Poem of the week: The Mower’s Song by Andrew Marvell
Far from any rustic idyll, this mower is racked by the fallen human worldThe Mower’s SongMy mind was once the true surveyOf all these meadows fresh and gay,And in the greenness of the grassDid see its...
View ArticleA moment that changed me: Ben Okri – realising my dream to become a novelist...
I wrote the first draft in a ghetto in Lagos, working on it at 4am. With its publication the life I was meant to live beganFamily legend has it that I began reading the Times at around the age of four....
View ArticleNobel winner Pablo Neruda was almost denied prize because of odes to Stalin
As well as revealing the full shortlist, newly opened archives show that the 1971 judging panel were concerned the Chilean winner’s politics were ‘incompatible with the purpose of the prize’Pablo...
View ArticleThe best recent poetry – reviews roundup
Refractive Africa by Will Alexander; The Vulture by Gerard Woodward; Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke; Litanies by Naush Sabah; and Pilgrim Bell by Kaveh AkbarRefractive Africa by Will Alexander...
View ArticlePoem of the week: A Little Catechism from the Demon by Edwin Morgan
A mysterious supernatural spirit – who might be a wonky robot – sets out to teach the reader a lessonA Little Catechism from the DemonWhat is a demon? Study my life.What is a mountain? Set out now.What...
View ArticleJoelle Taylor wins TS Eliot poetry prize for ‘blazing’ C+nto & Othered Poems
Judges praise the former UK slam champion’s ‘vivid’ collection, exploring author’s experience of being a butch lesbianJoelle Taylor has won the TS Eliot poetry prize for her look at butch lesbian...
View ArticleRobert Burns letters reveal poet was advised not to write in Scots
Burns told use of Scots language would alienate London readers in letter that forms part of University of Glasgow projectScotland’s beloved son and national bard Robert Burns has done more than any...
View Article‘They are literally murdering us’: poet Joelle Taylor on bringing the LGBTQ+...
She’s been marginalised and slapped in the street – but Taylor’s passionate and nostalgic poems about butch lesbian subculture just won the TS Eliot prize. Can they also heal the divisions over gender...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Garden by Nicholas Grimald
A gentle sermon from a ‘blissful plot’ on the therapeutic joys to be found among its plants and flowers The GardenThe issue of great Jove, draw near, you Muses nine!Help us to praise the blissful plot...
View ArticleHurricane Watch by Olive Senior review – a champion of inclusion
Jamaica’s poet laureate gives equal attention to magpies, rum-soaked puddings and racial injustice in a playful, empathic collectionThere can be no excuse for not knowing Olive Senior – who has...
View ArticleThe hounding of author Kate Clanchy has been a witch-hunt without mercy |...
Publishers and other institutions are turning cowardly and brittle when faced with social media frenziesA few years ago, when I was still getting to grips with the vagaries of Twitter, I inadvertently...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Please Do Not Touch the Walrus … by Caleb Parkin
A museum’s warning notice provides a gleeful invitation to transgressHorniman Museum, Summer 2019Continue reading...
View Article‘Her thunder would not be stolen’: Damian Lewis speaks about loss of Helen...
Actor uses National Theatre tribute event to talk publicly for first time about wife, who died of cancerDamian Lewis has spoken publicly for the first time about the loss of his wife, Helen McCrory,...
View Article‘I’m free at last’: Uganda’s rudest poet on prison, protest and finding a new...
Stella Nyanzi talks about challenging Uganda’s President Museveni from her new home and why she had to leave the land she lovesThe first few days of Stella Nyanzi’s new life in Germany have not been...
View ArticlePoem of the week: #family by Romalyn Ante
Using the medical shorthand for fracture, the poet considers other, less tangible breaks in her life#familyThis whole time I’d been reading it wrong,seeing only broken things.In Orthopaedics, # is read...
View Article‘Uplifting’ book of sonnets by Hannah Lowe wins Costa book of the year
The Kids, based on the former teacher’s experiences, was described by chair Reeta Chakrabarti as ‘a book to fall in love with’, as Lowe receives £30,000 prize Hannah Lowe, a former London teacher, has...
View ArticleThe best recent poetry – review roundup
Then the War by Carl Phillips; Lurex by Denise Riley; Ephemeron by Fiona Benson; Why I No Longer Write Poems by Diana Anphimiadi; Hurricane Watch by Olive SeniorThen the War: And Selected Poems...
View ArticleCosta winner Hannah Lowe: ‘Should teachers write about students? That...
The teacher-turned-poet on getting into writing later in life, the ethics of poems about former students and how her years working in schools shaped her thinkingMany writers have dreamed since...
View ArticlePoem of the week: An Ode to Himself by Ben Jonson
Jonson’s poetic response to bad reviews of his plays by ‘wolf’ and ‘ass’ praises poetry and urges a return to deeper sources of inspirationAn Ode to HimselfWhere dost thou careless lie,Buried in ease...
View ArticleMargaret Atwood joins writers calling for urgent action over missing Rwandan...
More than 100 authors from around the world have written to the Rwandan president about the case of Innocent Bahati, who disappeared a year ago todayMargaret Atwood, Ben Okri and JM Coetzee have joined...
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