Home: Ideas and inspiration around the theme for National Poetry Day and the Anne Pierson Award for Young Writers in Cumbria.

Venue: Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal

Tickets: £5

Contact: Brewery Box Office
Telephone: 01539 725133
Email: boxoffice@breweryarts.co.uk
Website: www.breweryarts.co.uk

Angela Topping will read, then introduce the guest, ANgela France. An open mic will follow a brief interval. All welcome. 7.30-9pm

Venue: Northwich Library

Tickets: £3

Contact: Nick Hughes
Email: dan@danarts.com
Website: danarts,org

Wall displays of poetry in various styles and a whole world of stories, produced by Charlotte Peters Rock

Venue: Goostrey Village, various venues, including The Crown, The Red Lion, Goostrey Home & Leisure, The Trading Post, other shops and venues

Tickets: free to view at each

Contact: Charlotte Peters Rock
Telephone: 0156 572 2738 - 07050 183 417
Email: charlottepetersrock@tiscali.co.uk
Website: http://charlottepetersrock.blogspot.com

Poet Angela Topping leads a drama based on the sinking of The Titanic which will stimulate beautiful and reflective poetry.

Venue: Denton Library

Contact: Chris Smith
Email: chris.smith@tameside.gov.uk>

W. Terry Fox - Cheshire's Longest-serving Poet Laureate will read from 'Village Verse', his collection of Mow Cop poems, to celebrate the National Poetry Day theme of 'Home'. 2pm onwards.

Venue: Nantwich Library

Telephone: 01270 375361
Email: nantwich.infopoint@cheshireeast.gov.uk
Website: www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/leisure

Celebrate National poetry Day in style with open mic slots and short poetry films, washed down with the Brewery's special Poetry Punch - look out for our 'Poet At Work' and commission your very own poem. Performers welcome to sign up throughout the evening.

Venue: Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal

Tickets: Free - donations wel

Contact: Brewery Box Office
Telephone: 01539 725133
Email: boxoffice@breweryarts.co.uk
Website: www.breweryarts.co.uk

Join us between 10am and 6pm for a day of poetry reading in our Poets' Corner. Submit a favourite poem or one of your own, to Macclesfield Library, 2 Jordangate, Macclesfield, SK10 1EE, with your contact details by Monday 20th September. Please let us know whether you would like the chance to read on the day.

Venue: Macclesfield Library, Macclesfield, Cheshire

Tickets: Free

Contact: Anita Fisher and Janet Judge
Telephone: 01625 374000
Email: macclesfield.infopoint@cheshireeast.gov.uk
Website: http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/leisure_and_culture/libraries/nearest_library/macclesfield_library.aspx

Stockport Central Library is holding a Poems in the Waiting Room Day on Thursday 14 October. It is the culmination of a week celebrating poetry starting with National Poetry Day on 7 October. The Poems in the Waiting Room Day was proposed by the Library's Readers Group. They have a deep and long term interest in Poems in the Waiting Room as an example of the poetry arts in health, leading on to considerations of the place of poetry in therapy. The day will include fund raising for the arts in health charity which relies wholly on private donations from Friends and Trusts. Poems in the Waiting Room has provided material for the poetry day, especially collections of its popular poetry cards for use by members and for distribtuion to the general run of library readers. The poetry cards are the most widely read national poetry publication. It has also provided information of its current representation in local NHS units, who enjoy Poems in the Waiting Room, so that local links can be forged between the Library and local health services. Poems in the Waitng Room is well represented among local General Practitioners. The link through Poems in the Waiting Room Day provides a valuable example of bringing together diverse local community services. The event is being organised by Frances Mail Libraries Advice and Information Communities Regeneration and Environment Direcorate Stockport Central Library frances.mail@stockport.gov.uk Full information on Poems in the Waiting Room is available on www.poemsinthewaitingroom.org

Venue: Stockport Central Library

Tickets: Free

Contact: Frances Mail
Telephone: 0161 474 4533
Email: frances.mail@stockport.gov.uk
Website: poemsinthewaitingroom.org

This National Poetry Day special open mic will be open mic only. Performers are encouraged to use the theme of HOME. There will be a display by local primary school children in the cafe. During the day Ann the Poet will write poems to request around The Brewery.

Venue: Brewery Arts Centre, Highgate, Kendal

Tickets: FREE

Contact: Ann Wilson
Telephone: 01539 725133
Email: annthepoet@gmail.com
Website: www.breweryarts.co.uk

I run an educational department for Chester Aid To The Homeless. Our aim is to produce postcards with poems on them. The cards will then be handed out in the city centre, free of charge. The idea is to raise awareness of homelessness and poety in one swoop. The poems our clients have written are very poignant and deserve to be read. This is why we would love to take part in this event.

Venue: Chester City Centre

Tickets: N/A

Contact: John Buchanan
Telephone: 01244 409158
Email: galbraith68@hotmail.com
Website: www.cath.org.uk/

Simon Armitage returns to the Chester Literature Festival to give a reading of his latest collection Seeing Stars. This new work presents a vivid array of dramatic monologues, allegories, parables and tall tales. Simon will also give the first public reading of the winning poems of the Cheshire Prize for Literature.

Venue: Molloy Lecture Theatre, University of Chester

Tickets: £8 (£4 under 18s in

Contact: Katherine Seddon
Telephone: 0845 241 7868 Box Office/ 01244 405605 admin
Email: k.seddon@chesterfestivals.co.uk
Website: www.chesterfestivals.co.uk

Shell Chester Literature Festival: Bitesize@lunchtimes Dr Graham Atkin, Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Chester, reads some of his favourite poems and short pieces of prose and drama on the theme of the 'seven ages' of human life.

Venue: St Mary's Centre, St Mary's Hill, Chester CH1 2DW

Tickets: FREE

Contact: Katherine Seddon
Telephone: 01244 405605
Email: k.seddon@chesterfestivals.co.uk
Website: www.chesterfestivals.co.uk

This band of 10 Chester women entertains you with varied prose and poetry. They have regularly broadcast on Radio Merseyside and now enjoy gigs throughout Cheshire. This year they celebrated their 10th anniversary.

Venue: Atrium, Wesley Church Centre, St John Street, Chester CH1 1DA

Tickets: FREE

Contact: Katherine Seddon
Telephone: 01244 405605
Email: k.seddon@chesterfestivals.co.uk
Website: www.chesterfestivals.co.uk

Heather Freckleton leads a workshop that will explore the relationship between painting and poetry. They'll be looking at paintings and inventing the poems that may lie hidden behind them.

Venue: Atrium, Wesley Church Centre, 8 St John Street, Chester CH1 1DA

Tickets: £10

Contact: Katherine Seddon
Telephone: 0845 241 7868 Box Office / 01244 405605 admin
Email: k.seddon@chesterfestivals.co.uk
Website: www.chesterfestivals.co.uk

Roddy Lumsden, Jean Sprackland, Paul Farley and Deryn Rees-Jones. Identity Parade presents new British and Irish poetry at a time of great vibrancy and variety. Introduced by Roddy Lumsden, himself a critically acclaimed poet, three of the 85 highly individual, award-winning and distinctive talents from the North West come to Chester to read their work.

Venue: Atrium, Wesley Church Centre, 8 St John Street, Chester CH1 1DA

Tickets: £7.50

Contact: Katherine Seddon
Telephone: 0845 241 7868 Box office/ 01244 405605 admin
Email: k.seddon@chesterfestivals.co.uk
Website: www.chesterfestivals.co.uk

Kalagora is a Hindi neologism meaning black man / white man. This show tells his story: from a wild Millennium eve party in Manhattan to homecoming amid the grime and glory of London’s East End. The global wanderer plays witness to traffic accidents and street surrealism in Mumbai, the irresistible ‘city of motion’, observing the uncanny and the unexpected at the start of the twenty-first century. Across continents and timezones, a story emerges of love, chaos and addiction, a tale that evokes the colour and raw energy of these hybrid, multi-cultural cities. Blending poetry, monologue and theatre, and accompanied by specially commissioned video and music, Kalagora showcases the exciting new talent of Indian-born poet-performer Siddhartha Bose. Incorporating influences as diverse as free jazz, Indian epic and Shakespeare, this powerful new piece of live literature testifies to the scintillating shock of the new in a globalised world.

Venue: Liverpool Bluecoat

Tickets: tbc

Contact: Tom Chivers
Telephone: 020 7375 0258
Email: info@pennedinthemargins.co.uk
Website: www.kalagora.com