Isis kills Syrian poet who opposed Assad government
Mohammad Bashir al-Aani and son had been captured after family funeral and held for several months accused of apostasyIslamic State has killed a Syrian poet and his adult son, whom they captured after...
View ArticlePay with a poem: cafes around the world to exchange coffee for poetry
Poetry will become the new currency in coffee outlets around the world for a day as World Poetry Day campaign spreads to 34 countriesFind out about the participating cafes in your area hereShare a snap...
View ArticleNicola Sturgeon introduces the new Scottish makar, Jackie Kay
‘Gaun yersel!’ writes the new makar in previously unpublished poem In the Long RunPoetry is part of Scotland’s culture and history. The role of the makar is to celebrate our literary past, promote the...
View ArticleMargo Jefferson and Maggie Nelson win National Book Critics Circle Awards
An author’s relationship with a transgender artist and a memoir of growing up in an African-American community in Chicago among subjects of books honouredThe winners of the National Books Critics...
View ArticleThe Homeric Hymns and Herne the Hunter by Peter McDonald review – audacious...
A classical translation and a moving new collection make for a double achievementNever short of an opinion on these matters, Vladimir Nabokov ended his 1941 article “The Art of Translation” with a...
View ArticleThe Saturday poem: The Elms
By Alison BrackenburyWe may know the trees but rarely wood.Elm was the workhorse, daily tree,pale handle, for your fork and spade,a chair as low as a bent kneecut down for each uneven floor.Women...
View ArticleJackie Kay: Scotland’s poet of the people | Observer profile
Last week, the Glaswegian was named as her country’s new poet laureate. Fans point to her rare combination of literary merit with great accessibility, making her a popular choice to reframe...
View ArticleThe medium is the message – the power of public poetry
From empty swimming pools to old vans, Robert Montgomery takes the written word to the most physical of spaces. People like it so much, they’ve taken to getting tattoos of his workPay with a poem:...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Inside the Spacious Tomb by Robin Fulton Macpherson
This week’s poem has a Christian resurrection theme as it brings to life William Blake’s painting of angels rolling away the stone from Christ’s tombThe white glow from the wakened corpsebrightens the...
View ArticleTense Times, a poem by Ashraf Fayadh
To mark World Poetry Day, we are publishing the Palestinian poet’s first work since he was jailed in Saudi Arabia, in which he explores grief and imprisonment. Read it here in both English and Arabic...
View ArticleJailed Palestinian poet pays tribute to father who 'died of sorrow'
Ashraf Fayadh, whose father died after hearing his son was to be beheaded, has written his first poem since he was imprisoned two years ago in Saudi Arabia for renouncing Islam • Tense Times, a poem by...
View ArticleInternational Dylan Thomas prize 2016 unveils 'phenomenally talented' shortlist
An ‘astounding array’ of work by six young writers, including Sunjeev Sahota and the Guardian first book award winner Andrew McMillan, will compete for the £30,000 prize in MayGuardian first book award...
View ArticleTips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week?
Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of themAre you on Instagram? Then you can be featured here by tagging your books-related posts with #GuardianBooksScroll down for our...
View ArticleWhy I love red herrings, skeletons and taking the mickey | Dr Franz Andres...
Striking, obscure or plain unintelligible, idioms are so much more than just the shiny ornaments on our everyday languagePerhaps I need to get out more, but it gratifies me to find out that Robert...
View ArticleThe new Greek poetry
In poverty stricken Greece, poetry is getting richer. Karen Van Dyck, editor of a new anthology, looks at an artform in revolutionWhen there is less to go around, people fight, grab, get tough. Lately,...
View ArticlePolitical poetry with Luke Wright and Hollie McNish – books podcast
We put politics, performance and poetry under the lens with spoken-word stars Luke Wright and Hollie McNish This week we listen in to two performance poets as they examine the personal and the...
View ArticleThe Saturday poem: Portrait
by Heidi Williamson(for Lorna and Peter)You recognise her stance first: upright and calm,behind a weathered wooden table. Her hand restslightly on a book. Her head is dipped; her eyesdraw the full...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Skins by Patience Agbabi
In this ‘spoken word sestina’ with sexual, racial and social overtones, Agbabi plays with shifts of meaning as the speaker bears himself in a monologueIt’s not like you don’t turn me on.Every time you...
View ArticleLuke Wright: 'I wanted my story to work on the page and the stage'
The author explains how a theatre director helped him take What I Learned from Johnny Bevan – an epic poem about a middle-class journalist who falls under the spell of a working-class poet – all the...
View ArticleJim Harrison obituary: author of Legends of the Fall
Writer and poet whose work was anchored in the American outdoors, the traditional proving ground of the US maleIn his fiction, poetry and essays, Jim Harrison, who has died aged 78 after a heart...
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