Poet Laureate to attend library festival

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is set to appear at a festival celebrating libraries.

He will be reading poems and answering questions at Eccles Library, Salford for Greater Manchester's Festival of Libraries next month.

Andy Spinoza, the founder of nightlife magazine City Life, and authors Dave Scott and Ed Glinert will also appear at events, with performances and workshops taking place across the region's 133 libraries.

The festival will run from Wednesday 7 June to Sunday 11 June.

As part of the festival, Mr Armitage will also be leading a creative writing masterclass on 9 June at Manchester Central Library.

Scott will appear at Bolton Library, discussing his book Mancunians, which includes interviews with Guy Garvey, Stanley Chow, and Sylvia Tella and Badly Drawn Boy, while Glinert's talk at Altrincham Library will include tales of Manchester's rock and roll history.

Poet Oliver James Lomax will host a poetry workshop for children and Anjum Malik, a multilingual Manchester poet, will be shining a light on the vibrancy of South Asian communities in a workshop at Manchester Central Library.