The theme of the 2026 Festival is Uncertainty, appropriate for our uncertain times. I am delighted and honoured to be a guest poet. I will be launching the publication of The Somerset Barn at the Festival on 6th September 2026
The Festival begins on Friday evening, 4th September and a great line up and a good craic is assured all weekend.
2025’s festival had the theme of Connections and in addition to the fascinating readers there was an exhibition of visual and text poetry, with a tribute to the work of Alan Halsey.
The The Tears in the Fence Festival 2024 celebrated forty years of independent literary publishing. It is a privilege to write my column, Electric Blue, for this fine journal.
The Tears in the Fence Festival theme 2023 was ‘Permacrisis, Reconciliation and Survival’. I wrote about the theme in Tears in the Fence issue 78.
The Tears in the Fence Festival theme 2022 was Bewilderment / Be-wildered/ Be wild. My Festival address on the theme was published in Tears in the Fence issue 76.
Morag Smyth 