The first Poetry Cities project occurred this time last year in 2021.

It was celebrated at the time as a welcome virtual escape, an opportunity to travel without travelling in the midst of lockdown. It was mostly online by necessity.

Since then, in September 2021 Manchester Poetry Library opened its doors to its first visitors. We were delighted to show our public the wonderful books generously donated to the library from our partner cities in an actual physical display; and it was with a sense of almost completeness, that last month we welcomed our first visiting performers poet  Mireia Calafell and  Björt Rùnars from a partner city, thanks to the support of Barcelona City of Literature/Institut de Cultura.

Yet, none of this diminishes the capacity the online exhibition has to transport us elsewhere. As the most recent contributions show, poetry can be a door to a city, on its river or on its market, to its past or to its present. This year we are delighted to have five new poetry doors open onto five new cities for you to explore: Nottingham, Barcelona, Slemani, Exeter and Quebec City.

While the pandemic was a presiding concern during the first stage of this project, we are now of course watching with the greatest concern the war in Ukraine. The first refugees from the conflict have already arrived here in Manchester. Our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine and our partner Cities of Literature Lviv (designated 2015) and Odessa (2019).

Becky and the Manchester Poetry Library team.