What was your first experience of computers? I walked into a room at Smith College, in the US, filled with computers, an electronic treasure trove where students showed me how to turn squiggles of ink on paper into squiggles of light on a screen. I'm still experimenting with the fascinating possibilities of manipulation of text.

How does using a computer affect writing your poetry? I still write drafts by hand, then I type it into my computer for polishing and choosing the font and spacing, something a poet could not do before IT became available.

Do you write multimedia poetry? I love the intimacy of words on paper. It's too easy for multimedia poetry to become entertainment, where images distract the viewer from the complexities of meaning. Words on a screen resonate on the screen. Words on paper resonate in the mind.

How have other poets reacted to the technology? Email doesn't intrude as the phone does, shattering your concentration. You can polish your words. Any poet with a computer and a photocopier can become a publisher. But computers may invite you to become glib; they make writing so easy that poems can lack the necessary scrupulous attention to detail.

Has any good poetry been written about IT or the net? I like Edwin Morgan's witty poem The Computer's First Christmas Card and Robert Crawford's book, Spirit Machines contains several computer related poems.

How do IT and the net contribute to the festival? We have a website (see www.poetry-festival.com) providing a virtual programme. Details of our poetry competition were posted, allowing poets to enter by email. On July 7, Christina Patterson, director of the Poetry Society and poets Gwyneth Lewis and Don Patterson will discuss the impact of IT and the net.

What will you be doing as virtual poet in residence? I'll choose a book each month and enter into a dialogue with the readers via the website (see www.nlb.uk.org), post recordings of me reading poetry and will facilitate the writing of poetry by visitors. Blind poets have several problems - finding source material, mobility problems, lack of accessible writers groups and sources of feedback which comprehends their specific needs. This residency can bring some solutions.

Any favourite sites? Ask Jeeves for general inquiries, www.lit-net.org, the electronic noticeboard for literature in the west midlands and www.bbc.co.uk to check Radio 3 schedules and cricket results. Cricket is the poetry of sports.

• The Ledbury Poetry Festival runs from June 28 to July 8.