An inclusive poetry festival aims to provide a platform for “unsung heroes” of poetry as well as internationally-acclaimed poets next month.

Cheltenham poetry festival, which this year has expanded from five to eight days - from Saturday 20 April to Sunday 28 April - is devoted to poetry “in all its manifestations”, says festival director Anna Saunders.

She added: “We wanted to create a stage to bring international names to Cheltenham. But we also wanted lots of brilliant, unpublished poets out there to be heard, too. We feel we have a really strong mix.”

There is no shortage of big poetry names at Cheltenham – stars include Elaine Feinstein, Bernard O’Donoghue, Nick Drake, Fiona Sampson, and Christopher Reid -  but events also include slams, workshops, experimental music and poetry with film, readings by members of Cheltenham Poetry Society and Stroud Pamphlet Poets, ukuleles, a “poetry rodeo”, and a final-night “poetry riot” of stand-up poetry and acoustic hip-hop.

The festival is in its third year, having been launched even though, as Anna acknowledges, the existing Cheltenham literature festival contains a strong poetry programme. But she feels that whereas the literature festival events generally take place in big marquees, the poetry festival, spread around cafes, hotels, and coffee shops among other venues throughout the town, provides an alternative experience. “Each venue has a different flavour,” she said. 

Despite the recession, tickets sales are up again this year, with signs that the festival audience is coming from further afield, such as Birmingham and Bristol, as well as Cheltenham.

Festival director Anna herself will be reading at an event with Nick Drake and Carolyn Finlay, on Saturday 27 April. Her first collection, Communion, was published in 2012, and a second is due out next year. The festival is already planning for 2014, with events to mark the centenary of Dylan Thomas a focal point.

And as an “unsung” poet myself, I must declare an interest. I will be making a guest appearance at a Cheltenham event, the poetry of travel, headlined by James Knox Whittet, on Sunday 21 April, and staying in the town for the rest of the week to immerse myself in the festival action, and to send out a regular – or irregular – blog, if my technical abilities allow, to readers of Write Out Loud. I’m really looking forward to it all.