York Festival Of Ideas Online

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor

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York Festival of Ideas Online

2-14 June 2020

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Poet Vahni Capildeo.
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Taking place 2 to 14 June, this year’s York Festival Of Ideas heads online, with plenty to see and do – the full calendar of activities can be explored here. “Featuring world-class speakers, exhibitions, theatre, music, films, guided walks, family-friendly activities and much more”, events usually take place at venues throughout the city, but for 2020 the festival is “taking a smaller offering into the virtual world” – which is great, because it means we can go too!

Top of the list live literature wise for us is the event Words and Swords, featuring poets Vahni Capildeo and Mary Jean Chan on Sunday 7 June (7-8pm). We’ve seen Vahni read IRL here in Manchester in days of yore, and they are definitely worth checking out again. The Trinidadian poet won the Forward Prize for best poetry collection in 2016 with Measures of Expatriation, which came out on Manchester-based publisher Carcanet, who also published Venus as a Bear, shortlisted for the 2018 Forward Prize for Best Collection. Vahni’s latest book is Odyssey Calling (Sad Press, 2020), and, as Writer in Residence at the University of York’s Department of English and Related Literature, they will be introducing and talking to Mary Jean Chan about her work, exploring the unexpected connections between wordplay and swordplay. The event features live and pre-recorded segments – including fencing demonstrations! – and is a talk followed by a Q&A. (Admission is free, but advance booking is required. The event will be recorded and will be available on YouTube for anyone who might miss the live event on the day. You can now watch this event here.)

Top of the list live literature wise for us is the event Words and Swords, featuring poets Vahni Capildeo and Mary Jean Chan on Sunday 7 June

Originally from Hong Kong, London-based Mary Jean – a poet, lecturer and editor – will read from last year’s Costa Book Award-winning debut poetry collection Flèche (Faber & Faber), currently shortlisted for both the 2020 Dylan Thomas Prize and the 2020 Jhalak Prize. Mary Jean has twice been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, and is the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award. Mary Jean was recently guest co-editor at The Poetry Review, and was due to read at our very own Poets & Players before the event was cancelled as a result of the pandemic.

Scooting around the York Festival Of Ideas website, we’ve also spotted some interesting interactive creative writing workshops – including both cutout poetry and blackout poetry sessions from Found Fiction.

Where to go near York Festival Of Ideas Online

Penistone Hill Country Park
Bradford
Park
Penistone Hill Country Park

As part of Bradford 2025’s UK City of Culture programme, Penistone Hill plays host to outdoor events that celebrate the enduring connection between landscape, identity and creativity.

Threshold is an artist-led project space for sculpture, located in the front garden of a traditional back-to-back house in Burley, Leeds. Exhibitions are open for all to view. Encounter sculpture on your daily walk, or way to work or school.
Leeds
Event venue
Threshold Leeds

Threshold is an artist-led project space for sculpture, located in the front garden of a traditional back-to-back house in Burley, Leeds.

The Engine Room Notice Board
Southport
Event venue
The Engine Room

The Engine Room is a creative community hub in Southport’s Wayfarers Arcade, offering co-working space, cultural events and collaborative opportunities for artists, freelancers and educators.

Leeds
Gallery
The Mill Gallery

The Mill Gallery is an artist-run space in Leeds, supporting emerging artists to develop and showcase their work authentically.

Church congregation at St George's Church in Leeds
Leeds
Place of worship
St George’s Church

St George’s is a lively city centre church in Leeds with three services every Sunday and a midweek programme that includes groups, courses and events. We’re here to help people

Picante
Liverpool
Restaurant
Picante

Picante is a sun-soaked Mexican restaurant at the trailblazing Cains Brewery Village in Liverpool.

Miru Mill
Manchester
Event venue
Miru Mill

Miru Mill is an event space and micro-factory based at Churchgate Mill in Stockport.

Spa
iglu sauna

An authentic and affordable sauna and cold plunge experience in Hebden Bridge, in a beautiful outdoor setting amongst the trees.

What's on: Literature

Roy Macfarlane
LiteratureManchester
Roy Macfarlane at Manchester Poetry Library

As part of the Poetry Reading Series at Manchester Poetry Library, Canal Laureate Roy Macfarlane will be in conversation with the series curator and award-winning poet Helen Mort.

Free entry
Luke Samuel Yates
LiteratureLeeds
Chemistry at The Chemic

Leeds live literature regular Chemistry offers an exciting mix of open mic acts and invited poets – this month the headliners are Helen Ivory and Luke Samuel Yates.

Free entry
Tom Branfoot. Photo Eleanor Hall, Museum of the Home
LiteratureWest Yorkshire
Poetry at the Dusty Miller

Poetry at the Dusty Miller is a now regular night with invited readers, organised by Carcanet-published Carola Luther and Judith Willson in the Coiners’ Room in the Mytholmroyd pub.

Free entry

Culture Guides

Three men sit next to each other. One's head is bandaged, one holds a torch and one wears a sleepmask.
Cinema in the North

Live scores, midnight movies and the latest from Wes Anderson are just some of our upcoming film highlights.

Music in the North

Gigs are coming in hot this spring – from long-awaited returns to one-off happenings you’ll blink and miss if you're not careful.

Experience a unique deep listening art installation inviting audiences to lay down and be bathed in sound and light.
Exhibitions in the North

From city-wide art festivals to open-air sculptural installations, we have exhibitions from all around the North, both indoors and out.

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

Eclectic as ever. You'll find inventive reworkings, world-class contemporary dance and Greater Manchester's inaugural Improv Festival in our guide.

portrait of Lorsung in a dark shirt with dark hair and dark round glasses
Literature Events in the North

We've got laughs and we've got leftfield on the live literature radar this month. Something for everyone, from poets playing with form to short story writers looking long.