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New Selected Journals, 1939-1995 by Stephen Spender – review
Stephen Spender's journals show that his feelings about sex, fidelity and fellow poets were far from simpleIn a famous photograph from 1931 (reproduced in this book), Auden, Spender and Isherwood face...
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Ann Atkinson obituary
Our mother, Ann Atkinson, who has died from a brain tumour aged 64, was a talented and passionate poet. She was poet laureate of the Peak District in 2008 and of Derbyshire from 2009 to 2011,...
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TS Eliot's The Waste Land 2012 – a multimedia walk
Earlier this summer, 25 walkers set off to explore the changing face of London through a group reading of TS Eliot's groundbreaking poem, The Waste Land. Henry Eliot listens for the echoes of the HMS...
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Poem of the week: Horace: The Odes, Book One, IX, translated by John Dryden
Dryden shows his enjoyment of translating Horace, 'paraphrasing' his verse with brilliant wordplay"For this last half-year I have been troubled with the disease (as I may call it) of translation … "...
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Go to Leeds' Kirkgate Market and you might end up in a novel
Young writers-in-residence have set up a Saturday stall to spin yarns, poems and drama from anything you care to share with them. Organiser Adam Lowe tells moreLeeds' Kirkgate Market is alive with...
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Edinburgh's mysterious book sculptures go on tour
The discovery of intricate book sculptures left anonymously in Edinburgh literary spots last year entranced book-lovers. For the first time, writes Robyn Marsack, director of the Scottish Poetry...
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Paperback Q&A: William Sieghart on Winning Words
The founder of the Forward prizes for poetry explains why an appropriate poem can be more helpful than therapyWinning Words is a project intended to highlight poetry during the 2012 Olympics; it's also...
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Rock climbers scale heights of indignation at poet's Cultural Olympiad trail
Graffiti in the wild places, say objectors. But others are in favour of Simon Armitage's work with Ilkley Literature Festival on the Yorkshire PenninesIt might be Yorkshire Day all over the world, but...
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The Attys: new digital poetry prize to be judged by Margaret Atwood
Canadian-based social reading site, Wattpad, invites entries for its competition, designed as an opportunity 'for poets to share their work and for audiences to discover the genre'There's the Forward...
View ArticleOlympics 2012 in art: Michael Rosen gets gold medal anxiety – video
Continuing our series of exclusive artworks celebrating the Games, Michael Rosen expresses his unease about our Olympic obsession with gold medals in his own inimitable way
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Olympics 2012 in art: Michael Rosen's gold medal anxiety is pure poetry
Continuing our series of artworks celebrating the Games, the poet and former children's laureate expresses his unease about our obsession with gold medals in his own inimitable wayReading this on a...
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Stephen Spender: New Selected Journals, 1939-1995, edited by Lara Feigel and...
Blake Morrison is charmed by the self-consciousness of the poet and socialiteCritics were hard on Stephen Spender, but not as hard as he was on himself. He felt a failure, a man famous only for having...
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81 Austerities by Sam Riviere – review
Ruth Padel on a vision of a world ruled by twin demons: austerity and information overloadIn 2002, introducing a book of poems by 52 living poets, I said most British poets didn't work in universities...
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Sue Arnold's audiobook choice - review
Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James, Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust and Rapture by Carol Ann DuffyFifty Shades of Grey by EL James, read by Becca Battoe (19hrs unabridged, Random House, £19.99)It's...
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The Saturday poem: Within Ten Seconds
By John FowlesWithin ten secondsI knew I wanted to kiss your eyelids.This is why I kept staringPast you, as if to a cold horizon.You were not boring me, as you thought.I was looking to where you...
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Poem of the week: Vigil Strange I Kept in the Field One Night by Walt Whitman
Whitman's variety of lineation gives this poem, in which he draws on his own experiences as a field hospital nurse, its originalityWith Walt Whitman, born in 1819, American poetry is usually thought to...
View ArticleJackie Kay creates her own armchair triathlon – video
Scottish poet Jackie Kay reads out three short poems she wrote after being inspired by Team GB's recent performances in the javelin, triathlon and cycling. She follows the highs and lows of Goldie...
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Olympics 2012 in art: Jackie Kay writes her own armchair triathlon
Scottish poet Jackie Kay draws inspiration from Team GB's highs and lows in the triathlon, javelin and cycling to create three short poems that capture the spirit of the GamesReading this on a mobile?...
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Path to enlightenment: how walking inspires writers
A new book that claims walking and writing are one activity uses great dreamers to make its point, but the walker-writers passing through Connemara seem to have drawn on simpler inspirationsBeside the...
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Poster poems: August
The last month of summer has inspired topics from nature and executions to flying nuns – what can you come up with?August, the eight month, is the second to be named after a Roman emperor, this time...
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