THE first ever Stourbridge Literary Festival is set celebrate the written word throughout a number of events this month.

Organised by Katie Fitzgerald’s landlord and musician Eddy Morton, the lit fest will feature performances from a variety of local and national writers.

Taking place at the Wollaston pub from April 25 to May 4, the event – which will also include poetry and spoken word – is being held in support of Amnesty International and has already received the backing of Black Country Arts, Stourbridge Library and Waterstones in Merry Hill.

The festival’s first event is ‘Wild Verse‘, on Wednesday, April 26, and features Stourbridge authors and poets.

This will be followed by ‘Voices from the Mountain and beyond’ in the cellar bar from 8.30pm on Thursday, April 27, where writers and poets from Wales, including Ben Smith and Niall Griffiths, Rhys Milsom, Rhian Elizabeth and Martin Wall, will perform.

Black Country authors will feature at the festival on Friday, April 28, from 8.30pm, before a New Street Authors writing workshop takes to the cellar bar from 3pm on Saturday, April 29.

A ‘Different Voices’ event on Sunday, April 30, will include poets from Worcestershire, and Northern Voices will see Russ Litten, Harry Gallagher, Jane Burn and Keiva take to the stage. Also from 3pm is a workshop with Rob Francis and performances from Black Shamrocks with Gus Nwanokwu, as well as an open stage event.

On Wednesday, May 4, an audio visual event featuring Daniel Rachel, who will talk about Rock against Racism, Red Wedge and other political/music movements, will take place at 8.30pm in the cellar bar.

A photography exhibition at Stourbridge Library will form part of the festival between April 26 and May 4, where work from Dave Kiteley Lee Benson and Poetry in Vision will be displayed.

To mark the town’s first ever literary festival, organisers are hosting a ‘Poetry for Freedom Competition’ where they will produce a book of poetry under the theme of freedom.

The winning poem, selected by judges will receive £50 cash, while the entire collection will be published by APS publishing with all profits from the sale of the book going to Amnesty International.

To submit an entry into the Poetry for Freedom Competition, send a PDF, word doc or text file, to Katie Fitzgerald’s Facebook page or email morton.david50@yahoo.co.uk.

Entries costs £2.50 and all poems submitted will appear in the collection, although anything that is deemed inappropriate will be refused.

For more information about the festival, or to buy tickets, visit www.katiefitzgeralds.co.uk