Juan Felipe Herrera to become United States’ first Latino poet laureate
‘I’m here for everyone and from everyone. My voice is made by everyone’s voices,’ says Herrera, who was born in California to parents from MexicoJuan Felipe Herrera, the son of migrant farm workers in...
View ArticleUnknown poems by Katherine Mansfield found in a Chicago library
‘I couldn’t believe my eyes’ says Mansfield scholar as she uncovers a cache of ‘literary gold’Nearly 30 unknown poems by Katherine Mansfield have been discovered in a US library, giving fresh insight...
View ArticleReaders recommend: songs about the wilderness - results
Up Everest with Public Service Broadcasting to a trip down Death Valley with Sonic Youth, RR regular Fuel takes a walk on the wild side with songs from last week’s topic threadWhat would the world be,...
View ArticleThe life and poetry of William Butler Yeats – quiz
A century and a half after his birth, the influence of WB Yeats is greater than ever. But how much do you know about the Nobel laureate's life and work? Find out with our anniversary quiz Continue...
View ArticleNew Selected Poems by Hans Magnus Enzensberger review – ‘savage, funny, exact’
Widely informed and immune to sentiment – a powerful collection from the German masterIn the title poem of his 1960 collection Landessprache (Language of the Country) Hans Magnus Enzensberger examines...
View ArticleOwen Sheers: an interview with contemporary literature’s renaissance man
The poet, novelist and playwright on family, Britain’s child soldiers and hating novels set in Hampstead (and then writing one)From a distance, Owen Sheers’s new novel appears to be missing a title;...
View ArticleBrawls, booze and slurs: 300 years of Oxford University’s professor of poetry
The next occupant of the hallowed chair will be announced this week. And not for the first time in its long history, the contest has been steeped in controversyThe electorate numbers more than 250,000...
View ArticlePoem of the week: (Houdini in Karis) by Tua Forsström
In this piece from the Finnish-Swedish poet’s new collection, Houdini is an escape artist who longs for human connectionI went to the basement on the afternoon of thenineteenth of August and made a...
View ArticleJames Fenton wins 2015 PEN Pinter prize
The British poet is praised by the jury for ‘speaking truth to power – forcefully, fearlessly and beautifully’Hailed by judges for speaking “truth to power – forcefully, fearlessly, and beautifully”,...
View ArticleUS poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera: 'Poetry is one of the most beautiful...
The newly appointed poet laureate of the US talks about his upbringing as a campesinos in California, the role of poetry in political life, and Allen Ginsberg“It’s a good thing, you know, it’s a good...
View ArticleUnseen papers reveal Ted Hughes's 'funny, loyal and affectionate' side
Extensive correspondence, due to be auctioned later this month, shows a humorous, tender man - very different from the popular image of the late poet laureatePenning a teasing poem for an old friend...
View ArticleLarkin, Poet’s Corner? Shouldn’t there be another place for poets like him? |...
He may have been a sexist curmudgeon, but he belongs in a neutral place that doesn’t skate over life’s difficulties, as open to interpretation as his poetryPhilip Larkin was never treated with kid...
View ArticleEmma-Lee Moss: How books took me on a journey back to China
As a child growing up in Hong Kong, Emma-Lee Moss wanted nothing to do with her Asian heritage. Then books began to return her to herselfLast week, a book arrived in my mailbox.On the back was a...
View ArticleJohn Bate obituary
My father, John Bate, a poet, librarian and father of 12, who has died aged 95, was a private man who reserved expression of his deepest self to his poetry.John was born in London, son of Leonard, a...
View ArticleReaders recommend: songs about books | Peter Kimpton
Climb those library ladders and dust off the shelves to find music influenced by or making reference to authors, characters, quotes or plots in novels or any other form of the printed volume “So many...
View ArticleDoctor Faustus review - Marlowe's classic loses its soul in a lackluster slog
Classic Stage Company in New York, New YorkThis production of the mortality play falls flat with diabolical sing-alongs, awful fight choreography and star Chris Noth wishing he were somewhere elseIn...
View ArticleCharles Bukowski's Women set to be made into a movie
Semi-autobigraphical tale will follow other Bukowski adaptations including 1987’s Barfly, 1983’s Tales of Ordinary Madness and 2005’s FactotumCharles Bukowski’s semi-autobiographical novel Women is to...
View ArticleSimon Armitage wins Oxford professor of poetry election
Popular British poet selected for prestigious post ahead of strong field including Wole SoyinkaThe British poet Simon Armitage has seen off an international field to be chosen as Oxford’s latest...
View ArticleThe Saturday poem: Blood and Lead
by James Fenton, winner of the 2015 PEN Pinter prizeListen to what they did.Don’t listen to what they said.What was written in bloodHas been set up in lead.Lead tears the heart.Lead tears the...
View ArticleUnder Milk Wood review - Rhys Ifans in a highly coloured fever dream
Dylan Thomas’ celebrated radio play has been energetically adapted to the big screen with Charlotte Church among the gallery of fun performancesThe spirit of Richard Burton looms large over any...
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