A young poet is launching his debut collection in Leeds, amid some controversy over whether or not the city is a literary backwater, and an anthology competition aimed specifically at young poets with a Leeds postcode. Matthew Hedley Stoppard’s A Family Behind Glass, published by Scarborough’s Valley Press, will be launched at the Chemic Tavern in Headingley on Friday 10 May, from 7pm. The poet is co-organiser of regular Words On Tap poetry nights at the Chemic, and the evening will include a performance from Wakefield punk poet Matt Abbott, music, and a competition, Bards in Their Eyes, in which contestants must perform their best impressions of famous wordsmiths, alive and dead.

The launch comes amid a ripple of controversy after a Hebden Bridge publisher seized on a remark by Granta magazine’s American editor John Freeman to claim in a Guardian blog that he was accusing Leeds of being a literary backwater. Freeman had said that Leeds was “completely out of the literary world”. 

Ross Jamieson, online editor of Bluemoose Books, said: “The more I read it, the clearer it says: Leeds is un-literary, it does not register on the literary landscape, and it is remarkable that anyone from Leeds could possibly produce anything literary at all.” Among the online comments a number accused Jamieson of trying to stir up a storm in a cup of Yorkshire tea.

Meanwhile a new anthology of contemporary Yorkshire poetry, Versions of the North, has just been launched in Leeds. In addition, Valley Press themselves is preparing LS13, an anthology of poetry and fiction from 20 writers under the age of 40 who currently have a Leeds postcode.  Submissions are open for the anthology until a closing date of 18 May.