AS the current Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion’s ten-year term in the position nears an end, Ledbury Poetry Festival has launched a campaign urging the appointment of a woman to the role.

Earlier this year, festival director Chloe Garner wrote to The Queen, the Prime Minister, the leaders of the Conservativie and LibDems, David Cameron and Nick Clegg and to Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport setting out her case.

“There has been no female Poet Laureate since the royal household created the formal position for John Dryden in 1668,” she wrote, adding that “There is nothing in the rules (that) actually debars women and there are many splendid female poets from all generations writing and performing in Britain today.” In support of her campaign, Chloe pointed out that a BBC Radio 4 poll taken in 1998, ahead of Andrew Motion’s appointment, voted for Wendy Cope as the poet they would most like to see in the job.

The question will be debated at the festival when William Sieghart, founder of National Poetry Day and Forward Poetry Prizes appears with author and journalist, Cressida Connolly in ‘The State of the Poetry Nation’ to ask ‘Should the next Poet Laureate be a woman?’.

“The festival will provide a valuable forum for discussion on the topic,” said Andy Burnham in response to Chloe Garner’s original letter. “This is a timely opportunity to stimulate public interest in the role of the Poet Laureate and poetry in general.” “I think it is important that young girls see the position of Poet Laureate as something they can aspire to,” says Chloe Garner. “Isn’t it about time we officially recognised that women also write poetry?” For full details of this year’s Ledbury Poetry Festival programme, visit poetry-festival.com.