SARAH SINGLETON looks ahead to the five-day Poetry Swindon Festival 2017

Swindon’s quirky, creative and joyful festival of poetry begins with poets wheeling out the Poetry Pram for Poems Aloud in Theatre Square on Thursday October 5.

The five-day Poetry Swindon Festival 2017 is welcoming an international cast of writers and spoken word performers, for a programme celebrating space, strange days, blurred boundaries, rambling and happiness. – something for everyone, surely?

This will be the fourth year with local writer and poet Hilda Sheehan as artistic director. The first poet-in-residence will be Daljit Nagra, who has published three collections of poetry with Faber & Faber and is the inaugural poet in residence for Radio 4.

Daljit comes from a Sikh background; his parents came to Britain from the Punjab in India in the late 1950s. He was born and grew up in West London, then Sheffield. He is poem Look We Have Coming to Dover! won the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem in 2004 and . His first collection, of the same name won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2007.

The festival’s second poet in residence is Tania Hershman. Her debut poetry collection, Terms & Conditions, was published by Nine Arches Press in July and her third short story collection, Some Of Us Glow More Than Others, by Unthank Books in May.

Jacqueline Saphra is blogger for the festival, and will take Poetry Swindon into cyberspace, while Jill Carter will be artist in residence at the Richard Jefferies Museum, creating the most amazing, thought-provoking images, items and installations.

The festival is based at the museum, and in a Tent-Palace of the Delicious Air in its grounds. But events will also extend into other venues to make poetry accessible to a wider audience, with the launch taking place in Artsite’s gallery in Theatre Square from 10am. New College will also host events to ensure talented youngsters can enjoy high quality poetry.

The programme includes a huge range of events – talks and performances, open mic sessions and workshops, readings and discussions to mention but a few. For the very young, A Poetry Rhyme Time, with music, movement, poetry and crafts for the under-fives takes place in the Tent-Palace at 10.30am on Thursday, October 5, with a selection of international Poetry Film will be screened at Artsite at 2pm the same day.

A Coate Water Poetry Ramble begins at the Richard Jefferies Museum on Friday, October 6, at 2.30pm and with poet Sarah Dixon, and for music fans, the Songs of Leonard Cohen will be performed by Keith Jones in the Tent-Palace on Saturday, October 7, at 9.30pm.

For the full programme and tickets, visit the website Visit www.poetryswindon.org.