Friday 21 March 2025 is World Poetry Day and UNESCO Creative Cities of Literature across the world will be celebrating the achievements of their city.

21 March was adopted by UNESCO as World Poetry Day during their 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999, and the day has since been used to champion and celebrate linguistic diversity, poetic expression and endangered languages.

The oldest surviving poem The Epic of Gilgamesh is a Mesopotamian poem that was written nearly four thousand years ago. Humans have used poetry to express their thoughts and feelings and provide a window into other cultures for centuries. With 168 poetic forms to choose from, poetry offers something for everyone regardless of their creative style and this can be seen in the variety and breadth of offerings across the UNESCO Cities of Literature network.

The theme for this year’s World Poetry Day is Poetry as a Bridge for Peace and Inclusion and in our ever divided world it offers us the opportunity to connect with one another, across countries and cultures. Granada City of Literature will be leading the celebrations for the Literature network as usual and will once again organise a large poetry reading in Granada, where the local literary community will come together for a joyful celebration of poetry.

More than seventeen Cities of Literature will be taking part, including Manchester. There will be Poetry in the park at Boggart Hole Clough on Friday 21st March where Manchester Libraries will be giving out packets of bee friendly seeds and seed bookmarks in celebration of the launch of Manchester’s new Clean and Green Strategy.

In the afternoon there is a free poetry workshop in Manchester garden in the sky Castlefield Viaduct run by the Manchester Cathedral Writer in Residence Tom Branfoot. During the workshop participants will look at the work of Peter Gizzi and his idea of lyric reality to focus on questions underpinning our age, including questions on climate change and nature.

Wrapping up World Poetry Day in Manchester, poetry readings will take place at SEESAW in an event called ‘A Tenuous Line’ featuring artists Martin Kratz, Lu Rose Cunningham, Hilary White, Hamish Rush, Tom Branfoot and Jordan Hayward.

On 29th March Poetry phenomenon and British cult legend Dr John Cooper Clarke will bring his most recent UK tour home to Manchester: In Celebration of World Poetry Day. The Salford born legend will then bring his tour home for a historic performance at Manchester’s Co-op Live where he is set to become the first-ever poet to headline an arena here in the UK.

 

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Meanwhile in other Cities of Literature, Norwich will be running an event on Thursday 20th March with one of the UK’s most beloved writers, Wendy Cope, as she leads a 25-minute reading followed by a discussion. Melbourne will be publishing a video series of six Wheeler Centre Hot Desk fellows reading their original poetry. Tartu City of Literature will be marking World Poetry Day with a whole host of events, including a poetry book fair at Tartu Literature House, whilst if you’re in Angoulême the ‘Printemps des Poètes’ (Spring of Poets) is taking place from March 12th to 23rd.

Tukums Library will be running an initiative called ‘Gift a Poem’ which encourages visitors to share the beauty of poetry with one another. Wonju City will be taking the original work of local writers and poets and turning them into ‘Poetry Paintings’ which will then be displayed on their website.

Kuhmo will be celebrating with an open event in Kuhmo town library which is free of charge whilst Ljubljana, where for ten consecutive years, on World Poetry Day (March 21st), Ljubljana has hosted a poetry marathon. This year, they will hold a poetry festival, which will take place between March 17th and 23rd at five locations across Ljubljana, and will be dedicated to performative poetry.

This year Okayama will be celebrating World Poetry Day for the first time with a ‘silent reading’ style bookclub which encourages people to read their own poetry. Milan boasts several events dedicated to poetry, offering something for everyone whilst Lyon is hosting a three-week long poetry festival. Vilnius Literary House will be hosting the final of the pupils’ poetry translation competition and Heidelberg will be offering a poetry inspired church service, amongst a range of other wonderful events.

Edinburgh, the oldest City of Literature, will mark World Poetry Day with a series of cine-poem videos with animation students from Edinburgh College of Art and their Poet Laureate Michael Pedersen. Dunedin City of Literature is partnering with OAR FM on World Poetry Day for the launch in the City Library of ‘Layers of Identity’ – a creative writing podcast and book project, showcasing the diverse voices of young Dunedin writers and poets through powerful stories of identity, culture, and belonging.