The Guardian view on Dante: heavenly wisdom for our troubled times | Editorial
On the 700th anniversary of the great poet’s death, his Divine Comedy carries a powerful message for modern culture warriorsSeven hundred years after his death, updating Dante’s Divine Comedy continues...
View ArticleCerys Matthews, Hidden Orchestra and 10 Poets: We Are from the Sun review –...
(Decca)Poets ranging from Adam Horovitz to Imtiaz Dharker are backed by shifting arrangements from Matthews and Joe Acheson on this remarkable collaboration In the pop era, the long love affair between...
View ArticleRemembering a tragedy: culture inspired by the New Cross fire
Poetry, music and fiction produced by artists in response to the deadly 1981 blaze in south-east LondonForty years on from the New Cross fire, has anything changed for black Britons?Surgeby Jay Bernard...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Old Flat, Abandoned by Rory Waterman
A return visit to a former home shows that the life once lived there is definitively lostOld Flat, AbandonedI force open the door:its shadow shootsdown the wallwhere webs tremblein door-breath and...
View ArticleLen Barron obituary
My friend Len Barron, who has died of double pneumonia aged 63, was an inspirational part of the Hillingdon Library community in west London and worked at Harefield Library for 27 years. Len inspired...
View ArticleThe Late Sun by Christopher Reid review – masterly light and shade
Moments of passing beauty and monumental losses are handled with equal skill in a comforting bookChristopher Reid’s wonderful, calming new collection The Late Sun is a patchwork of sunlight and shade....
View ArticleAmanda Gorman will be youngest poet to recite at a presidential inauguration
The 22-year-old will recite The Hill We Climb at Joe Biden’s swearing-in on Wednesday, following in the footsteps of Robert Frost and Maya AngelouAmanda Gorman is set to become the sixth poet to...
View ArticleMahmood Jamal obituary
Pioneering producer of films and programmes set in British-Asian communities, and published poetMahmood Jamal, who has died aged 72, was one of the pioneers of multicultural television in Britain. As a...
View ArticleThe Hill We Climb: the Amanda Gorman poem that stole the inauguration show
The 22-year-old poet wowed the crowd with her reading during Joe Biden’s swearing-in. Here’s the transcript of her text• An inspiration to us all’: Amanda Gorman stirs hope and awe When day comes, we...
View Article‘An inspiration to us all’: Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem stirs hope and awe
Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in US history, delivered a poem that recalled the Capitol riots and looked to the futureFollow inauguration news liveThe inauguration of Joe Biden featured a...
View ArticleHope and inspiration at Joe Biden inauguration | Letters
Frank Paice reflects on Amanda Gorman’s powerful poem at the ceremony and Geoff Skinner wonders if the UK will also be brave enough to tackle racism. Plus Joan Furtado on why Trump should be happyIn...
View ArticleAmanda Gorman's inauguration poem launches author to top of book charts
The Hill We Climb will be published as a single book after barnstorming appearance at Joe Biden ceremony Amanda Gorman, the 22-year-old poet who stole the show with her poem The Hill We Climb at the...
View ArticleAmanda Gorman books top bestselling lists after soul-stirring inaugural poem
Two upcoming books on Amazon’s bestseller list within hours after the resounding delivery of her poem at the swearing-inAmanda Gorman’s star continued its remarkable climb Thursday following the...
View ArticleHow Amanda Gorman became the voice of a new American era
Her recital at Joe Biden’s inauguration electrified viewers and sent the hitherto little known poet’s work to the top of the chartsOn Wednesday in Washington DC, a striking young woman stood at a...
View ArticleSpring promises: things to look forward to, from chocolate bunnies to...
We’ve all had enough of these long, dark days, thank you. Yes, we know it’s premature, but we’re fast-forwarding into spring. We’re ready for the new season…I love winter. Frosty mornings and dark days...
View ArticleAmanda Gorman at Biden's inauguration reminded me: politics needs poetry
The 22-year-old’s poem was fervent and crafted. Now let’s pay attention to young black voices on less glamorous stagesObama-endorsed and wearing gold-clipped braids and Oprah-gifted earrings, 22-year...
View ArticleMahmud Kianush obituary
Mahmud Kianush, who has died aged 86, was an Iranian poet, writer and translator who had lived and worked in London since 1974. He played an important role in introducing English literature to Iranians...
View ArticleBhanu Kapil wins TS Eliot poetry prize for 'radical' How to Wash a Heart
Judges praise the British-Indian poet’s ‘formidable’ collection, exploring the dynamic between an immigrant and her white, middle-class hostBhanu Kapil has won the most valuable award in British...
View ArticlePoem of the week: from Astrophil and Stella by Philip Sidney
Experimenting with the possibilities of the sonnet form, this playful work deploys the rules of grammar as a wooing techniqueSonnet LXIIIO grammar-rules, O now your virtues show;So children still read...
View ArticleWhere is the oratory that this traumatised country needs now? | Letter
The dreary official rhetoric of the pandemic leaves reader Susan Tomes wondering where the great speech-makers have goneAmanda Gorman’s inspiring words at President Biden’s inauguration (How Amanda...
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