Tour dates: March 2-7, 2026
Submission window for eligible invitations, July 1 – Aug 29, 2025
“I want to celebrate the physical space of libraries and take my work back into places that have given me so much.”
This decade, Simon Armitage is offering free readings in libraries across the UK during one week each spring, from the flagship libraries of the big cities to smaller or mobile libraries serving rural areas
“… from A to Z, wherever the invitations take me.”
Using the alphabet as a compass, his ten-year journey involves local communities, young people (age 11+), readers and writers along the way and celebrates the library as one of the great and necessary institutions.
Does your library’s name or location in the UK (village, town or city, but not street) begin with the letters N, O or P?
If so, your library is welcome to submit an invitation by midnight, August 29, 2025, asking Simon Armitage to visit during the next Laureate’s Library Tour: March 2-7, 2026. Full details can be found in the FAQs below.
Invitations can be made by public libraries, CMLs or any other kind of library in the UK willing to throw open its doors for the occasion, such as private or independent libraries or those in prisons, hospitals, schools or cathedrals, and so on. Small libraries are eligible for celebration. As Simon Armitage says:
“My experience of reading and writing began in the village library where I grew up, then in the nearby town library, then in libraries at various places of study and teaching.”
If your library is a mobile library or home library service, then you will need to be creative about hosting an event. However, please get in touch if you’ve got a good idea!
” The letter X will be interesting – does anywhere in the UK begin with X? I also want to find a way of including alphabet letters from other languages spoken in these islands and to involve communities where English might not be the first language.”
Simon Armitage launched his decade-long tour in Ashby-de-la-Zouch Library (‘A to Z in one go’, as librarians suggested!) in between lockdowns with the A-B Libraries Tour (2021) and C-D Libraries Tour (2022). The E-G Libraries Tour and H-K Libraries Tour followed Covid. Simon Armitage reached the middle of the alphabet last March with the L-M Libraries Tour. You can explore these tours via the links.
Now Simon Armitage is looking ahead to the N, O, P Libraries Tour in March 2026!
There is no application form. If your library is eligible, please email your proposal by Aug 29, covering the list of points in Q5 below. You will hear by mid-October whether your invitation has been successful. Five libraries across the UK will be selected for the N, O, P Libraries Tour 2026.
If your library falls into the second half of the alphabet, please check the annual schedule at the bottom of this webpage for ‘Q’ onwards, including Welsh letters. The decade-long Tour is NOT already booked up! A submission window for invitations opens each summer for the following spring’s tour. Notification is sent out via a range of library and arts organisations but if you wish to join the mailing list for an alert in future years, please email: laureatelibrarytour@gmail.com
“Thank you for understanding our working environment. It means so much to us in libraries when people support our work, and you’ve made the process as painless as possible. […] – there was a terrific energy on the night.”
“We don’t get such high profile events in our smaller libraries so this was a delight for the community.”
“Everyone left feeling really positive and uplifted “, Friends of X Library
Making an invitation – FAQs
Does your library’s name or location (village, town or city but not street) begin with the letters N, O or P?
Sometimes libraries ask whether Simon Armitage will visit their area of the UK again if he’s visited the area before. The answer is yes, if the libraries concerned and their ideas are sufficiently different. In general, the hope is to visit a variety of libraries across the UK insofar as the geographical jigsaw puzzle and annual funding of each tour allows.
Q1. What is Simon Armitage offering?
Simon Armitage hopes that Laureate’s Library Tour events will be celebratory. As a latter-day troubadour, he is offering to give a free live and in-person poetry reading (age 11+) in the library itself.
Simon Armitage would like to encourage libraries to find a way of including any of the following groups in activities during the lead-up to his visit: any group which meets in the library and/or local young people (age 11+) and/or local groups of readers and writers.
He is also keen to hear from libraries that wish to celebrate other languages spoken in the UK and communities where English may not be the first or only language. For example, Harlesden Library in Brent hosted a bi-lingual Somali/English poetry reading and other libraries have celebrated poetry in Scottish Gaelic, Doric, Welsh and Cornish.
Simon Armitage may read solo or will personally invite a guest poet to perform with him during the one hour event. Previously, his guests have included well-published poets and those showcasing talent development schemes such as local Poet Laureates, Young Makars, poets from Representing Wales, local Foyle Young Poet winners or poets on local writer-in-residence schemes. However, to avoid misunderstanding, we must ask please that libraries do not promise the role of guest poet to anyone they may have in mind or a writer who puts themselves forward. Any guest poet will be invited after discussion with the library and a programme has been agreed, but the Tour retains the right to issue the invitation.
Q2. What equipment is required for a poetry reading?
- a lectern + fixed stand-up microphone + PA (even if your library is small, a PA caters for all voices and assists those with hearing loss)
- a table beside the lectern which has space for water for each speaker and room for a speaker’s spare books to rest during their performance.
- although Tour events were live-streamed during Covid, the original aim of the Tour was always to encourage people to celebrate their local library live and in-person in the building itself. This is one of the reasons that filming is no longer offered by the Tour itself or otherwise agreed.
Q3. What about the stage area?
The event should take place live inside the library please, even if other local venues are bigger. The aim of the tour is to bring audiences into libraries wherever possible, not the nearby church or town hall.
The ‘stage’ area can be very simple, but it should:
- be accessible
- provide enough room for a lectern, stand-up microphone & PA
- be reasonably quiet, especially if nearby windows need to be open and traffic noise could be an issue
- avoid a backdrop of large windows without blackout blinds because the performers can become silhouettes and/or distractions are likely behind them, e.g. passers-by including those tempted to peer in, traffic, lights if at night, etc. Of course, bookshelves are just fine as background but some of our hosts have had a lot of fun adding bunting, pot plants or other creative touches.
Q4. What about finance?
There will be no charge to your library for Simon Armitage’s or his guest poets’ performance fees, travel expenses or any hotel costs that may be necessary. These will be covered and administered by the Tour.
Your proposed event for the Laureate Library’s Tour should be free to the in-library audience to make it accessible. If in-library space is limited, you may wish to propose a specific live audience (e.g. pre-invited community or student groups taking part in a project to celebrate the library) although this can have drawbacks if other library-users or the wider community feel excluded. Some libraries have given priority access to certain groups for a percentage of seats instead or created a lottery for seats. Some libraries use an online booking system which allows them to operate a waiting list. You can see the different approaches if you explore archive pages of previous tours (please visit the website menu).
Projects around the visit are welcome, but not essential. Please note that unfortunately the Tour’s funds will not stretch as far as Simon Armitage or the guest poet(s) providing extra time to judge poetry or art competitions or to provide writing workshops alongside your project.
If your library has the facilities to provide refreshments, you can charge the audience but the event tickets should be free.
The decade-long Laureate’s Library Tour is supported by the T. S. Eliot Foundation, Mark Pigott KBE and Simon Armitage’s long-time publishers Faber & Faber. The first two annual legs of the Tour were also kindly funded using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Q5. We’re eligible for the N, O, P Libraries Tour, so how do we make an invitation?
The submission window is open from July 1 until midnight, August 29, 2025. Notification of the window is sent out through a variety of library and arts organisations, and posted on Simon Armitage’s Instagram.
When submitting an invitation by email during this period, please cover the following questions. There is no application form.
- why would you like Simon Armitage to come and celebrate YOUR library?
- what are your ideas for the event?
- do you plan any projects before or after the event?
- do you have preferred day(s) of the week for a visit during the Tour dates, March 2-7, 2026?
- are you thinking of a day-time or evening event?
- where is the nearest parking?
- where is the nearest rail or metro/tube station?
- where in the library are you thinking of staging the event?
- roughly how many people you can seat in the audience? Small libraries are definitely eligible.
- can you set-up a lectern, fixed stand-up mic and PA for the performance?
- can you provide a ‘green room’ at all, e.g. a separate private space for the performers before the event?
- can you cover possible marketing costs such as printed posters (not compulsory) if you are not a public library?
Please email your invitation by midnight, Friday, August 29, 2025 at the very latest to laureatelibrarytour@gmail.com
We will advise by mid-October whether your invitation has been successful. Five libraries across the UK will be selected for the N, O, P Libraries Tour 2026.
Good luck and thank you very much for your interest!
Q6. What if our library’s name or location does not begin with the letters N, O or P?
Please check the chart below to find out when Simon Armitage could be coming your way. The decade is NOT already booked up! A window for invitations will open each summer for the following spring’s tour. The timing of this window may vary because of funding application schedules.
Alphabet compass, including Welsh letters, for each Spring tour
2021 – A, B
2022 – C, D, Ch, Dd
2023 – E, F, G, Ff, Ng
2024 – H, I, J, K
2025 – L, M, Ll
2026 – N, O, P
2027 – Q, R, S, PH, Rh
2028 – T, U, V, Th
2029 – W, X, Y, Z
Contact: laureatelibrarytour@gmail.com