Bloodaxe poets at Ledbury Poetry Festival 2025
This year's Ledbury Poetry Festival runs from 27th June to 6th July and features a huge range of events and workshops, both in person and online. Weekend passes, digital passes and concession tickets are available. Book tickets online here from Friday 25 April (early booking for Friends of Ledbury open from 18 April).
On Friday 27 June, Pascale Petit will be giving a solo reading from her ninth collection Beast, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, which was published in April 2025. This reading takes place at the Community Hall at 8pm.
On Saturday 28 June, Ledbury Poetry Critics co-founder Vidyan Ravinthiran will be giving the University of Liverpool Kenneth Allott / Poetry Society Summer Lecture on the topic of 'Pleasure'. This takes place at Burgage Hall at 4pm. Vidyan's third poetry collection Avidya was also published by Bloodaxe in April.
On Sunday 29 June, Shash Trevett, who co-edited the Bloodaxe anthology Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala and English poetry from Sri Lanka and its diasporas with Vidyan Ravinthiran and Seni Seneviratne, will be reading alongside Palestinian poet Yousif M.
Qasmiyeh at a joint event titled 'Archiving The Body'. This reading is at Burgage Hall at 12pm. Shash will also be taking part in a free '20 Minutes with...' event at St Michael & All Angels Church later that day, at 5.20pm. Shash Trevett's first full collection The Naming of Names was published by Smith|Doorstop in 2024.
Also on Sunday 29 June, Wales’s first National Poet, Gwyneth Lewis MBE, will be giving a solo event, with readings from both her memoir Nightshade Mother (Calon, 2024) and her new collection First Rain in Paradise, which was published by Bloodaxe in March. This event is at Burgage Hall at 8pm. The next day, on Monday 30 June, Gwyneth will be leading a workshop on the topic of 'From Fear to Delight'. This takes place 10am - 12pm at the Heritage Centre.
Helen Ivory will be reading alongside Martin Figura at 8pm on Monday 30 June. Helen's latest collection Constructing a Witch was published by Bloodaxe in October 2024 and is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. This event takes place at Burgage Hall.
On Tuesday 1 July, Matt Howard, whose second collection Broadlands was published by Bloodaxe last June, will be reading alongside fellow nature poet Rachel Bower at a joint event titled 'The Birds and the Bees'. This event is at 6pm at Burgage Hall. Matt will be leading a 'Writing Nature' workshop the next day, Wednesday 2 July, at 10am at the Heritage Centre.
On Saturday 5 July, Jane Commane will be speaking about her role as editor of Nine Arches Press at a panel event with fellow poet-and-editors Sarah Howe and Rachael Allen. Jane's collection Assembly Lines was published by Bloodaxe in 2018 and was longlisted for the 2019 Michael Murphy Memorial Prize. This event will take place at Burgage Hall via Zoom, 10am-11am. The session will include Q+A.
Also on Saturday 5 July, Ellen Cranitch will be reading alongside Isabelle Baafi at 11.30-12.30pm at Burgage Hall. Ellen will read from her 2024 second collection Crystal, which traces the arc of one woman’s experience after the discovery that her partner is addicted to crystal meth, and Isabelle from her debut Chaotic Good.
[23 April 2025]
