Second comings: the artists who found success the long way round
Ever dreamed of packing it all in and becoming an artist? Meet four people who prove it’s never too late to follow your heart – from the sociologist bagging poetry prizes in her 60s, to the surgeon...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Colored Hats by Gertrude Stein
Some think of Stein’s poetry as a literary version of cubism, but her embrace of ordinary objects here seems more radical – and more mysterious, writes Carol RumensColored HatsColored hats are...
View ArticleDavid Harsent wins TS Eliot prize for poetry for Fire Songs
Creative writing professor takes home £20,000 prize for his 11th collection of work after four previous appearances on shortlistAfter four previous appearances on the shortlist for the TS Eliot prize...
View ArticleEliot, Pound and modern Poetry | Letters: Professor David Moody and Ann Monroe
In his celebration of the young TS Eliot (Review, 10 January), Robert Crawford writes at length about the modernity and the notable achievement of The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, but mentions only...
View ArticleWith Thomas Hardy in Dorchester: from the archive, 14 January 1928
A fortunate journalist recalls a guided tour given to him by the Dorset town’s renowned authorA correspondent writes:- “I was once lucky enough to be taken round Dorchester with two friends by Thomas...
View ArticleHarry Haines obituary
My friend Harry Haines, who has died aged 95, was a coalface worker, social worker and writer who was happy to be labelled the Miner Poet.Born in Portsmouth, Harry was an aircraft engineer in the RAF...
View ArticleSelected Poems 1986-2012 by Thomas Lux – review
The family farm, endives and cherries that speak of both joy and deprivationFor six years Thomas Lux’s poem “Refrigerator, 1957” has been squatting my computer desktop. I was writing a fridge poem of...
View ArticleJeanette Winterson on the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy – of course it's political
Duffy’s 1999 collection The World’s Wife gives the women behind the scenes – from Mrs Midas to Queen Kong – a glorious and powerful voice. She is a poet of vast imaginationPoetry is pleasure.Sometimes...
View ArticleThe Saturday poem: Tinnitus: January, thin rain becoming ice
by David HarsentNow footsteps on shingle. Make of it what you will. Sea-birds roost on the breakwaters, accustomed, of course, to twilight. The spirit-lamp in that house on the headland could easily...
View ArticleDavid Harsent: ‘If I can’t hear the music, I don’t think it is a poem’
The recently announced winner of the TS Eliot prize on dreams, his awful education and his years as a writer of detective fictionProfessor of creative writing at the University of Roehampton, David...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Access Visit by Rory Waterman
An awkward outing with a separated father is recalled – and lived again – in this delicate sonnet, finds Carol RumensYour afternoon pint; my Britvic pineapple juice;a bag of prawn cocktail gaping in...
View ArticleThe gig venue guide: the Vortex, London
Welcome to the jazz venue that, rich in community spirit, is perfect for the purist but also gracious to the merely curiousCapacity: 100.Who plays there: The Vortex offers perhaps the most diverse...
View Article2015 Stephen Spender prize for poetry in translation – submit your entry
Submit a previously unpublished translation of a poem from any language, ancient or modern, no later than 22 MayPoetry translation requires an unusual degree of judgment and balance: while slavish...
View ArticleWho was Chaucer?
From the foul-mouthed Miller to the prim Prioress, only Chaucer could have dreamed up a group as diverse as the Canterbury pilgrims. But how much do we know about the founding father of English...
View ArticleThe Saturday poem: Nun on a Bicycle
by Jonathan EdwardsNow here she comes, rattling over cobbles,powered by her sandals, the gentle downhilland the grace of God. Now here she comes, her habitwhat it was always waiting to become:a...
View ArticleYoung Eliot: From St Louis to The Waste Land review – an impressive monograph...
The first official biography of TS Eliot, covering his life up to The Waste Land, is both compelling and revelatoryYoung Eliot marks both a milestone and a turning point. First, it coincides with the...
View ArticleRego Retold review – poems make you look at Rego’s work with fresh attention
While he misses the black humour, Owen Lowery sees lifetimes in the magically mystifying moments captured by Paula Rego’s artSo many of Paula Rego’s paintings are of people caught in the act – but the...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Where the Script Ends by Arundhathi Subramaniam
Carol Rumens looks at a vivid portrait of the distances between cultures, languages and lovers – and the romantic wish to overcome themWhere the Script EndsHis shirt is tangerine,the sky Delft,the...
View ArticleThe Costa book of the year contender bringing poetry to class
Poet and teacher Jonathan Edwards, up against Ali Smith for the top Costa prize, has no intention of leaving school. It’s where he gets his inspiration, he saysWhen Jonathan Edwards was a schoolboy in...
View ArticleAli Smith favourite to win Costa book of the year 2014
How to Be Both’s daring combination of contemporary and Renaissance stories leads betting for the prestigious awards’ overall winnerRead extracts from all the category winners• Vote for your favourite...
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