Kate Tempest announces they are non-binary, changes name to Kae
Performance poet, writer and musician said they had previously ‘tried to be what I thought others wanted me to be so as not to risk rejection’The musician and poet formerly named Kate Tempest has...
View ArticleThe Guardian view on poetry in schools: don't let it go | Editorial
Finding meaning in verse can be a challenge for teenagers. But it is also a joy, and letting them drop it is the wrong move“Had we but world enough, and time…” The opening line of Andrew Marvell’s To...
View Article'A dangerous first step': Simon Armitage among poets to blast GCSE decision
Poet laureate joins Michael Rosen and Imtiaz Dharker to criticise Ofqual announcement that poetry will be optional next yearPoet laureate Simon Armitage and former children’s laureate Michael Rosen are...
View ArticlePoem of the month: How to Do Absolutely Nothing by Barbara Kingsolver
The best recent poetry – review roundup Rent a house near the beach, or a cabinbut: Do not take your walking shoes.Don’t take any clothes you’d wearanyplace anyone would see you.Don’t take your...
View ArticleThe best recent poetry – review roundup
My Darling from the Lions by Rachel Long; Moving House by Theophilus Kwek; Road Trip by Marvin Thompson;After Fame by Sam RivierePoem of the month: How to Do Absolutely Nothing by Barbara Kingsolver...
View ArticlePoetry saved me. Don’t deny it to next generation, pleads award-winner
Rhythm, humour and politics of verse give young people a voice, says poet. Making it optional at GCSE is a mistakeI was a bit of a troublemaker in secondary school. I got sent to “time out” for busying...
View ArticleCummings’ phone and lockdown row | Brief letters
Dominic Cummings | Singular verb | Shared dream | Typical reader | Early starter | Speed learning | Portillo’s pantsGiven the repeated denials by Dominic Cummings and the PM’s assurances over the...
View ArticleDerry theatre remembers lives lost to the Troubles and Covid-19
A socially distanced audience will sit among objects recalling Northern Ireland’s prolonged conflict and the pandemic in a piece about mourningIn a verse dedicated to his aunt, the Irish poet Seamus...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Ancestors by Jackie Wills
Cheerful and anarchic, the forebears here are still intriguing and mysteriousThe Ancestorsare having a summit –they chase around the gardendisturbing hens.Continue reading...
View ArticleA walk on the Wilde side – archive, 13 August 1983
13 August 1983: John Gray began to be displeased with being identified with the fictional Dorian when scandal began to surround Oscar WildeThe strange case of a buddy of Oscar Wilde who was out of the...
View ArticlePadded comfort and poetical correctness | Brief letters
Covid blame game | Cicero | Camp beds | Rosen welcome | OldhamLarry Elliott rightly states: “Boris Johnson and his ministers cannot be blamed for the arrival of a pandemic” (UK economy: a full recovery...
View ArticleGreed, cruelty, consumption: the world is changed yet its worst persists |...
I have no great hope we will use this chance to transform for the better – but this is an unconvincing darkness, and we do not have to stay in itThis is part of a series of essays by Australian writers...
View ArticleAndrew Marvell 'died of overdose after spurning Catholic malaria cure'
Academic finds evidence that Puritan poet took opiate-based remedy that instead caused him a lethal seizureHe famously begged his mistress not to be “coy”, warning her: “The grave’s a fine and private...
View ArticleJennifer Breen obituary
My friend Jennifer Breen, who has died aged 83, spent much of her professional life contributing to the women’s movement by designing courses in women’s literature and putting together volumes...
View Article'Droughts, bushfires, and now Covid': Australia's regional arts communities...
The pandemic has only compounded difficulties facing arts centres and festivals outside the capital cities Wiradjuri artist Michael Lyons used to receive visitors by the hour at his rural New South...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Akwaba by Kwame Dawes
A father welcomes his wailing newborn child to the world and as her time begins he vows his love for everAkwabaFor SenaiBrown snow lines the roadways.The still, grey city whispersContinue reading...
View ArticleAs You Were by Elaine Feeney review – a poet's darkly comic fiction debut
This tragicomic tale of a thirtysomething mother with a terrible secret serves as a keen-eyed portrait of modern IrelandElaine Feeney has published three acclaimed collections of poetry before turning...
View ArticlePostcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz review – intimate, electric and defiant
The Mojave and Latinx poet, up for this year’s Forward prize, is on breathtaking form in this intellectually rigorous collection exploring love and identityNatalie Diaz’s second poetry collection – up...
View Article'You'll have to die to get these texts': Ocean Vuong’s next manuscript to be...
Vietnamese-American author and poet joins Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell and Karl Ove Knausgård to lock away work in Norway to be published in 94 years’ timeOcean Vuong is to become the seventh author...
View ArticleMaaza Mengiste: 'Knausgård really doesn’t need me as a reader, I can move on'
The Booker nominated author on the influence of Homer, struggling with Moby-Dick and feeling changed by Ama Ata AidooThe book I am currently readingI read a few books at once, and am working on...
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