5/10/2004 - National Poetry Day poets go west

Budding poets old and young will get a chance to see, talk to and even perform their own work in front of two established poets visiting the West Coast for National Poetry Day - Thursday, 7 October.

Conor Aylward and Shelley Dwornik have been drafted in to Barrow, Workington and Whitehaven as part of Cumbria County Council's Library Service celebrations of National Poetry Day.

Conor Aylward will be doing an afternoon workshop with a secondary school class at Workington Library between 2pm and 4pm.

In the evening he will hold an open evening session for adults in Workington Library at 7.30pm where he will read from his own work and encourage audience members to read some of their own lines aloud.

Meanwhile, Shelley Dwornik will hold a workshop at Whitehaven Library with children from Monkwray School between 10.30am and 12 noon.

Later, between 2.30pm and 4pm, she will be at Barrow Library to run another workshop with children from St James Junior School in Barrow. 

The poets have been selected by poetry performance organisers, Apples and Snakes.

Roger Bingham, county council cabinet spokesman for the library service, said: 

"Cumbria is the land of poets. As one who supports the poetry readings at Dove Cottage, I'm personally enthusiastic about continuing the county's poetic traditions. I'm keen on modern poetry and even write a bit myself.

"National Poetry Day is an excellent way to raise the profile of poetry and we are very lucky to have established poets like these taking part in our celebrations."