Poem of the Week: Material Culture by David C Ward
The American historian and poet personifies a family heirloom, and wonders about the secrets that the mid-18th-century walnut Chippendale desk hints at but refuses to divulge Material CultureWood...
View ArticlePoet Pablo Neruda to be reburied in Chile following judge's ruling
The Chilean poet’s remains had been examined in forensic labs in four different countries after Chilean government reopened murder investigationA judge in Chile has ordered that the body of poet Pablo...
View ArticleGeorge the Poet review – slick charisma and scolding lectures
Oslo, LondonFrom political orations to sex-education advice for teenagers, the Cambridge graduate’s rhymes bridge academia and the inner-city – with mixed resultsYou’d be forgiven for recoiling at the...
View ArticleSeamus Heaney focus of ‘tribute album’ by 50 leading poets
Simon Armitage and Lavinia Greenlaw among contributors to special issue of Poetry Ireland Review compiling writers’ tributes to their favourite poemsFifty award-winning poets, from Simon Armitage to...
View ArticleTim Key’s Late Night Poetry Programme review: ‘The atmosphere he creates is...
The actor and performance poet’s perfect command of comic timing is masterful as his show returns for a third seriesTim Key’s Late Night Poetry Programme (Radio 4) is back for a third series and this...
View ArticleTony Harrison: still open for business
‘I hate being called a poet/dramatist/translator/director. Poet covers it all for me.’ Stephen Moss celebrates the work of Harrison, winner of the 2015 David Cohen prizeThis week Tony Harrison was...
View ArticleDavid Soul performs Pablo Neruda – books podcast
The Starsky and Hutch actor talks about the life and loves of the Chilean poet, and performs Your Feet, Ode to Clothes and more of the literature laureate's work Continue reading...
View ArticleJenny Offill: life after Dept. of Speculation – the underdog persona’s not...
The bestselling novelist on the New York rich, medication and her ‘dirty secret’A Brooklyn writer is having trouble producing a second book; she also struggles with bedbugs, a small daughter and a...
View ArticlePhilip Levine obituary
American poet whose work focused on working people and urban lifeThe American poet Philip Levine, who has died aged 87, focused on work, ordinary working people, and gritty urban life. His seemingly...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Birder by Gwyneth Lewis
The former national poet of Wales commemorates her aunt in a bright and lively elegy that sees birds play metaphorical and metamorphic rolesBirder(i.m. my aunt Megan 1924-2009)IMidwinter, season for...
View ArticleBring on the haters: the show that’s getting laughs out of Islamophobia
What do you do if your inbox is clogged up with anti-Muslim hate mail? Turn it into a cabaret show. Daryl Lindsey reports from Berlin on a strangely joyful evening of horrendous abuse‘When it comes to...
View ArticleZoë Wanamaker: ‘I had a lot to live up to’
As she prepares to play poet Stevie Smith, Zoë Wanamaker talks to Lyn Gardner about acting through grief, finding her voice – and why she has never performed in the theatre that bears her father’s...
View ArticleQuotation marks – where do these literary titles come from? Quiz
You know the books, but do you know where the authors found their names? Find out with our fiendish questions about the books behind the books Continue reading...
View ArticleHas sentimental remembrance met its Waterloo?
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. Artists of the time – such as Turner and Byron – showed the full horror of its slaughter. Let’s not resort to fake empathy or cheap...
View ArticleLetter: Alan Howard’s double act with Christopher Logue
Alan Howard’s extraordinary range as an actor enabled him to combine the great Shakespearean roles with work on an almost miniature scale. In 1984 he recorded for Radio 3 part of War Music, my husband...
View ArticlePoster poems: light
Poets have found a wide spectrum of meanings to this essential component of the world. Can you illuminate the subject with your own verse?The world of modern physics is full of strange and glorious...
View ArticleFeel the beat: how rhythm shapes the way we use and understand language
Stress-timing and meters aren’t merely the stuff of poetry – their everyday use in conversation and song reveals a fundamental pattern in language skillsDo you feel the rhythm? Or a French rythme,...
View ArticleThe Saturday poem: Parma Violet
by Frances LevistonEgyptian sofas, old anaglypta,the drop-leaf table where the pine tree posedevery mild December,on its pedestal the dodo, crackle-glazed,and hung above the hearth and the dormant...
View ArticleBooks about San Francisco: readers' picks
From yuppies to Harvey Milk via Jack London, here is your essential reading list for San Francisco travels – real or imaginary. These are some of our readers’ favourite books about the west coast...
View ArticleShingle Street review – heartfelt bravura from Blake Morrison
Blake Morrison makes a welcome return to poetry with these powerful observations on the erosion of our land, lives and valuesLong subject to inundation and increasingly despoiled by erosion, the...
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