The 2015 general election is officially under way – and the poetry world is getting in on the act. Organisers of Cheltenham poetry festival are holding Vote for the Verse, a Poetry Election, in which the six parliamentary candidates for Cheltenham perform their favourite poems. Alex Chalk (Con), Adam Van Coevorden (Green), Paul Gilbert (Lab), Martin Horwood (Lib Dem), Richard Lupson-Darnell (Ind), and Christina Simmonds (Ukip) will be appearing at Francis Close Hall Chapel, at Cheltenham’s University of Gloucestershire campus on Swindon Road, on Wednesday 15 April at 7pm. Entry is free.

Meanwhile on the same night in London, the Emma Press will be launching its latest anthology. Campaign in Poetry is an anthology of political poems that “engage with the concerns of voters, including unconvincing politicians and social inequality”. Those reading will be Mona Arshi, Kayo Chingonyi, Dai George, Jan Heritage, Holly Hopkins, Luke Kennard, Anna Kisby, Rachel Long, Richard O’Brien, Clare Pollard, Ewan Stevenson, Jon Stone, James Trevelyan and Kate Wise. Entry is free to the event, upstairs at the Betsey Trotwood pub, in Farringdon Road, 7.30pm for 8.