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A New Divan: A Centenary Celebration of the Poetry of Edwin Morgan

Join us here live: 30 November. 19.30 - 20.30.

A celebration of one of the most important British poets of the last fifty years, by contemporary poets and artists.

Simon Barraclough, Dzifa Benson, Nancy Campbell, João Concha, Kirsten Irving, Ricardo Marques, Peter McCarey and Richard Price read Morgan's poems and each responds with a work of their own.

Taking its name from one of his collections, this evening is a 'divan' in the Persian sense of a gathering of people sitting on a virtual sofa sharing their poems and news, not unlike the concept of the 'ceilidh' in Scotland, where Morgan grew up and lived.

Join us on the poetry couch for an unrivalled insight into this remarkable poet and a glimpse of the wealth of contemporary poetry which has grown up in a creative landscape partly created by him.

Speakers

Richard Price

Poet, Head of Contemporary British Collections

Simon Barraclough

Poet

Dzifa Benson

Artist

Nancy Campbell

Poet

João Concha

Artist and Publisher

Kirsten Irving

Poet

Ricardo Marques

Poet and Translator

Peter McCarey

Poet and Translator

Spoken Word Showcase with Studio12 and Sunday Practise

Join us here live: 19 November, 19.00.

Hosted by the renowned literary activist, writer and playwright Khadijah Ibrahiim, this special event features poets and artists from Yorkshire. We’ll begin with a panel discussion exploring women’s voices, activism and the fight for a fairer world featuring guest poet Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan.

This is followed by the screening of new short films featuring emerging writers from Studio12 in Leeds that Khadijah recently led mentoring sessions with. The event finishes with a performance from The Sunday Practise – a leading grassroots jam session, poets, DJs, musicians and vibes night from Leeds that represents a wide cultural perspective of women poets in the UK.

This event celebrates Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights, a UK-wide exhibition by the British Library and public libraries.

Forward Prizes for Poetry 2020

Watch again now.
This event took place on: 25 October. 15.00 - 16.30.

The Forward Prizes rank among the year’s great literary celebrations: this event is unmissable for anyone interested in the best new poetry published today. Hear poems from each of the 15 shortlisted poets and find out who has won the most coveted poetry prizes in the British Isles.

Shortlist for Best Collection: £10,000
Caroline Bird, Natalie Diaz, Vicki Feaver, David Morley, Pascale Petit

Shortlist for Best First Collection: £5,000
Ella Frears, Will Harris, Rachel Long, Nina Mingya Powles, Martha Sprackland

Shortlist for Best Single Poem: £1,000
Fiona Benson, Malika Booker, Regi Claire, Valzhyna Mort, Sarah Tsiang

Poems of desire – for a voice, for breathing space, for bodies missed or missing – are a recurring theme in this year’s shortlists. They celebrate a world whose inhabitants are spurred to song by the need to assert their own existence and history. They speak of flesh, muscle and all forms of touch, from the knock-out blows of boxer Tyson Fury to lovers’ kisses.

Several poets follow threads of language to places as various as the Dale Farm traveller site, a palace-prison in 16th-century Spain, an East London housing estate and the Mojave reservation of southern California, while others make vivid the stuff of everyday life: birdsong, lawnmowers, petrol stations.

The Forward Prizes judges, Alexandra Harris, Kim Moore, Roger Robinson, David Wheatley and Leaf Arbuthnot read over 208 poetry collections, and 205 single poems entered from journals, to find the most exciting poetry published across the UK and Ireland.

The Prizes, sponsored since 1992 by Bookmark, the global content marketing and communications agency, have a reputation for heralding fresh new voices as well as honouring famous names. Shortlisted and commended poems are brought together in the annual Forward Book of Poetry anthologies.

This event is available to the audiences and users of public libraries through the Living Knowledge Network.

Thomas Keneally in Conversation

On a rare visit to Britain Thomas Keneally, author of the Booker Prize-winning Schindler’s Ark, talked to Margie Orford about his new work The Book Of Science & Antiquities, a bold, millennia-spanning novel about what it means to be human. This event was livestreamed from the British Library on 29 August 2019 to public libraries across the UK. All views expressed are the speakers' own. Please note this event contains strong language.

Writers in Conversation

Join us here live: 20 November, 19.00.
Live-captioning will be available for this event.

For this in conversation event, novelists Tracy Chevalier, Nikita Lalwani and Stephanie Scott will read extracts from their latest works, followed by a panel discussion led by journalist Yvette Huddleston.

The authors will discuss their books and their own experiences and how they chime with the historical and contemporary themes and figures featured in our current exhibition, Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights. The event finishes with a Q&A session between the panel and the online audience.

Michael Cashman in Conversation, presented by Ian McKellen

Michael Cashman has lived many lives, all of them remarkable: as an actor; as a campaigner for gay rights; as an MEP; and as a life peer. To mark the publication of his biography, One of Them, he joined Ian McKellen in conversation about his extraordinary life. Ian McKellen is an actor and activist, who says his proudest achievement is to have been, with Michael Cashman, a founding member of Stonewall.

This event took place on 28 February 2020 in partnership with Gay's the Word. The event was livestreamed from the British Library to public libraries across the UK. Due to the nature of the conversation this event is recommended for adult viewing only.

Michael Cashman

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