Poem of the week: Poema by Maria Teresa Horta, translated by Lesley Saunders
With an erotically charged, fairytale atmosphere, this stealthy poem is a striking assertion of its author’s status as an artist and radical thinkerPoemI let him come.He sneaks on tiptoeright up to my...
View ArticleJarman winner Heather Phillipson: 'My next work will be furious. Fascism is...
She is an acclaimed poet but the page is not enough. This year’s winner of the Jarman award talks about the anger and anxiety behind her giant feet and exploding dogsHeather Phillipson is talking human...
View ArticleTranslation Tuesday: Look at Winter in a Certain Way by Chou Meng-tieh
A seminal poem by the late Chou Meng-tieh, regarded as a pioneer of Taiwanese poetryBy Chou Meng-tieh and Lee Yew Leong for Translation Tuesdays byAsymptote, part of the Guardian Books NetworkRegarded...
View ArticleGun that almost killed Arthur Rimbaud sells for €435,000 at Paris auction
Seven-millimetre revolver poet Paul Verlaine used in failed attempt to kill his lover fetches more than seven times its estimate The most famous gun in French literary history, used by Paul Verlaine...
View ArticlePhilip Larkin memorial to join literary greats in Westminster Abbey
Purbeck stone inscribed with lines from one of poet’s most loved works will be unveiled on 31st anniversary of his deathA memorial stone to the poet Philip Larkin, inscribed with lines from one of his...
View ArticlePhilip Larkin didn’t need a place in Poets’ Corner – but he deserves it |...
Thirty-one years after his death, the most quotable British poet of the 20th century takes his rightful place in Westminster AbbeyDo poets need monuments? Not according to Horace, writing in the first...
View ArticleKate Kellaway’s best poetry books of 2016
From Denise Riley’s Say Something Back to Katharine Towers’s The Remedies, women’s voices dominate the year in poetryAs well as picking out collections for the Observer’s monthly column, I have, this...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Lake of Memories by Howard Altmann
With a carefully halting structure, this is an elegantly condensed reflection on psychological scarring and healingThe Lake of MemoriesVoices sitlike broken chairsin a room.Related: Poem of the week:...
View ArticleOscar Wilde’s prison cell key goes up for auction
Iron key was used to lock Reading jail cell C.3.3 where writer was imprisoned for homosexual offencesThe plain iron key to Oscar Wilde’s cell door at Reading jail, a macabre souvenir of the period that...
View ArticleLatin American authors bewildered by Donald Trump: 'I just can't believe it'
Some of Latin America’s leading literary figures gathered at the Oaxaca International Book Fair and discussed the president-elect and what lies aheadAt the 36th edition of the Oaxaca international book...
View ArticleChristine Tobin: Pelt review – powerful collaboration with poet Paul Muldoon
(Trail Belle)The Pulitzer-winning poet Paul Muldoon is fascinated by the links between poetry and song, and here he accepts an invitation from his jazz-singing, poetry-loving Irish compatriot Christine...
View ArticlePoster poems: hope
Amid so many ominous events in the wider world, writing poetry is a small but significant way to sustain our spirits. For one last time, please share yoursIn his great inverted sonnet Work Without...
View ArticleThe 100 best nonfiction books: No 46 – The Waste Land by TS Eliot (1922)
TS Eliot’s long poem, written in extremis, came to embody the spirit of the years following the first world warThe Great War was a mass slaughter. It also became the catalyst for a social and cultural...
View ArticleKate Tempest webchat – post your questions now
The poet and rapper is joining us to answer your questions in a live webchat on Wednesday 14 December – post them in the comments below 8.43am GMTKate Tempest moves in the grey areas between rapper and...
View ArticlePoem of the week: RS Thomas on The Dressmakers by William Roberts
A taut, sharp response to a single painting reflects on its erotic and mythological resonanceI return to itagain: avid faces,conscious of the threadsfate has spun; fingerswith scissors to cutthose...
View ArticleTidings by Ruth Padel – unsentimental evocation of the Christmas spirit
Ruth Padel’s unsentimental narrative poem about a homeless man at Christmas evokes the true festive spiritTidings – of what? Ruth Padel knows that comfort and joy are no more reliable at Christmas than...
View ArticleRichard McKane obituary
My brother, Richard McKane, who has died aged 68 of pneumonia, was a poet, interpreter and translator. While he was a second-year undergraduate at Oxford University, his translations from Russian of...
View ArticleBBCSO/Oramo review – a bewitching poetic meditation
Barbican, LondonKaija Saariaho’s song cycle True Fire wove works by Emerson and Heaney into a pulsing sonic web, with baritone Gerald Finley exemplary at its heartTrue Fire, Kaija Saariaho’s new song...
View ArticleHidden gems of 2016: great reads you may have missed
From AJ Lees’s extraordinary memoir Mentored By a Madman to Fiona Melrose’s Midwinter and Julie Myerson’s chiller The Stopped Heart, our critics recommend the reads that slipped under the radarContinue...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Good Shepherd by Stanley Moss
How glad should the lost lamb be to have been found? This sensitive, wry take on the Bible story wonders what’s so great about getting savedThe Good Shepherd Because he would not abandon the flock for...
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