Kendal Mountain Festival has announced that it has appointed its first Laureate.
Poet and author Helen Mort has taken on the role to support Kendal’s book festival as it expands across genres within nature writing, environmental fiction and children’s adventure storytelling as well as the Kendal for Schools outreach programme.
Paul Scully, Kendal Mountain’s book festival director, said: “We are so excited to announce our first Laureate for the festival.
“Helen has been an integral member of the festival, sharing her talent, creativity and excellence in creative writing and poetry for many years.
“With Helen’s support, we are looking forward to engaging with new writers across all ages, and providing them with a platform to share their stories.”
The Kendal for Schools outreach programme was set up in 2011 to work with schools across the North West of England.
Each year the Kendal Mountain Festival invites over 1,700 children aged eight to 13 to a specially curated mini-festival.
In partnership with the Wordsworth Trust, and to celebrate Kendal’s first Laureate, Kendal Mountain Festival will launch a children’s poetry competition relating to mountain, nature, wildlife and the outdoors.
Helen said: “Entering a poetry competition for young writers changed my life when I was at school.
“Just knowing that someone else was reading my words and taking them seriously was a big deal.
“To be Kendal’s first Laureate and lead their first young writers’ poetry competition fills me with utter joy!”
Zoë McLain, education development manager at the Wordsworth Trust, said: “We are thrilled to partner with Kendal and Helen on such a wonderful and important project.
“This poetry competition offers the opportunity for children and young people to take inspiration from the natural world around them and their interaction with it on a daily basis.
“We look forward to hearing from the fell runners, writers and botanists of the future through their own words.”
The poetry competition will be open for all schools in the North West of England connected to the Kendal for Schools outreach programme.
The winners will be announced at the festival in November.
