Unfortunately this event has been cancelled, we apologies for any inconvenience

Guest poets Will Kemp, Katy Skipwith and Chris Bridge (Arboretum Trustee and Volunteer) will be reading poetry in the stunning surroundings of the arboretum.

Katy Mahon is a Northern Irish musician and poet brought up in London and living in York. She has taken courses with Helen Ivory through the National Centre for Writing/UEA, and Gallery Press's ‘Gallery Goes Workshopping’ with Grace Wilentz. During 2021, Katy collaborated with English seascape artist Carolyn Coles for York Open Studios, and she was a reader for the Quiet Compere tour. In 2022, Katy was New Irish Writing’s featured poet in the Irish Independent, and her debut chapbook Some Indefinable Cord was published. Her poems have appeared in various Irish and English journals, most recently HOWL New Irish Writing, Bad Lilies and Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal. Her pamphlet can be purchased through Some Indefinable Cord KATY MAHON | Hybriddreich Ltd.

Will Kemp has won several competitions, been well-placed in others and had four collections published as well as many poems in various journals including: Ambit, The Guardian, Iota, Magma, The North and The Rialto.  He teaches Creative Writing at York University and judges the Keats-Shelley Prize.  For details, visit: www.wkemp.com

Chris Bridge is the Arboretum’s Poet in Residence. He has three published collections: Walking Through, Tracks and Of Trees and Time in The Yorkshire Arboretum. He specialises not in winning but in being the runner up or highly commended. He has achieved this in the Stanza competition, Hippocrates  and the National Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in Pennine Platform, Tribune, Poetry Nottingham and Other Poetry.