THE Dorothy Wordsworth Festival of Women’s Poetry sees some of the leading poetic voices around descend on Grasmere.

Running from Friday-Sunday, April 11-13, Dove Cottage, the former home of William Wordsworth, is preparing to welcome Carol Ann Duffy, but it is the life and work of William’s sister Dorothy that the current Poet Laureate will be celebrating.

Carol Ann explained that in 2010, when she became Laureate, she was approached by the Wordsworth Trust about running a weekend dedicated to women’s poetry.

She added: “It seemed appropriate for us to do this in the name of Dorothy Wordsworth, a nurturing spirit behind William and herself an enormous talent. The Dorothy Wordsworth Festival of Women’s Poetry is now a biennial event, and I am delighted to be presenting the third festival in 2014.”

During the weekend, Carol Ann will introduce the evening readings, as well as reading herself on the final evening, in the beautiful setting of St Oswald’s Church, the final resting place of William and Dorothy.

As well as readings, each featuring three female poets, the weekend features poetry workshops, interviews with some of the visiting poets, plus a number of talks and discussion events. These include Writing Motherhood, a special event where three poets will read work inspired by their roles as mothers, and explore the relationship between motherhood and writing.

Featured will be Rebecca Goss, whose collection of poems Her Birth was shortlisted for the Forward Prize, plus Sinead Morrissey, Poet Laureate of Belfast and winner of this year’s TS Eliot Prize. Other events include director of the Poetry Society Judith Palmer introducing some of the great poetry written by women to have come out of the First World War.

The line-up for the weekend is a list of some of the finest women poets currently writing.

Patience Agbabi, one of UK’s most popular poet-performers, will be reading from her modern reworking of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Irish poet Rita Ann Higgins will give one of her legendary raucous, anarchic readings, and Durham-based Gillian Allnutt will read her spare meditations, exploring spirituality in all its guises.

The full programme is available at www.wordsworth.org.uk or from the trust on 015394-35544.