What better way to mark the anniversary of Seamus Heaney's passing, that to be immersed in poetry? Thank you to Geraldine McDonald, Michelle McShane and the committee of Newcastle Arts Festival for the opportunity to go down yesterday and hold workshops, readings and a slam, all well received and great craic throughout.

Many thanks to each of the brave folk that was game and entered the slam; thanks also to our afternoon readers David Braziel, Ray Givans, Paul Jeffcutt, Geraldine O'Kane and Ross Thompson also, and to the helpful staff at the Newcastle Centre and O'Hare's Bar for letting us take over part of their respective buildings for part of the day. Special thanks to our guest slam judge, Maria McManus, for coming down and helping select our slam winner.

Third place went to Deirdre McKibbon (who brought her own mic stand in the form of her very helpful husband!). Our runner-up was David Braziel, who read superbly, but was just pipped to the post by our slam winner Geraldine O'Kane, who greatly impressed Maria with the reading of her  Weekend Poem in the final round. Congratulations to all of them for their efforts.

Spaces are filling up rapidly for our free poetry workshops at Newcastle Arts Festival Book now to avoid disappointment! For full details, and information on how to book, visit our festival page here.

We'll also be running a poetry workshop on Sunday 30th in the Lyric Theatre as part of Art & Disability Forum's Bounce! Festival. The event is open to all, although booking priority is given to deaf and disabled people, for access reasons. Please see the programme for details on how to book.

Finally, Poetry NI's Colin Dardis will be running a poetry class at the Crescent Arts Centre as part of there upcoming Autumn semester. The class will meet on Wednesdays from 7 - 8.30pm, for six weeks. Full details are available here.

Poetry NI presents a day of poetry events as part of the Newcastle Arts Festival weekend. 

Newcastle Arts Festival is a non-profit organisation that was established by a group of like-minded local volunteers with an interest in promoting the Arts in the Newcastle area, creating opportunities for local talent to showcase their work and bring an added dimension to the cultural landscape of this area.

Saturday 30th August will sees us run creative writing workshops, author readings and a poetry slam, all designed to inspire and celebrate poetic creativity.

For full details, visit our NAF page here.