Third annual Poetry Slam held in Wolverhampton
TICKETS are selling fast for this year's Wolverhampton Literature Festival - but there is still time to grab yours before they disappear for good.
The annual festival kicks off officially on Friday, but a few early 'taster' events have already been held around the city - such as a poetry slam at the Arena Theatre.
The competition was the first of more than 100 events which have been organised for the city's literature festival.
Organiser and poet Emma Purshouse said more than 100 people turned up on Saturday night at the Arena Theatre to watch the 15 poets perform.
She said: "It was brilliant - we had a great turnout.
"The winner was Nick Lovell from Swindon who competed against runner-up Michael Southan from Wolverhampton.
"He has got a paid performance at next year's festival.
"And the person who came third was a Hednesford man called Tom Allsopp.
"Each of the competitors had three minutes to either recite a long poem or a couple of shorter ones and five judges in the audience judged them based on performance, writing and audience response.
"The person who wins has to do nine minutes of poetry in total. Some people will choose to do a variety, some funny and some more serious.
"The feedback from the audience so far has been fantastic, it's just a great way to package poetry, it's very lively and performance-based.
"It's a great way to take poetry to people that might now normally experience it."
Included in the line-up this year are talks from big names such as the former Everything But The Girl singer Tracey Thorn - for which tickets are in high demand - and former politician Ann Widdecombe.
And tickets for comedian Stewart Lee and performance poet John Cooper Clarke have already completely sold out.
For a full line up and more details, visit wolvesliteraturefestival.co.uk
