A Lovely Poetry Festival presents... Lemn Sissay: My Name Is Why

We are so excited to bring you Lemn Sissay, reading from ‘My Name is Why’ as part of A Lovely Poetry Festival. 

Infused with all the lyricism and power you would expect from one of the nation’s best-loved poets, this moving, frank and timely event is the result of a life spent asking questions, and a celebration of the redemptive power of creativity.

Featuring opening performances from local poets, and followed by a Q&A from Lemn.

“Lemn Sissay is something
of a literary institution…”
The Big Issue

Lemn Sissay OBE is a poet playwright, memoirist performer and broadcaster.

Official Poet of the London 2012 Olympics, Lemn has read on stage throughout the world, from The Library of Congress in The United States to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, from the Opera House of Dubai to London Palladium and finally to the heady hights of Wigan library in… Wigan.  

Lemn was awarded The Pen Pinter Prize in 2019, when his memoir ‘My name Is Why’ reached number one in The Sunday Times bestseller list. 

If you google the name ‘Lemn Sissay’ all the returning hits will be about him. There is only one person in the world named Lemn Sissay.

Lemn is Chancellor of The University of Manchester and patron of Twenty Stories High. He is artistic advisor to The Manchester International festival and was the Guest Director of Brighton Festival 2020 and 2021.  

Lemn read at Sir Paul McCartney’s Book launch at Queen’s Theatre in The West End. In 2018 Julie Hesmondhalgh read his psychologists report for a court case he was bringing against the government.  The report at the royal Court  sold out in 24 hours and became national news.  Lemn has written a series of plays. ‘Something Dark’ won a race in the media award. On  the national curriculum as a choice text  his stage adaption of Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy is published by Oberon Books.

Presented as part of A Lovely Poetry Festival