Mexborough poetry reading helps spread word on former Laureate Ted Hughes

Former Poet Laureate Mr Hughes’ contribution to poetry had been honoured with the creation of the Ted Hughes Network, which aims to organise events celebrating his work and secure funding for a new Ted Hughes Trail.

The formal launch took place at the Heritage Quay archives centre run by the University of Huddersfield, which is co-ordinating and curating the network.

Speakers also included poet Christopher Reid and lecturer and writer Dr Steve Ely.

The new Ted Hughes Network will work closely with organisations such as The Ted Hughes Society, The Elmet Trust and the Ted Hughes Project (South Yorkshire).  

One goal is to secure funding for a Yorkshire-wide Ted Hughes Literary and Heritage Trail.

In March 2017, Hughes’s Gaudete is to be performed at Huddersfield’s Lawrence Batley Theatre and in June 2017, there will be an international conference at the University of Huddersfield titled Ted Hughes and Place, followed by a Ted Hughes and Creative Writing Symposium in 2018.   

Dr Heather Clark, a leading scholar of Ted Hughes and his poet wife Sylvia Plath, has been appointed a visiting professor and will dwell in the Mytholmroyd birthplace of Hughes, where she will work on her new biography of the husband-and-wife poets.