An Evening with Holly Hopkins

This event was originally planned to take place on 19 October 2022 and will now take place on 25 January 2023.

Our contemporary poetry reading series ‘Go to the poets, they will speak to thee’ is running throughout 2022, curated and hosted by poet Kim Moore. We will be listening to what poets have to say about our turbulent times, and how poetry can cross borders to challenge, delight and inspire us. Each event in the series is part reading, part open mic – and the theme of the open mic changes every month! 

Perhaps more than any other poet, William Wordsworth changed our perception of the English landscape.  For Wordsworth, a cliff could rise up like a ‘living thing’, and nature had the power to heal the mind. Our guest poet this month is Holly Hopkins, whose debut collection The English Summer gives us another unique perspective on the English landscape. This is an England of churches that may ‘slip their moorings in the night’, an England of 18^th century follies and overcrowded urban bedsits, a transient England that can ‘unroll through the window of a train’ but also disappear without trace.

Our open mic theme this month then is an invitation to change our perception of landscape –  your landscape can be real or imaginary, physical or emotional, rural or urban, completely surreal or rooted in place, a landscape of the mind or a landscape of the body.  Please feel free to interpret this theme widely!

The open mic is currently full as open mic slots have carried over from the original event date. Open mic slots are limited and must be booked in advance.  Each open mic poem should be no longer than two minutes. Email Kim Moore at wordsworthreadingseries@outlook.com for a slot.  Slots do book up quickly, so don’t leave it to the last minute!

How to book and attend

Please read our guide to booking and attending online events before you purchase a ticket.

This event is a Zoom Webinar and the audience will not appear on screen. If you have bought a ticket and signed up to the open mic your audio and video will be enabled during the open mic.

Five free tickets are available for each session for those experiencing financial hardship that would otherwise not be able to attend. This is on a first come first served basis with no questions asked about your situation. Please email Hannah at h.catterall@wordsworth.org.uk.

Live captions will be provided by Otter.ai.