Sunday Times, Ambit, the London Magazine, Interpreter's House, North American Review and Poetry Salzburg. His poetry has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Poetry Please. Andrew lectures on creative writing for Edge Hill University and the Open University. They will be supported by Liz Venn, Tim Ellis, Becky Cherriman, and David Borrott. More details and map

Lippfest - the Leeds Independent Press Poetry Festival - kicks off on 24 September at the Carriageworks theatre, Leeds, with a programme of readings from 21 poets, six workshops, symposiums, and publishing talks. An independent presses book fair will give people the chance to browse and buy from a range of literature not stocked on the shelves of your average bookshop.