Places of Poetry

August 15, 2019

Your places, your poems, our national story

Places of Poetry, supported in 2019 by National Poetry Day, was the success-story of the summer within the poetry world in England and Wales. The project invited writers to pin poems of place, heritage and identity to a distinctive digital map, which attracted more than 6500 poems by National Poetry Day.

Events and activities were staged at heritage sites across England and Wales to promote the project and generate new writing. These sites – from Caernarfon Castle to Byker Wall Estate, from Ely Cathedral to Big Pit National Coal Museum, from Stonehenge to the Kia Oval – each hosted a poet-in-residence who produced a commissioned poem.

Places of Poetry aims to use creative writing to prompt reflection on national and cultural identities in England and Wales, celebrating the diversity, heritage and personalities of place. The Places of Poetry map remains open for submissions until October 31st. We have posted a selection of the submissions on our Poems page.

Places of Poetry is led by the renowned poet Paul Farley and the academic Andrew McRae. It is based at the universities of Exeter and Lancaster, and generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England. It is underpinned by partnerships with the Ordnance Survey, The Poetry Society, and National Poetry Day. Find out more by clicking here.