If you haven’t heard, Contains Strong Language will be running from National Poetry Day (28 September) to 1 October, with a diverse programme to please purveyors of all forms of the humble spoken word.
Celebrating both new and existing work, it’s packed with world premieres, concerts, outreach activity and television commissions, and is produced by BBC Radio in partnership with ourselves, Hull UK City of Culture, Hull City Council, Humber Mouth, British Council, BBC Learning and a number of poetry organisations.
At the very heart of the festival is The Hull 17 – an ensemble of the country’s most interesting and diverse artists commissioned to create new work in the city throughout the duration of the festival. We’re delighted that our very own Dean Wilson forms part of this collective, alongside Kate Tempest, Jacob Polley, Imtiaz Dharker, Helen Mort and 12 more incredible artists.
Dean is currently poet in residence at BBC Radio Humberside until September 2017, and has joined forces with poet Vicky Foster to inspire the local community to send in poems about where they live. Called Landlines, the poems, written on postcards, will be hung from washing lines in Hull Central Library on Thursday 28 September to celebrate the start of the Festival.
We published Dean’s first full-length collection, Sometimes I’m So Happy I’m Not Safe On The Streets, last year – buy your copy here.