TWO up-and-coming young poets are to appear at Bolton Octagon Theatre as part of Manchester Poetry Festival 2004.

Matthew Hollis and Jacob Polley will be at the Octagon during the festival week, from October 7 to 16, as a host of poetry-related activity takes place as part of the 11th Manchester Poetry Festival.

Publishers Faber and Faber will be celebrating its 75th anniversary during the festival, and there will be a special gala reading at the Whitworth Art Gallery featuring Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitage and Tom Paulin.

Meanwhile, Australian writer Les Murray is flying in to perform at Manchester's new Poetry School, and the cream of Hungarian poets are arriving to read with the cream of new British poets at Central Library.

For details, visit www.manchesterpoetryfestival.co.uk.