RACHEL Phipps is busy all year round running The Woodstock Bookshop. Here she explains how she turns her attention to poetry when Autumn comes around, with the town's festival attracting many well-known poets.

THE programme for Woodstock Poetry Festival has just been announced and this year's festival – the sixth – is once again a mix of new and established names, involving some of our best poets at several different venues in Woodstock.

Most readings are upstairs in Woodstock Town Hall, but there is a children's event at Woodstock Library, a mesmeric 'telling' of TS Eliot's Four Quartets in Woodstock Methodist Church and the finale, in Woodstock Social Club, is the local DellyWellyBoot Band joined by Oxford poet Bernard O'Donoghue and the legendary folk singer Peggy Seeger.

The poetry festival attracts poetry lovers from around the country and brings quite a buzz to Woodstock.

It is beloved by the poets, because it is small and the audience is friendly and intelligent.

Tea is served between events so poets and poetry lovers have the chance to meet and talk.

Part of the intention behind the festival is to offer a platform to local poetry groups and over the last five years several groups have appeared, including two Stanza groups and an Oxford-based women's group.

Unpublished poets are welcome to read their work at an open mic: Jenny Lewis, of The Poets House, Oxford, has led this very popular session for several years, creating a warm and encouraging environment that is always very well attended.

This year she also introduces three new pamphlets by Adnan al-Sayegh, Sarah Watkinson and Gina Wilson.

The festival attracts major poets.

In previous years there have been readings by Carol Ann Duffy, Alice Oswald, Liz Lochhead, Liz Berry, Sarah Howe, Michael Longley and Tony Harrison, to name just a few.

This year the festival opens on November 10 with Douglas Dunn and Jim Carruth.

Douglas Dunn was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for poetry in 2013 and he is reading from his first collection for over 15 years.

He is joined by Jim Carruth, poet laureate of Glasgow, who will read from Black Cart, his recent book.

Anne Stevenson, the highly acclaimed Anglo-American poet, makes a rare appearance the next day, followed by George Szirtes and David Harsent, both previous winners of the TS Eliot Prize.

Younger poets are also represented – this year there's Keith Jarrett, former London and UK Poetry Slam! champion, with playwright and poet Caroline Bird, described by Simon Armitage as 'irrepressible; she simply explodes with poetry'.

For the first time two of the best independent publishers of poetry are coming to discuss their work – Jane Commane, founder of Nine Arches Press and Emma Wright, founder of The Emma Press, with two each of the poets they have published.

Smaller presses play a vital role in championing new writers and bringing to attention people who might not otherwise be heard.

Woodstock Poetry Festival was started and is run by Rachel Phipps, owner/manager of The Woodstock Bookshop.

It has no external funding, apart from a much welcome contribution from Princeton University Press (whose European headquarters are based across the road from the bookshop in Woodstock), to cover the flyers.

Poets' fees are paid entirely by book and ticket sales – so do book tickets and contribute to the life of the festival!

Full details are available atprotect-eu.mimecast.com/s/W9LLBi2eMMAu1.

Tickets by phone or email from 01993 812760 info@woodstockbookshop.co.uk.