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'Translating the British, 2012' by Carol Ann Duffy
The poet laureate captures the mood of London's Olympic GamesA summer of rain, then a gap in the cloudsand The Queen jumped from the skyto the cheering crowds. We speak Shakespeare here,a...
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The Saturday poem: Golem
By James LasdunI'm looking for the crackwhere the yellowjackets nest.I stumbled on it last summerout here in the snakerootbetween the fence and the forest.I had no ideawhat it was that came boilingout...
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The World's Two Smallest Humans by Julia Copus – review
Julia Copus's third collection is intensely personal, highly controlled and deeply involving all at the same timeReading Julia Copus's remarkable collection – her third – makes one think about the...
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London 2012: Team arts go for gold
David Hockney fumed at the opening, Gillian Wearing captured Bolt, and Susan Philipsz mashed up some anthems . . . but what else happened when we challenged artists to respond to the Games?Opening...
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Readers nominate Sarah Jackson for Guardian first book award
Pelt, the poet's debut collection, wins the 10th place on the Guardian first book award longlistA passionate reader response to Sarah Jackson's "powerful and violent" debut poetry collection Pelt has...
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Poem of the week: Modern Love by George Meredith
Meredith's novella in verse about the breakdown of a Victorian bourgeois marriage is a tragic study of 'shipwrecked' loveGeorge Meredith, 1828-1909, is often compared to Thomas Hardy as a successful...
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Camille O'Sullivan: From cabaret to chaos
Camille O'Sullivan made her name singing sultry songs in fishnets. Now she's playing a rapist and his victim in a musical version of Shakespeare's Rape of LucreceCamille O'Sullivan is standing in front...
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Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy on the Pendle witches
Here are the first three tercets of a new poem which will be engraved on iron waymarkers, every five miles along the new Lancashire Witches WalkThe Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, has released a...
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Siobhan Lamb/Gerard Presencer: Meditations/The Nightingale and the Rose – review
(Proprius)The crossover fanbase that turned Jan Garbarek's collaborations with the Hilliard Ensemble into hits might be the target for these painterly soundscapes by composer Siobhan Lamb – with their...
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From the archive, 16/08/1929: Readers of DH Lawrence defy ban on Pansies, his...
Unexpurgated version is illegally distributed by private society who believe his work should be available for posterity intact"Pansies," Mr. D.H. Lawrence's book of poems which was recently stopped by...
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Michael Snow obituary
Particle physics, geology, astronomy and music were among the essential elements that fed into the art of Michael Snow, who has died aged 82. He was a highly cerebral painter and a perfectionist who...
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My belated thank you to Liz Lochhead
One day in the early 80s, the poet Liz Lochhead got a blank reception from a bunch of young students. David Barnett was one of them – and says she inspired him to be a writerI'm not sure if Scotland's...
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FBI files on Sylvia Plath's father shed new light on poet
Otto Plath, who inspired 1962 poem Daddy, described as morbid man with possible pro-German sympathies during warWhen FBI officers noted the "morbid disposition" of a German-born US suspect called Otto...
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Carlisle's mystery pong; not much more news
But we can tell you a little about Alfred Austin, the Poet Laureate who is strangely little-honoured in his native LeedsYou no doubt know the famous couplet by the poet often branded – a bit unfairly –...
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June Fourth Elegies by Liu Xiaobo – review
Paul Batchelor on a powerful commemoration of the 1989 massacreIn 1989, Liu Xiaobo joined the peaceful protest movement centred on Tiananmen Square, and his life changed for ever. On 4 June, the...
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Album
By Stephen KnightWilliam, Gladys and Edward Knight. Where are they standing?William, Gladys and Edward Knight. Where are they camping?Do you know the name of the school?Roy Woods and Edward Knight but...
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Jen Hadfield wins Edwin Morgan International Poetry Prize
'Disturbing' poem of childhood marks return to work for award-winning poet who went quietJen Hadfield was named the winner of the Edwin Morgan International Poetry Prize 2012 in an award ceremony at...
View ArticleEdinburgh International Book festival podcast: the Edwin Morgan Poetry prize
In today's podcast from the Edinburgh International Book festival, we hear the five finalists for the £5,000 Edwin Morgan Poetry prize read the poem they submitted - anonymously - for the competition....
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China Miéville: Writers should welcome a future where readers remix our books
Novelist says anti-piracy measures mooted for literature are 'disingenuous, hypocritical, ineffectual' and 'artistically philistine'China Miéville, author of novels including The City & the City...
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The death of the novel will presage a rebirth of writing
Anxiety about narrative fiction's survival might be quietened by reflection on how poetry has reinvented itself for changing timesYesterday, at the Edinburgh International Book festival, China Miéville...
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