What happens when poets turn to their own lives for material — or to the lives of those they carry within them?  

In this powerful event, renowned poet Lemn Sissay, and poet, writer, actor and translator Nandana Dev Sen, explore how poetry becomes a form of biography: personal, political, fragmented, and deeply felt. Through memory, myth, and metaphor, poets shape experience into language that can be both intimate and universal.  

From migration to love, loss to inheritance, we ask: how do poets tell the story of a life? And is poetry closer to truth — or to the imagination that makes truth bearable? 

Please note, this event venue and time has changed from the printed festival programme.