Rewriting v.: Malika Booker, Jo Clement and Paul Farley

Tony Harrison’s poem v. was written in 1984 during the Miners’ Strike and describes a visit to his parents’ graves which had been vandalised and covered in obscene graffiti. The poem explores class, alienation, anger and Northern identity. A televised performance made headlines and divided the nation due Harrison’s use of profanities. Conservative activist Mary Whitehouse called it ‘a work of singular nastiness’, whilst award-winning theatre and film director Richard Eyre believed it should be a set text and read in every school

Forty years on, Durham Book Festival and poet Andrew McMillan bring together three acclaimed Northern poets to re-imagine this seminal piece of public poetry and read from their newly commissioned poems.

Malika Booker is an award-winning poet and the founder of Malika’s Kitchen writers collective. She is the first woman to have won the Forward Prize for Best Single poem twice. Malika lectures at Manchester Metropolitan University.

 Jo Clement is from the North East of England. A Northern Writers’ Award winner, her debut collection, Outlandish, is published by Bloodaxe Books.  

Liverpool-born Paul Farley is a poet and broadcaster. He has received numerous awards, including the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and presents features and documentaries for BBC Radio. 

 Chaired by Andrew McMillan. 

Commissioned by Durham Book Festival with support from Manchester Metropolitan University