Two multilingual poets to help celebrate International Mother Language Day in Manchester
Manchester is celebrating International Mother Language Day 2025 with two newly appointed Multilingual City Poets, Charlotte Shevchenko Knight and Nóra Blascsók.
Charlotte Shevchenko Knight is a poet of British and Ukrainian heritage. Her debut collection Food for the Dead, published by Jonathan Cape in 2024, was a winner of an Eric Gregory award (2023) and the Laurel prize for best first collection UK (2024).
Nóra Blascsók is a Hungarian poet based in Manchester. Her work has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies including Magma, The Rialto, Perverse, Shearsman and Bath Magg. Her debut pamphlet ‘<body>of work</body>’ was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2022.
Their tenure will be marked with a celebratory multilingual event at Manchester Poetry Library on Monday 17 February. Doors open 5pm and the event will finish at 7pm. The evening will also feature readings and screenings of poetry films created by previous Manchester City Poets Ali Al Jamri, Anjum Malik and Jova Bagioli Reyes.
International Mother Language Day, which takes place on 21 February each year, is an internationally recognised UNESCO designated day. Manchester City of Literature leads the, now 53, UNESCO Cities of Literature for International Mother Language Day in February each year, to mark the fact that around 200 languages are spoken in Manchester at any one time. IMLD celebrates the importance of motherlLanguages to promote unity in diversity and international understanding through multilingualism and multiculturalism.
Manchester will celebrate the week of International Mother Language Day 2025 with a programme of 20 events across libraries, museums and language centres whilst welcoming new local partners to the celebrations for 2025 including community group Fuse Manchester who are holding a Multilingual Open Mic at Castlefield Viaduct.
All of the events are free to take part in and are suitable for families, particularly as many of them are taking place during February half-term, including the Undertow performance at Manchester Poetry Library, Looking for Languages Trail from Creative Manchester at Manchester Museum, and the Multilingual Storytimes at Insituto Cervantes and Z-arts. More details
