How our poet laureate has embraced his new role
Simon Armitage’s output since being made poet laureate is to be lauded, while his musical counterpart prefers to keep a low profilePoet laureate Simon Armitage read out his latest work, Fugitives, on...
View ArticleBritten Sinfonia / Gourlay review – Turnage and Clayton sing out for refugees
Milton Court, LondonPoems on displacement by Benjamin Zephaniah, Brian Bilston, Dickinson and Auden drive a weighty new song cycle by Mark-Anthony Turnage, delivered masterfully by Allan...
View ArticleRadical verse versus the poetic traditions | Letters
Poetry that breaks the rules is not the only poetry worth reading, argues Richard MeierHow could one not welcome, as Fiona Sampson does (Review, 14 September), the fact that “at long last, diverse...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Station to Station by David Clarke
Moving between the continent and a grimy England, the dying days of an ambiguous relationship are recordedStation to StationZoologischer GartenThe dawn comes pre-soundtracked –shimmers of Moog, the...
View ArticleAl Alvarez obituary
Writer, critic and poetry editor of the Observer best known for The Savage God, a meditation on literary suicideIf one credits the title of his autobiography from 1999 – Where Did it All Go Right? –...
View Article$625,000 'genius grants' go to Ocean Vuong and six other writers
The MacArthur Foundation honours, which encourage winners to ‘continue to innovate’, also won by Valeria Luiselli, Lynda Berry and Emily WilsonOcean Vuong, the award-winning poet who came to the US...
View Article'I felt changed': Max Porter on the book everyone should read about grief
Written after the death of her son, Denise Riley’s Time Lived, Without Its Flow finds radical and consoling ways to understand bereavementI wrote a short novel about grief. One of its central conceits...
View ArticleAl Alvarez: in praise of a literary cowboy
People lover, adrenaline freak, poker player and true romantic... the Observer’s former poetry editor remembered by his publisher• Al Alvarez remembered by playwright Patrick MarberAl Alvarez, who died...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Drama Lessons for Young Girls by Tara Bergin
Three strikingly different subjects are fused into one powerful feminist parableDrama Lessons for Young Girls Remember:in a stage play every scene is driven by OBJECTIVES.Every scene is driven by WHAT...
View ArticleElaine Feinstein obituary
Poet and novelist who transformed literary writing in the 1970sElaine Feinstein, who has died aged 88, was a leading poet and the bringer of a new internationalism to British verse. As a novelist, she...
View ArticleBob Marley's London home gets one of few blue plaques for black artists
Plaque at Chelsea house where reggae star lived in the 70s one of ‘unacceptably low’ number Benjamin Zephaniah was a schoolboy when he sent a letter to Bob Marley along the lines of: “I’m a poet from...
View ArticleNobody by Alice Oswald review – given up to the fateful waves
Alice Oswald is at the height of her powers in this single poem inspired by stories from The OdysseyAlice Oswald’s element is water. Her unforgettable Dart (2002) was about a river, and this...
View Article'Give up and go to the pub': Australia's top authors on beating writer's block
Nominees for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary awards share their tips on tackling the monster that plagues all writersNominated for Blakwork (poetry)Related: Queensland literary awards 2019: Melissa...
View ArticleThe language of politics is 'shallow and threadbare', says poet laureate
Simon Armitage criticised politicians’ use of cliches in a discussion about ‘truth’, this year’s theme for National Poetry DayThe language of politics is so “shallow and threadbare” that it has stopped...
View ArticleLandmark poems of the last century
Far from being elitist, poetry in the last 100 years has been defined by an urgent desire to communicate. Here are five poems that each illuminate their ageFor too long, poetry has had a reputation for...
View ArticleJackie Kay selects Britain's 10 best BAME writers
The acclaimed poet and author introduces favourite authors who ‘open up the world to you and give you the world back’When I was a teenager, the only black writer I came across was Wole Soyinka in his...
View ArticleClive James: ‘The most overrated books almost all emerged from a single genre...
The author, critic and poet on reading Biggles as a child and his admiration for Philip LarkinThe book I am currently readingMostly at this stage I am rereading myself, and finding something marvellous...
View ArticleCiaran Carson obituary
Poet who superimposed a psychic overlay on the streets and terraces of his native BelfastThe poet Ciaran Carson, who has died aged 70 of cancer, grew up in the Catholic Falls Road area of Belfast. He...
View ArticlePoem of the week: When winter comes by Jane Clarke
The rich colours of a forge, and the controlled violence of the blacksmith’s tools offer vivid imagery for an elegy about grief When winter comesremember what the blacksmithknows – dim light is bestThe...
View ArticleTop 10 books about Europe
From Homer to Camus by way of Brecht, French author Laurent Gaudé picks the books that tell us something important about the continent todayThe European Union is no topic for a novel. It’s not fiction....
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