Manchester Metropolitan University, Grosvenor East, Cavendish Street
Fri 16 Oct · 18:30
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear two of the world’s most visionary poets read and discuss their sublime poetry, exploring political engagement and the interplay between survival and testimony as part of Manchester Literature Festival 2026. Over five decades, American poet Carolyn Forché has established herself as both ‘a poet of witness’ and an indefatigable human rights activist. Beautifully crafted, her poems are testimonies, enquiries and wonderments. Her anthology, Against Forgetting , has been praised by Nelson Mandela as ‘itself a blow against tyranny, against prejudice, against injustice.’ Otherwhere: New & Selected Poems 1976-2026 brings together poems from her five award-winning collections as well as urgent new work. Kwame Dawes is the author of numerous books of poetry, essays and works of fiction, most recently the collection Sturge Town featuring poems of acute self-reflection alongside those giving voice to invented characters. He is the Poet Laureate of Jamaica, the Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival and Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University. His poetry has been described by Martín Espada as ‘the music of survival and transcendence.’ Co-presented with Manchester Poetry Library , Bloodaxe Books and Renaissance One. Wheelchair Users and those with other access needs requiring a free Essential Carer ticket should contact the Quaytickets Box Office on 0161 876 2015 to purchase tickets.
Not the same tradition as the lineage above — a genuinely different thread to pull, if you want one.