Forty-one UK-based poets and photographers have united to create a unique charity calendar to raise money for diabetes research. The calendar, which is being unveiled on Saturday in Manchester, was dreamt up by Cumbrian Wild Women Press co-founder and poet, Victoria Bennett, after her son was diagnosed with type one diabetes. It features 14 UK nude male poets posing for each month of the year (with an extra month thrown in for all the things one never has time to do). Each image has been shot by a different female UK photographer. As inspiration for the shoot, the poet and photographer duo were given an individual poem on the theme of “the male muse” which has been donated by a collection of top UK- based female poets. The poems will feature alongside each of the images in the final calendar. 

The male poets posing for the calendar include Antony Dunn, Andrew McMillan, Alan Buckley, Inua Ellams, Segun Lee-French, Tony Walsh, Alexander Hutchison, John Siddique, and Max Wallis, while the female photographers include Annabel Williams, Izzi Ramsay, Charlotte Medlicott, Julie Cook, Lydia Goldblatt, Claire McNamee and Tamara Peel. Those who donated poems include Wendy Cope OBE, Penelope Shuttle, Moniza Alvi, Linda France, Eva Salzman, Pascale Petit and Gill Hands.

The photography was shot in places of literary inspiration across Cumbria,  as well as other locations across the UK. Greta Hall, the former home to Southey and Coleridge, in the heart of the Lake District, was one of the main locations. 

Victoria Bennett said: “After my two-year-old son was diagnosed with type one diabetes I was looking for a way that I could help raise money for much needed research into the disease. Those who are good at climbing scale mountains, those good at running enter a marathon. So this was about using my skills and contacts in the arts world to raise money and awareness. It also gave me the chance to explore a theme which interests me, that of the focus on the male muse, as opposed to the female muse.  The calendar is a beautiful work of art, and a celebration of the vibrant creative community here in the UK.  I hope the project will attract the attention of anybody interested in photography and poetry, as well as people who simply want to support the cause."

Max Wallis, who is pictured on Opium Bed in Coleridge's Study at Greta Hall, photographed by Annabel Williams, said: “I agreed to take part in the project because it was a really interesting idea -  to invert the typical woman muse and turn that around onto men and also to explore collaboratively the synergy between poetry and image. I could see a link between poetry - metaphor and imagery - and how that could translate into the photos, and that appealed to me. So, it combined something creatively interesting, with something that was going to help a good cause. The shoot was really brilliant. Everyone was lovely and even though the poets and the photographers were nervous to begin with, Victoria and Adam made everyone feel really at ease. It was a very boundary-breaking experience, really.”

Andrew McMillan, who also posed nude for the shoot, said: “When I was first asked to take part in this project I had strong reservations; for one, I’m no Brad Pitt or Owen Sheers! However shooting the calendar turned out to be truly liberating. Poetry perhaps is the most exposed you can get, but second to that has to be standing completely naked in a river with only a rope swing hiding your couplets whilst walking parties trek across the banks behind you!  Poetry has always taught us that anything can be beautiful, the most ordinary thing is worthy of celebration. The same is true of flesh, of bodies; the same is true of us.”

Gill Hands, who is also from Cumbria, contributed one of the poems. She said: “This was a unique project to get involved in as it combined a charity cause which I believed in with a creative one. Rarely do those two things come together. I am passionate about what we are creating because it is both intimate and beautiful and will also help those whose lives are affected by diabetes.” 

Everyone involved is contributing for free.  The Naked Muse 2012 Calendar is created and published by Wild Women Press to raise funds for the work of JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The calendar will be offically launched on World Diabetes Day, 14 November, and is available for pre-order at the Wild Women Press site. Further images of the male poets, taken by the photographers, will be shown and auctioned at a private, one-night only exhibition on Saturday 12 November to raise further funds for the JDRF. 

Visit www.wildwomenpress.com for more information and to pre-order a calendar.