Manchester City of Literature are inviting poets to apply for consideration to be our inaugural City Poets. The City Poets will work across our partnership network, acting as an ambassador for Manchester’s residents, communities, and literature organisations.

The City Poet roles carry a civic responsibility, much like conventional Poet Laureate designations, and the appointees will be commissioned to produce five original poems on behalf of the City.

Three of these poems will respond to Manchester Day, World Poetry Day and the Festival of Libraries; all of which will be taking place in 2022. The two other commissioned poems will be delivered to respond to other exciting public events, projects and community outreach programmes coordinated by Manchester City of Literature and its partnership network. The poets will also translate other poets’ writing.

Manchester has a rich literary tradition, as home to some exceptional and high-profile poets, a thriving poetry and spoken word scene, awarding-winning publishers and writing development agencies and libraries which place writing and community outreach at the heart of their work. This heritage is represented in Manchester’s designation as an UNESCO City of Literature in 2017.

The three appointed City Poets will occupy the role for a period of one year (and we will be appointing another three City Poets in 2023). The City Poets will each be paid a total fee of £3125 for the performance of the City Poet role, including the 5 commissioned poems, sharing/performing these poems and school-based work to be agreed with the appointed poets. We estimate this as 12.5 days’ work over the year.

Closing date for applications is 5pm on Monday 17th January 2022.