Laureate's Library Tour with Simon Armitage and Imtiaz Dharker

Wed 8 February 2023

Cambridge University Library

Join Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and special guest Imtiaz Dharker, Cambridge University Library’s former poet-in-residence, to celebrate historic poetry archives in this unique free event hosted as part of the Laureate’s Library Tour C-D. Both poets will read some of their poems and be in conversation with Cambridge University Library Librarian and Director of Library Services, Dr Jessica Gardner.

Over the centuries, the Library has become a storehouse of poetical manuscripts, holding treasures ranging from unique medieval survivals of a Chaucer poem, to texts by John Donne, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Siegfried Sassoon. Our work in this area is ongoing, and in recent years we have greatly extended our holdings of archives of contemporary poets, including papers of Anne Stevenson, D. J. Enright, George Szirtes, Denise Riley and J. H. Prynne.

Each spring for the next decade, Simon Armitage will give readings across the UK, from the flagship libraries of the big cities to smaller libraries serving rural and remote communities. Using the alphabet as a compass, his journey will celebrate the library as one of the great and necessary institutions.

The C-D Libraries Tour is kindly supported by the T.S. Eliot Foundation, Mark Pigott KBE and Faber & Faber.

Advisory age 11+ (poetry may contain strong language).

Cost: Free