Poetry Day will have a novel feel to it this year as it will be a digital festival amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Poetry Ireland has announced that the event on Thursday 30 April will be a digital-only experience, to allow everyone to take part from the safety of their own home.

Now in its sixth year, the annual celebration will take a different approach with the ongoing fight against Covid-19 with interactive opportunity for everyone to connect through virtual poetry workshops, video poetry readings, social media and much more. 

Events include a poetry themed virtual pub quiz, an online poetry workshop for beginners and video readings from the shortlisted poets for The Moth Poetry Prize, in the run-up to the live announcement of the winner of the €10,000 prize.

A number of well-known figures will read poetry in a series of videos, while further programme details will be announced in the coming days - see the Poetry Day website for updates.

The theme this year - 'There will be time’ – was partly chosen as 2020 is a leap year, when we gain an extra day of time that didn't exist in the previous year.

Today, the theme of time resonates with us in another way due to the impact of the Covid-19 measures on our daily lives and our sense of time passing.. 

There is still plenty of time for people to register their virtual/online only event on the Poetry Day website.