Poets with international and national reputations, young up and coming talent and local writers are heading for Wells-next-the-Sea from Friday May 7 to 9 for Poetry-next-the-Sea’s annual festival, Singing, Saying and the Spirit www.poetry-next-the-sea.com, including the first performance of this year’s Faber New Poets.

Ronald Blythe’s Desert Island Choice (Saturday 8th May) is a sell out, but tickets are still available for all other events.

Poetry-next-the-Sea has secured a real coup with the first performance of this year’s Faber New Poets Tour – Sunday 9th May at 1pm. Joe Dunthorne, Sam Riviere and Tom Warner Faber New Poets 2010 will be joined by one of last year’s winners Jack Underwood. The group has strong links with Norwich and Norfolk.

The Faber New Poets programme supports pre-first collection writers. It offers a package of financial assistance, mentorship and pamphlet publication. This year’s Faber New Poets Pamphlet will be published on 20th May.

Joe Dunthorne’s debut novel, Submarine (Penguin) has been translated into eight languages and is being made into a film by Warp Films. He is also a striker for the England Writers’ Football Team. Sam Riviere is currently working towards a PhD at UEA and Tom Warner is a graduate of UEA’s MA in Creative Writing. Jack Underwood is a graduate of Norwich University Collage of the Arts and is working on a PhD in Creative Writing at Goldsmith’s College.

The winners of Poetry-next-the-Sea’s annual Open Poetry competition will be revealed at 11am on Saturday 8 May, when they share the stage with Angus Sinclair, Laura Elliott and Julia Webb winners of the Norwich Café Writers Commission.

Full details of all events are below and are also listed at www.poetry-next-the-sea.com. Brochures can be picked up in local libraries. For further information and ticket bookings tel. 01328 711813, email [email protected].

Festival season tickets, for all events except workshops are £36. Festival season tickets for Friends of Poetry-next-the-Sea are £30.

Poetry-next-the-Sea – Singing, Saying and the Spirit – Programme

Thursday 6th May

Pre-festival event 7pm The Granary, Alderman Peel Student’s Off by Heart Competition.

All other events take place at The Maltings

Friday 7th May

7.30pm, £10 – poetry reading with award-winning writer Pauline Stainer and Grey Gowrie, former Chairman of the Arts Council of England.

Saturday 8th May

9.30am Schools Off by Heart Competition, £2 or for family groups of up to four, £5. Students from primary schools in Blakeney, Burnham Market, Hindringham, Langham, Walsingham and Wells-next-the-Sea recite poems from memory following Coral Rumble’s workshops held earlier this year.

10.30am to 12noon, £12 – Exploring the Music in Words, Voice Workshop with Cecilia Evans.

The workshop is designed for anyone who wants to develop techniques for reading poetry to an audience. Participants should bring a short poem of their choice.

10.30am – 12.30pm, £15, Poetry Workshop with Jo Shapcott

11am, £5 – a morning of poetry with Angus Sinclair, Laura Elliott and Julia Webb winners of the Norwich Café Writers Commission, along with the winners of the 2010 Poetry-next-the-Sea Open Poetry Competition. Poetry-next-the-Sea competition sponsored by Norfolk Community Foundation.

1pm, £10 – novelist, essayist and literary critic Ronald Blythe discusses with Kevin Crossley-Holland the poems that he would take to console him on a desert island. Sold Out

2pm, free – fringe event. Explore the overlap between poetry and the visual in this event outside The Mermaid’s Purse, devised by local sculptor Polly Ionides.

5.30pm, £10 – Jo Shapcott, President of the Poetry Society and Professor of Poetry at Royal Holloway College reads with Jon Stallworthy former Professor of English Literature at Cornell and Oxford Universities.

8.30pm, £6 – Hugh Lupton, Psalms from the Horse’s Mouth, Singing and Storytelling. Since the earliest times there has been a strong, almost a magical connection between people and horses. When we are in the presence of horses an old memory is wakened in us. This programme of words and music explores and celebrates the ancient relationship between man and horse.

Sunday 9th May

11am, £6 – Jon Stallworthy, War Poetry after Auschwitz

1pm, £5, award-winning Faber Poets, Joe Dunthorne, Sam Riviere, Jack Underwood, Tom Warner introduced by Kevin Crossley Holland.

3pm, £3 – Open Floor event, hosted by Jenny Cunningham. Read your own work in a mutually supportive environment. All welcome, whatever your experience.