What a wonderful poetry family Aldeburgh has built. Shine on! wrote Sharon Olds in 1996. A decade later and her second visit to the Festival, she’ll notice how much it’s grown.
This year’s programme offers a record forty-four events (eleven entirely free) spread across four venues in Suffolk’s most appealing seaside town. Thirty vital poets – from Britain, Germany, Ireland, Kurdistan, South Africa, Spain and the USA – coming together to share their versions and visions of today’s world.
Quite simply, live poetry has to be the purest and most economical of the performing arts. No props. No special effects. Just the unique connection language offers between the poet’s voice and everyone listening.
And here’s your chance to get behind their best words – in discussions, conversations, craft talks and close readings. If Walt Whitman was right about great poetry needing great audiences, then he’d surely have loved the first weekend each November in Aldeburgh.
Naomi Jaffa - Festival Director
