From The Outsiders to Cloudstreet: the best working-class books
Author Howard Cunnell picks his favourites, including a pioneering tale of a young black girl in the UK and a poetry collection by a mysterious ‘Mick Guffan’I grew up in a southern seaside town. No dad...
View ArticlePoem of the week: I guess it was my destiny to live so long by June Jordan
The poet confronts her terminal cancer without flinching but asserts a defiant will to liveI guess it was my destiny to live so longDeath chase me downdeath’s wayuproot a breastinfest the lymph...
View ArticleThe Wild Fox of Yemen by Threa Almontaser review – darting between two worlds
The Yemeni American poet’s debut collection is a dazzling exploration of a life caught between different culturesWho is the wild fox of Yemen? I busied myself with a form of foxhunting as I read on...
View ArticleLetter: Michael Horovitz obituary
Michael Horovitz sometimes cultivated the image of a clownish ringmaster, but his literary and artistic judgments were often acute.In 1984, at a point when Michael and I shared the same printer, I...
View ArticleAustralian Poetry Month: Watch Luke Currie-Richardson perform Blak Love – video
August is Poetry Month, featuring events, readings, workshops and newly commissioned poems from poets and poetry enthusiasts around Australia. Guardian Australia has teamed up with Red Room Poetry to...
View ArticleJamaican dub poet Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze dies aged 65
Influential pioneer touched audiences through performance, books, albums – and even Poems on the Underground The pioneering Jamaican dub poet Jean “Binta” Breeze has died aged 65, her agents have...
View ArticlePoem of the month: Oil Music by Gboyega Odubanjo
call it a love song.i’ll get the bathtub ready.i’m in. we in ceramic.let’s say black. i’m bpyou’re shell. we all in.we in the black. we both ina barrel. call it a village.we both in the pumping. the...
View ArticleThe best recent poetry – review roundup
Learning to Sleep by John Burnside; A Year in the New Life by Jack Underwood; Lyonesse by Penelope Shuttle; The Wild Fox of Yemen by Threa Almontaser; and Ballad of a Happy Immigrant by Leo...
View Article‘Thanks for your help, Sticky’: Michael Rosen on learning to walk again after...
His traumatic experience with coronavirus inspired the author’s new children’s book – about the ‘friend’ he leaned onIt was the tweet that let the world know Michael Rosen was back on form and on the...
View ArticleThe timeless allure of King Arthur’s Gawain: ‘He feels like the first modern...
Most recently portrayed by Dev Patel in The Green Knight, Gawain is Arthurian legend’s most complex character. Director David Lowery and others talk about how the knight has changed over centuriesIn...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Leaf Color by William Logan
A sharply observed nature poem that is also a hellish pastoral towards the end of timeLeaf ColorA steely torn silver, rusted along the edges;the faint acidic yellow, like the backwashof a polluted...
View ArticleKate Clanchy book may be updated to remove racial stereotypes after criticism
Publisher Picador says it is looking at changing passages in prize-winning memoir, which Clanchy intially claimed were not in the book at allPicador, the publisher of Kate Clanchy’s award-winning Some...
View ArticleYassmin Abdel-Magied performs a new poem ahead of Guardian Australia's Book...
August is Poetry Month. Guardian Australia has teamed up with Red Room Poetry to bring you a very special edition of our interactive Zoom book club, featuring Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Omar Sakr and Evelyn...
View ArticleKate Clanchy to rewrite memoir amid criticism of ‘racist and ableist tropes’
Poet and teacher has apologised for ‘overreacting’ to scrutiny of book’s portrayals of autistic pupils and children of colourKate Clanchy is rewriting her critically acclaimed memoir after widespread...
View ArticleSociety of Authors distances itself from Philip Pullman’s tweets
The UK’s largest trade union for writers emphasised its anti-racist stance after its president, Pullman, showed support for Kate Clanchy on social mediaThe Society of Authors (SoA) has asked the...
View ArticleJean ‘Binta’ Breeze obituary
Poet who expressed female experience through dub and was a powerful performer of her own workJean “Binta” Breeze, who has died aged 65 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emerged in the 1980s as...
View ArticlePointing out racism in books is not an ‘attack’ – it’s a call for industry...
I was called aggressive for criticising passages in Kate Clanchy’s memoir. But the real problem lies deep in the overwhelmingly white world of publishingIt started with a tweet. Kate Clanchy, author of...
View ArticleOmar Sakr, Yassmin Abdel-Magied and Evelyn Araluen – on poetry in the pandemic
At Guardian Australia’s monthly Zoom book club, the poets and thinkers discussed contemporary Australian poetry – and read some of their ownGuardian Australia’s book club is a free, interactive event...
View ArticlePhantom or Fact: A Dialogue in Verse by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Written towards the end of the poet’s life, this mysterious exchange shows him reflecting on the ‘spirit’ he has lostPhantom or Fact: A Dialogue in VerseAuthorA lovely form there sate beside my bed,And...
View ArticleAmanda Gorman: hosting the Met Gala is like ‘Cinderella going to the ball’
The poet who rose to fame at Joe Biden’s inauguration will co-chair with Gen Z favourites Billie Eilish, Timothée Chalamet and Naomi OsakaAmanda Gorman has said that hosting the Met Gala next month...
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