The countdown has started to the Write Out Loud poetry jam – the utterly and purely open mic jam - at Marsden jazz festival, on Sunday 12 October. In a new move this year the jam has been extended for an extra hour until 2pm at the Railway Inn at Marsden – that’s three hours of free poetry open mic. The pub will be open from from 10.30am, when you can sign up for the open mic, which will run from 11am to 2pm. The Write Out Loud poetry jam at Marsden is something special. Here's what our Manchester reviewer, Judy Gordon, had to say about it last year: “The range of poets and ages at the morning session in the welcoming Railway pub was an eye and ear-opener. They were all there - the young, the older and plenty my age. Men, women, boys, girls, the experienced, the learners, the confident, the nervous, the proud, the modest, the loud, the whisperers, the gentle, the threatening. The quality of the work was the most startling thing – all extremely good, some outstanding and yet more simply astonishing. And the subject matter? How about a football, a lonely whale, child neglect, psychopaths, sex, sheds, a mining disaster, retirement, factory work … it went on and on and was a joy from start to finish.”

In the runup to the jam, Write Out Loud’s co-founder Julian Jordon, who also organises the regular monthly Write Out Loud nights at Marsden and Huddersfield, has been running two linked workshops to help you choose, adapt or create a poem for the jam, with the chance to practise performing at the mic. This year’s workshop features jazz music as inspiration for writing or adapting a poem for you to perform at the jazz festival poetry jam. To book, please call Kirklees Libraries on 01484 223200. If you have any problems booking, contact julian@writeoutloud.net. Most workshop participants go on to read a new poem at the jam.