Yorkshire has a vibrant and diverse range of poets and poetry, following in the footsteps of such luminaries as Andrew Marvell, Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes. Ian Parks has created a collection that showcases the best of today’s Yorkshire poets. Versions of the North features established writers such as Maurice Rutherford, who was born in Hull in 1922 and who worked in the Humber shipyards for most of his life, and up-and-coming writers like Helen Mort, born in Sheffield in 1985, who won the Foyles Young Poet Award five times. The collection includes the work of sixty poets from the whole of Yorkshire, including Ian Duhig, Douglas Houston, T.F. Griffin, David Tait, Graham Mort, Glyn Hughes, Ann Sansom, Peter Sansom, David Agnew, Ian Pople, Jenny Rahtz and Pat Borthwick – representing a thriving poetry scene across Yorkshire and the north.
The launch of Versions of the North edited by our old comrade Ian Parks promises to be a seminal event in the august history of the Flux Gallery. This will to be an exciting gathering of all the great and the good of the contemporary Yorkshire poetry scene. With more than twenty readers expected it will be an excellent opportunity to listen to and meet the movers and shakers of the Northern poetry community. The is a free event and there will be the usual hospitality. So please feel free to attend. Your presence will be greatly appreciated. I look forward to meeting you on the 20th of April.
