Early contributors included Beryl Bainbridge, Hanif Kureishi, Martin Amis, Jim Crace, Andrew Davis, Doris Lessing, Edna O’Brien, Richard Eyre, Willy Russell, Arnold Wesker, Alan Bleasdale, Melvyn Bragg, Germaine Greer, Peter Hall and Margaret Drabble, who performed for audiences of more than 2,000 school children.
[citation needed] In later years, the event focussed on poetry, including day-long events with poets such as Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, James Fenton, Tony Harrison, U A Fanthorpe, Benjamin Zephaniah, Simon Armitage, Glyn Maxwell, Gillian Clarke, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Carol Ann Duffy, Liz Lochhead and Andrew Motion.
During the 2009/2010 season the roster included Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitage, Gillian Clarke, John Agard, Imtiaz Dharker, Grace Nichols, Daljit Nagra and Moniza Alvi.
The current (2022/2023) roster includes poet laureate Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy, John Agard, Imtiaz Dharker, Daljit Nagra, Owen Sheers and Grace Nichols.
Poetry Live events always involve a reading by each of the featured poets, including an introduction to the piece which asks students to consider the context in which it was written, and teaches them to differentiate between the poetic and non-poetic voice.