BELFAST'S Linen Hall Library will host UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage on Wednesday March 18 as part of his ongoing Library Tour.
Armitage will be joined by award-winning Co Down poet and writer Leontia Flynn at what will be the first and only stop in Northern Ireland on the first leg of his 10-year Libraries Tour, which will take place for one week each springtime.
Using the alphabet as his guide, the Linen Hall falls under 'B' for Belfast and will be the only independent library visited on this section of the tour.
"My experience of reading and writing began in the village library where I grew up, then in the nearby town library, then in libraries at various places of study and teaching," Armitage explains.
"The very existence of the library system is under threat, but libraries still stand at the heart of many communities and for some people are an invaluable aspect of everyday life."
Local schools and community groups invited to the event will hear Simon read from his new collection Magnetic Field: The Marsden Poems.
Library director Julie Andrews says: "It is an honour to welcome UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and Leontia Flynn to the Linen Hall Library, a place that has always attracted the support and patronage of Irish poets such as the late Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Sinéad Morrissey and others.
"The Library also holds a number of significant poetry archives including the largest collection of Robert Burns' poems outside of Scotland and works and ephemera of Irish poets Robert Greacen, Louise MacNeice and Richard Rowley."
:: For more information about the Linen Hall Library please visit our website at Linenhall.com
