Poetry Parnassus

Hear poets from every competing Olympic nation read at the Southbank Centre's mammoth Poetry Parnassus festival.

Poetry Parnassus at the Southbank Centre

The Southbank Centre has invited a poet from each of the 204 nations competing in the London 2012 Olympic Games to join its week-long poetry festival – the largest ever staged in the UK.

At Poetry Parnassus you can hear readings from the poets, join in workshops and enjoy a special gala event with all the poets.  

As well as listening to English-language poems, you will be able to hear poets read in their own language. Translations will be provided as printouts or projected onto a screen, and interpreters will translate into English during workshops.

Poetry Parnassus: The Poets

The Southbank Centre received more than 5,000 nominations of potential poets to take part in Poetry Parnassus from the public and poetry organisations round the world.

The names of the selected 204 poets – one from each of the competing Olympic nations – will be announced in February 2012.

Poetry Parnassus is led by the Southbank Centre's artist in residence, Simon Armitage, and is part of the London 2012 Festival.

Rain of Poems

Poetry Parnassus will open with a remarkable Rain of Poems, as 100,000 bookmark shaped poems, collectively weighing half a tonne, are released from a helicopter in just half an hour, to be caught by a crowd waiting on Jubilee Gardens, next to the London Eye. (26 June, 9pm, weather permitting.)