BedfordSHARE: Bedfordshire’s Poetry Together
BedfordSHARE is the umbrella campaign led by Naz Knight as Poetry Champion for Bedfordshire, appointed by the Lord-Lieutenant Susan Lousada, and delivered in partnership with NINE RED Presents…(CIC).
It is a celebration of Luton and Bedfordshire’s talent, skills, creativity and potential. It is about identity and belonging, about the history and heritage of the place and its people, and about how people shape place while place shapes people. It is about celebrating who we are, where we come from, and who we — and the place we live — are becoming.
Celebrating three Luton winners
Three poets connected to Luton were recognised in the 2024 national Poetry Together competition — a project that brings younger and older generations together through the joy of poetry.
In a national year shaped by the theme of friendship, Luton was represented across both the older and younger categories. Their recognition celebrates intergenerational creativity, local talent and poetry’s enduring ability to connect people across age, experience and community.
Poetry, story, reflection and shared cultural expression
BedfordSHARE is Bedfordshire’s Poetry Together umbrella campaign. It brings people together through poetry, story, reflection, creativity, movement and shared cultural expression across the county.
Rooted in Bedfordshire’s communities, BedfordSHARE celebrates local identity, talent, heritage and aspiration. It creates space for people to honour their stories, discover their voices, recognise one another more deeply and contribute to a shared sense of belonging.
Developed in partnership with NINE RED Presents…(CIC), BedfordSHARE supports workshops, writing groups, performances, collaborative poems, anthologies, heritage activity and community-led creative participation that reflect the richness of Bedfordshire and the people who call it home.
What is BedfordSHARE?
BedfordSHARE is the umbrella campaign — the wider vision for celebrating Bedfordshire through creativity, culture, identity, heritage, voice and belonging.
What is Bedfordshire Voices?
Bedfordshire Voices sits within BedfordSHARE as a key delivery strand and community rollout model, currently providing the main live structure for local activity, participation and publication.
Bedfordshire Voices
Bedfordshire Voices is one of the main delivery strands within BedfordSHARE. It brings poetry, reading, listening and reflective writing into local spaces across Bedfordshire through a five-session model designed to help people gather, contribute and create together.
This strand supports people to explore personal and collective stories while helping to shape a wider cultural portrait of Bedfordshire. It creates a pathway from participation to publication, performance and community celebration.
- Five-session local rollout model
- Poetry, story, listening and reflective writing
- Creative activity rooted in place, identity and belonging
- Opportunities for publication, performance and legacy outputs
Go All In Bedfordshire
As part of the wider BedfordSHARE offer, Naz Knight is leading the Bedfordshire Poetry Together campaign in her role as Poetry Champion for Bedfordshire, appointed by the Lord-Lieutenant of Bedfordshire, Susan Lousada. As Bedfordshire’s Poetry Champion, Naz Knight leads the county’s Poetry Together work through BedfordSHARE: Poetry Together is the national intergenerational poetry campaign, BedfordSHARE is its Bedfordshire umbrella, and Bedfordshire Voices is one of its main delivery strands.
Poetry Together brings younger and older generations together through the joy of poetry. It was founded by Gyles Brandreth and has been supported by Her Majesty The Queen. The campaign invites schools, community groups and older people’s settings to connect through poetry, performance, conversation, tea and shared experience.
We are delighted to open entries for 2026. Get involved.
The National Year of Reading: “Go All In” work helps strengthen reading, writing and spoken word participation across Bedfordshire and supports Bedfordshire Voices as a live and active strand of delivery within BedfordSHARE.
How it connects: Poetry Together is the national poetry campaign. Go All In is the National Year of Reading campaign. BedfordSHARE is Naz Knight’s Bedfordshire umbrella campaign, and Bedfordshire Voices is one of its key delivery strands.
A growing ecology of creative and cultural work
BedfordSHARE includes a growing ecology of creative and cultural activity across Bedfordshire. Some strands are already active, while others are still growing into the fuller expression of what they can become.
Bedfordshire Voices
The five-session delivery model for community engagement, listening, writing and shared expression.
The Bards of Bedfordshire
A writing group supporting local writers, confidence, craft and creative development.
The Ballad of Bedfordshire
A collaborative celebration of Bedfordshire through shared words, memory, place and voice.
Arts in Athletics
An evolving strand connecting poetry, movement, sport and wellbeing, with roots in Squash It!, Be a Safe Ally, and Naz Knight’s work as Poet in Residence at Luton Town Football Club.
Bedfordshire Day Book Salon & Poetry Recital
On 28 November 2026, BedfordSHARE will gather writers, readers, families, community groups and spoken-word lovers for the Bedfordshire Day Book Salon & Poetry Recital at the Davis Suite, Rufus Centre, Flitwick.
The daytime Book Salon runs from 10:30am–6:30pm, followed by a seated evening Poetry Recital from 7:30pm–9:30pm. The programme brings together local writing, book stalls, family-friendly literacy activity, community storytelling and spoken word, ending with the live performance of The Ballad of Bedfordshire.
Community voice, preserved on the page
A central aim of BedfordSHARE is to ensure that community voice is not only heard in workshops and events, but preserved on the page. The programme supports a growing body of published work that reflects Bedfordshire’s people, places, stories, perspectives and imagination.
These publications help create a lasting literary legacy for Bedfordshire and celebrate the voices of the communities shaping the county today.
A shared sense of belonging
BedfordSHARE exists to help people feel connected, valued and represented. It celebrates Luton and Bedfordshire’s talent, creativity, resilience and voice, while creating space for people to reflect on identity, heritage, memory and possibility.
It is about the relationship between people and place — how Bedfordshire shapes us, and how we, in turn, shape Bedfordshire. Through this work, poetry and creativity become ways of honouring where we come from, recognising who we are, and imagining who we are becoming together.
Join, partner, host or support the work
There are many ways to be part of BedfordSHARE. You may wish to join a session, register your interest in Bedfordshire Voices, partner as an organisation, support publication, host activity in your venue or explore future commissioning opportunities.
- Join Bedfordshire Voices activity
- Partner with us as a school, library, venue or community organisation
- Support anthology and publication development
- Commission poetry, participation or community-led creative activity
- Take part in future events, workshops and performances