Everything you need to know about Derby Poetry Festival featuring Terrance Hayes and Rachel Long

Derby Poetry Festival is back for its fifth year and will feature some of the biggest names in poetry between October 2 - 8 at various venues in the city.

The headline event includes award-winning poets Terrance Hayes, Rachel Long and Raymond Antrobus.

Via their website, the festival said: “Derby Poetry Festival has just entered its fifth year and 2023 is set to be bigger and better than ever.

“We are dedicated to developing new writing talent in Derby and bringing excellent work to the city.

“We work with local, national and international talent to build a community of like-minded individuals to create a wonderful literary festival.”

The first ever youth poetry slam will be taking place this year where participants aged 12-17 will perform their original piece of writing.

On the Friday, the adult poetry slam will be returning with local poets getting involved in the competition.

The QUAD will be hosting several writing workshops throughout the week with industry experts leading the events.

A live performance of spoken word and soundscape brings a more local angle to the festival with poet Mark Gwynne Jones and his popular series, Voices From The Peak.

If you don’t have time to attend one of the in-person events, there will be an online poetry evening by Riot Poetry to join.

Tiered ticketing has been implemented to make for this year’s festival as accessible as possible.