12th Festival of Suffolk Poetry

Saturday 20 June 2026 10:00-18:30

John Peel Centre, Stowmarket, IP14 1ET

Tickets

Click here to download a black and white PDF timetable for the day.

Dide

Dide (pronounced Didé or D-Day) is a poet. Her debut pamphlet Growing was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2022 and her debut collection Making Sense by Verve Poetry Press in 2023. She is also an oil painter. She started teaching herself how to paint during a covid pandemic lockdown. She has since exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, Messums and Mall Galleries, and won the Society of Women Artists Young Artist Award, amongst others.

In addition to the above, Dide is also a composer-soprano-violinist. Some musical highlights include collaborations with Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Centre, Royal Ballet School, London Contemporary School of Dance, Philharmonia Orchestra, Mind, Aldeburgh Music, Alde Valley Spring Festival, Black Shuck Festival and Southwold Arts Centre.

Info at www.dide.uk and @_d_i_d_e_.’

Julia Bird and Mike Sims

Julia Bird is a poet and arts administrator, and sometimes those identities overlap. She’s worked for The Poetry Book Society, The Poetry School and The Poetry Society, and is currently working for an intergenerational arts charity and as a Trustee for The Poetry Archive.

Julia worked with Mike Sims in her creative collection, Blown Rose. Their current joint interests are John Keats and micro-publishing. In 2019 they published Paper Trail, in collaboration with Roy Willingham; A Joy Forever: a walk out with John Keats, their Keatsian compendium illustrated by Linda Hughes, came out from Paekakariki Press in 2022.

Julia Webb

Twice commended in the Forward Prize for poetry, Julia Webb is a neurodivergent artist, writer, and poetry tutor. She is steering editor for Lighthouse Literary Journal and has a Masters in Poetry from the esteemed University of East Anglia’s Creative Writing Programme.

Julia has three four poetry collections with Nine Arches Press: Bird Sisters (2016), Threat (2019), The Telling (2022), and Grey Time (2025). Julia has taught creative writing for organisations such as Lapidus, MIND, Norfolk County Council, and The SAW Trust. In 2016 she spent a week as writer in residence on Norwich Market. In 2024 she was commissioned by The National Centre for Writing and Living Wage Foundation to write a poem for Living Wage Week.

She is steering editor for Lighthouse – a journal for new writers. Julia lives in Norwich.

Louise de Bernières

Louis lives in Norfolk with his two children Robin and Sophie, and five cats, none of whom was acquired on purpose. The cats, that is. He accumulates clutter and has one craze after another, like Mr. Toad. His recurring crazes are writing, music, golf, cooking, falling in love, fishing, car mechanics, and gardening. His most recent craze was restoring antique Primus stoves. He has campaigned for the right of children to have proper relationships with both parents after separation. He has travelled all over the world at other peoples’ expense. For ten years he was with the Antonius Players, performing music and poetry, and writes and performs his own songs.

Louis is the author of many novels, including Captain Correli’s Mandolin, which was made in to a film starring Nicholas Cage. He has also published three poetry books.

Paul Stephenson

Paul Stephenson’s first collection ‘Hard Drive’ was published by Carcanet in 2023. It was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award in the US and UK’s Polari Book Prize. He was a Jerwood/Arvon mentee and took part in The Aldeburgh Eight. He has an MA in Creative Writing with Pedagogy (Poetry) from the Manchester Writing School. He published three previous pamphlets: Those People (Smith/Doorstop, 2015), which won the Poetry Business Pamphlet competition, judged by Billy Collins; The Days that Followed Paris (HappenStance, 2016), written after the November 2015 terrorist attacks, and Selfie with Waterlilies (Paper Swans Press, 2017). He grew up in Cambridge and studied modern languages. He recently co-edited the ‘Ownership’ issue of Magma Poetry. He helps programme Poetry in Aldeburgh.

Poetry Workshop with Julia Webb

The Small Stuff – Finding the Beautiful in the Everyday

In this workshop with award-winning poet Julia Webb, we will look at ways to find inspiration and beauty in the minutiae of everyday life – focusing in closely, or coming at things slant. We will also look at the ways that hope can come even in the darkest times.

This workshop will be held at Stowmarket Library, Milton Road, Stowmarket, IP14 1EX.

It is about one hundred metres away from the John Peel Centre.

Poetry Workshop with Louis de Bernières

Putting the Music into Words

In this workshop, acclaimed novel writer Louis de Bernières shares his passion for poetry and the musicality of words.

This workshop will be held at St. Peter’s Hall, next to Stowmarket Library (IP14 1EX)

Quick Fire Open Mic

The Open Mic with a difference! Yes, it’s an open mic, but you only get two minutes. No explaining, just reading your poetry – with energy and passion.