Carol Ann Duffy will read and perform alongside the musician John Sampson in an event entitled Poetry and Song: A Celebration in the Great Hall of the Wills Memorial Building, Queen's Road, Clifton on Wednesday 10 October at 6.00pm.  Entrance is free and all are welcome, but tickets must be booked in advance.

The Bristol Poetry Institute (BPI) is a new venture that brings together scholars, students, poets, and poetry-lovers across the University of Bristol and the wider community.

The BPI aims to be a focus for events and activities ranging from international academic conferences to seminars and study-days.  It will host readings, workshops and performances by national and local poets as well as offering a space (both physical and ‘virtual’) for discussion and debate about poetry in all its forms.

The poetry of languages other than English, and cultures other than our own, is a vital part of the project, as are the ways in which boundaries are crossed by translation and adaptation, and the encounter of poetry with other arts (painting, music, drama, film).

Professor Daniel Karlin, Director of the Bristol Poetry Institute, said: "The remit of the BPI is open and inclusive: we have no ideological agenda, beyond the belief that poetry matters, in the way that all the great forms of human creativity matter, to our sense of ourselves as individuals and social beings.  We are delighted to welcome a poet of Carol Ann Duffy's stature to Bristol for this inaugural event."

The BPI's programme for 2012-13 includes an international conference on poetic ‘Modernisms’, a public debate on the supposed ‘impossibility’ of translating poetry, and a poetry competition for schools. 

The event is supported by the Bristol Institute for Research in the Humanities and Arts (BIRTHA) and the Public and Ceremonial Events Office (PACE).