Michael Rosen: 'This book is about what it feels like to nearly die'
The poet, broadcaster and children’s author contracted Covid-19 a year ago and spent 48 days in intensive care. His new collection of prose poems attempts to make sense of that timeExtract from Many...
View Article'I am not who I was': Michael Rosen on surviving Covid – extract
In this exclusive extract from his new book Many Different Kinds of Love, the author writes about his urgent diagnosis, days in hospital and returning homeInterview: ‘This book is about what it feels...
View ArticlePoem of the week: An Improver by Lesbia Harford
A private moment at work in an Australian factory in the 1920s is charged with candid eroticismAn ImproverMaisie’s been holding down her head all day,Her little red head. And her pointed chinRests on...
View ArticleSalena Godden: 'I’m a furious and emotional woman — when things pop up I have...
The taboo-busting poet has written her first novel, Mrs Death Misses Death. She talks about missing performing and why Brits struggle to speak about her novel’s all too timely subjectThe day after our...
View ArticleEmpty Nest: Poems for Families, edited by Carol Ann Duffy review – the agony...
Fathers, mothers and grownup children reflect on leaving home and the ‘dance between closeness and distance’ in an outstanding anthologyThis is not, as is the usual rule of this column, a collection...
View Article‘A box of light’: AI inspired by British verse attempts to write poetry
After processing more than half a million lines by human poets, experts say it is the best attempt yet to produce computer-generated poetryRare is the poet who has failed to tackle the glory of trees,...
View ArticleHanif Abdurraqib: ‘I was fascinated by who got to define shame’
The poet and essayist on the history of black performance, the meaning of miracles and the enigmatic brilliance of Whitney HoustonHanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist and cultural critic from Columbus,...
View ArticleThe Penguin Book of Feminist Writing review – a powerful concept,...
As a tribute to vital work through the ages, Hannah Dawson’s anthology is more than welcome. But as a resource, it’s rendered hopelessWhen I was a student, there was briefly a craze – if that’s the...
View ArticleMany Different Kinds of Love by Michael Rosen review – a national treasure's...
Characteristic humour courses through this emotional illustrated book about the writer’s battle with Covid-19“Uh-uh! A cave! We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. We’ve got to go through it!” Like...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Get Down Ye Angels by John Agard
A rousing call to find the divine in wordly, bodily lifeGet Down Ye AngelsGet down ye angels from the heights.Try a few of earth’s numinous delights:the orgiastic rustling of the grass.The wind’s...
View ArticleRaymond Antrobus: 'Deafness is an experience, not a trauma'
The award-winning poet has written his first picture book, Can Bears Ski?, after being unable to find any children’s titles with a deaf protagonist There’s a story that Raymond Antrobus often tells,...
View ArticleLetters: Trevor Dannatt obituary
Trevor Dannatt was the designer of the first Jackson Pollock retrospective exhibition, curated at the fledgling Whitechapel Gallery by the gallerist Bryan Robertson in 1958. When I spoke to him on the...
View ArticleBirtley Aris obituary
My friend Birtley Aris, who has died aged 93, was an artist who produced compellingly atmospheric images of landscapes, architecture and railways, usually in pen and often in response to poetry.Among...
View ArticleDropbear by Evelyn Araluen review – a stunning scalpel wielded through...
Araluen’s first collection repurposes Biblical themes, Australiana kitsch and settler-colonial tropes to astonishing effect Some 200 years after invasion, in 1991, a vision of Australia was offered by...
View ArticleDoubts cast over provenance of unearthed Sappho poems
Original account of discovery is retracted by editors of the scholarly book in which it was publishedWhen two hitherto unknown poems by Sappho were brought to light in early 2014, it was a literary...
View ArticleTeacher wins UK poetry prize with poem on dual heritage
Marvin Thompson, of Jamaican heritage, says he wrote it as a gift for his children, ‘to their future selves’A startling poem with allusions to a rich range of subjects ranging from Salvador Dalí and...
View Article'She showed what poetry can do': young London laureates feel the Amanda...
After America’s youth poet laureate’s ‘mesmerising’ inauguration reading, Cecilia Knapp, Caleb Femi and more reflect on how poetry can empower young people Related: Caleb Femi: 'Henceforth I’m solely...
View ArticleHowl: illuminating draft of Allen Ginsberg's seminal poem found
Early draft of Howl is on sale for $425,000 and ‘allows a look into the mind’ of the influential Beat poetA draft of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl has been found, giving rare insight into the mind of the Beat...
View ArticleThe Guardian view on 'post-Christian' Britain: a spiritual enigma | Editorial
The majority of us do not belong to any religion. But for most, atheism is not an option eitherA few years ago, one of Britain’s leading sociologists published a fascinating paper on the rise of “no...
View ArticleItalians defend Dante from claims he was 'light years' behind Shakespeare
Leaders rally in support of ‘father of Italian language’ after withering comments in German newspaperItalian political and cultural leaders have sprung to the defence of their much-revered poet Dante...
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