{"id":11180,"date":"2026-06-27T14:18:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T07:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/kendal-mountain-festival-names-helen-mort-as-first-poet-laureate\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T14:18:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T07:18:37","slug":"kendal-mountain-festival-names-helen-mort-as-first-poet-laureate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/kendal-mountain-festival-names-helen-mort-as-first-poet-laureate\/","title":{"rendered":"Kendal Mountain Festival Names Helen Mort as First Poet Laureate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Helen Mort has been appointed as the first poet laureate of the Kendal Mountain Festival<\/a>, a position she described as making her "absolutely thrilled." Mort, a poet and novelist with a strong connection to the festival, has been involved for several years and expressed her excitement upon learning of her selection, stating she did a<\/p>\n

"little jump for joy." The Kendal Mountain Festival, which has been celebrating the arts and outdoor culture since 1980, is complemented by a concurrent book festival<\/a> that is marking its 10th anniversary this year.<\/p>\n

In her role as poet laureate, Mort will be responsible for creating and organizing events for the book festival, writing a festival poem, and overseeing the inaugural children\u2019s poetry competition for schools in north-west England.<\/p>\n

This competition will focus on themes related to mountains, nature, wildlife, and the outdoors, aiming to inspire young poets in the region.<\/p>\n

Mort expressed particular enthusiasm for the schools poetry competition, reflecting on her own journey as a poet.<\/p>\n

She noted, "It was through competitions for young people that I first got recognised as a poet when I was at school." She emphasized how such initiatives helped her gain confidence and recognition, which significantly influenced her career path.<\/p>\n

Mort began writing at a young age, and she believes that the engagement from published writers during her formative years was pivotal in shaping her future.<\/p>\n

Paul Scully, the director of the book festival, highlighted the festival's commitment to integrating poetry into its programming.<\/p>\n

He remarked, "Over the years we\u2019ve had the odd bit of poetry, but we really want to bring poetry back into the festival to sit alongside all our non-fiction and bits of fiction as well." Scully praised Mort's long-standing contributions, stating, "Helen has been an integral member of the festival, sharing her talent, creativity,<\/p>\n

and excellence in creative writing and poetry for many years." Mort's appointment as the first poet laureate marks a significant step in enhancing the festival's literary offerings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Helen Mort has been named the first poet laureate of the Kendal Mountain Festival, expressing her excitement about the role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":11182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[659,655,654,658,656,657],"class_list":["post-11180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-book-festival","tag-helen-mort","tag-kendal-mountain-festival","tag-mountain-literature","tag-poet-laureate","tag-poetry-competition"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11183,"href":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11180\/revisions\/11183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heibola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}