Almost the Equinox by Sarah Maguire review – elegant and breathtaking
Maguire is our finest gardener-poet and this latest volume is a rich bouquet that exists on the edge of elegySarah Maguire’s Almost the Equinox is a bouquet gathered over time. These beautiful poems...
View ArticleHow do I love thee? Let me Instagram it
Mobbed at signings, followed by millions and topping the bestseller lists: Instapoets such as Lang Leav, Rupi Kaur and Tyler Knott Gregson are poetry’s new superstars, publishing their love poems and...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Admiralty by Osip Mandelstam, translated by Yuri...
A poem about the most beautiful city in the world, and an example of the precise demands of translationThe AdmiraltyIn the Northern capital, dusty populus,Sighing, mantles the time’s transparency,And,...
View ArticleThe photography of Philip Larkin - in pictures
Best known as a poet and librarian, Larkin was also a dedicated photographer, whose pictures kept a deadpan, erotic and mischievous record of his life. A new book gives the inside story• Sean O’Hagan...
View ArticleTranslation Tuesday: from The Atlantic Grows by Julie Sten-Knudsen
The fourth in a series on translated work features a poetic investigation of the relationship between two sisters who share the same mother and yet are divided – by their different fathers, their skin...
View ArticleBeyond the cliches: how the trans poetry community is finding its voice
A community of writers are expressing themselves for one another – and the medium they’re using is poetry, in which it’s ‘easier to say things that haven’t been put into words before’For a long time,...
View ArticleWhy we love limericks| Michael Rosen
There once was a short comic verse whose style was witty and terse. A new book came out, its sales were a rout – our unquenchable limerick thirst!News that a new book of limericks by the playwright...
View ArticleWorld Book Night criticised for all-white 2016 giveaway list
Fifteen-strong roster called ‘a sadly wasted opportunity to be truly diverse’ as space is found for Carol Ann Duffy and Matt Haig but not a single BAME authorCarol Ann Duffy, Jonathan Coe and Matt Haig...
View ArticleGuardian first book award 2015 goes to poet Andrew McMillan
McMillan becomes the first poet to win the £10,000 prize with Physical, a ‘breathtaking’ collection that explores modern male anxiety in settings from the gym to northern industrial townsThe poet...
View ArticleFellow poets protest Saudi death sentence facing Ashraf Fayadh
Carol Ann Duffy, Paul Muldoon and Adonis among writers signing PEN letter calling on Saudi courts to free Palestinian poet convicted of apostasy, and to allow freedom of expressionPoets from around the...
View ArticleEzra Pound: Posthumous Cantos edited by Massimo Bacigalupo review – fresh...
The previously unpublished pages of Pound’s great poem highlight its visionary grandeurEzra Pound’s life is worth several fictions, but one unlikely novel he turns up in is Elmore Leonard’s Pronto,...
View ArticleGuardian first book award winner Andrew McMillan – books podcast
We join judges, readers, the editor Robin Robertson and the winner of the 2015 Guardian first book award, Andrew McMillan Continue reading...
View ArticleClive James: ‘I have brave thoughts of joining my friends to talk, read and...
The writer reflects on his time in the French capitalThinking about the events in Paris, I remember that a modern French philosopher said, “We need time to find the words for our bewilderment.”...
View ArticleWhich are your favourite books of 2015?
Authors’ votes are in ... Now it’s your chance to nominate the book you enjoyed the most this year The time for lists has arrived, and after immersing ourselves in authors’ favourite books of 2015 –...
View ArticleBest books of 2015 – part one
Compelling fiction, a game-changing biography, and a 900-page whopper for food nerds – writers reveal which of the past year’s books they have most enjoyedWhich are your favourite books of the year?...
View ArticleDecember's Reading group: books from the Caribbean
From Marlon James and Derek Walcott to CLR James, the enviably sunny islands have plenty to offer book fans in colder climes – but what should the Reading group grab as we hit that imaginary beach?In...
View ArticleBest books of 2015 – part two
From provocative novels, giants real and imagined, and new novels from past masters … authors and critics select their favourite reads of 2015Which are your favourite books of the year? Nominate them...
View ArticlePoem of the Week: Straight Up by Owen Gallagher
A playful and euphemistic poem about masculinity and the festering, phallic fear of sexual inadequacyStraight UpWhen she grasped what I considered big,stuttered Is that it?I fumbled with the...
View ArticleA stone’s throw away, lives a decade shorter | Letters
We should indeed “be shocked into action by the fact that wealth, class and geography still dictate life expectancy” (Paul Mason, G2, 1 December). Healthy life expectancy, as he reports, is 16 years...
View ArticleImmig-Rants: spoken word artists defend immigration – video
Four of the UK’s leading spoken word artists perform extracts from new work reflecting on immigration today.Hollie McNish - ‘Apple Orchards and Building Sites’Inja - ‘iRant, Trains and Veg’Vanessa...
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