Poetry News Digest: April 2014

Tags

2014, 3 Sections, A Poet's Glossary, actor, album, American, April, award, BBC, book, Border, Boy Meets World, British, Ceausescu, centenary, Claudia Rankine, death, Desert Island Discs, dramatist, Economic Times, Edward Hirsch, English, exile, First World War, folk, GoodReads, Imelda Staunton, Indian, interview, Jackson Poetry Prize, Jim Carter, John Drury, music, Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert, New York Times, news, Nina Cassian, NPR, NY Daily News, Overdrive, performance poetry, Peter Bennet, philosophy, photo, poetry, Polish, prize, Publishers Weekly, Pulitzer Prize, Radio Times, reference, review, Rolling Stone, Romanian, Samuel L Jackson, satire, secret police, Show of Hands, Sitcom, slam poem, Tadeusz Różewicz, The Belfast Telegraph, The Courier, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The LA Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Write Web, The Yorkshire Post, TheNews.pl, Time, Tonight Show, TV, video, Vijay Seshadri, war, Warsaw Business Journal, witty, YouTube

The main stories about poetry from the month of April – a fairly quiet month by recent standards.

News

• The actor Samuel L. Jackson performed a slam poem about the 1990s sitcom Boy Meets World on the Tonight Show. Read more at Time, Rolling Stone and The Daily Mail. Watch this video of the performance:

• The USA celebrated its annual National Poetry Month, first introduced in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets. Read more at Poets.org, Chicago Now and ReadWriteThink.

• The British actors Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton teamed up with folk band Show of Hands to record a musical album of war poetry, that will be released later this year to mark the centenary of the First World War. Read more at Radio Times, The Yorkshire Post and The Belfast Telegraph.

Show of Hands in Performance
[Flickr Creative Commons © Martin Gibson]

Deaths

• The exiled Romanian poet Nina Cassian, who sought refuge in the US after her poems satirising Ceausescu fell into the hands of secret police, died aged 89. Read more at The New York Times, The Guardian and The LA Times. Listen to Cassian appearing on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs.

• The Polish poet, dramatist and writer Tadeusz Różewicz, who belonged to the first generation of poets born after Poland regained independence in 1918, died aged 92. Read more at The Guardian, TheNews.pl and Warsaw Business Journal.

Awards

• Vijay Seshadri won the 2014 Pultizer Prize for Poetry for his witty and philosophical collection of poems 3 Sections. Read more at NY Daily News, Economic Times and The Wall Street Journal. Read an interview with Seshadri at NPR. Watch Seshadri reading one of his poems:

• Claudia Rankine won the $50,000 2014 Jackson Poetry Prize for her body of work that “pushes the boundaries of the contemporary lyric.” Read more at Publishers Weekly and The New York Times.

Book Releases

• Border, a selection of poems by Peter Bennet (not yet rated at GoodReads). Read reviews at The Guardian and The Courier.

• A Poet’s Glossary, an exhaustive resource on the tools of poetry by Edward Hirsch (rated 5/5 based on 5 ratings at GoodReads). Read reviews at Washington Post, Overdrive and The Write Web.

All ratings are from GoodReads as at 13/05/2014.

Poetry News Digest: March 2014

Tags

1914.org, Afaa Michael Weaver, affair, Alison Chisholm, American, Anthony Holden, Archivist, award, Ban, BBC, Ben Holden, Beowulf, Bernard and Cerinthe, biography, Black Diamonds, book, Brentwood, Brentwood Gazette, Brentwood School, British, Byssus, Carol Ann Duffy, Ceremony, Claremont Graduate University, Crystal Good, Delhi, Douglas Adams, election, English, Estate, Express, festival, First World War, George Szirtes, GoodReads, Gov.uk, Grace Pritt, Griff Rhys Jones, HarperCollins, HMP Parkhurst, Hugo Williams, Hungarian, I Knew the Bridge, Industry, Jen Hadfield, Jonathan Bate, Kevin Powers, Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, Korean, Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting, Linda France, London Evening Standard, Los Angeles, March, media, Melville House, National Poetry Competition, New Statesman, news, North Korean, NPR, Off the Book, Pentonville Prison, plagiarism, poem, Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, Poet Laureate, poetry, politics, Prison, Prisoner, prize, Raw Story, review, school, Scottish, Serhiy Zhadan, Shetland, State Media, Storyacious, Student, Ted Hughes, Teenager, Texas Observer, The Billows of Emotion and Happiness, The Daily Mail, The Government of Nature, The Guardian, The Independent, The Indian Express, The New Yorker, The Poetry Society, The Register-Herald, The Telegraph, The Wire, Times, Tolkein, translation, Ukrainian, UN, UNESCO, Veteran, video, Wales Online, war, We Break into Cheers from the Bottom of Our Heart, We Go to the Polling Station, West Virginia, World Poetry Day, World Poetry Festival, Yanukovich, YouTube

A summary of all the key headlines from the world of poetry in March.

News

• UNESCO’s World Poetry Day was celebrated on 21 March. In the UK, the public were encouraged to record themselves reading their favourite First World War poem in tribute to those who served. Read more at Gov.uk, 1914.org and The UN.

World Poetry Day
[Flickr Creative Commons © Karen Cropper]

• A ‘World Poetry Festival’ was held in Delhi from 21-24 March, featuring 50 poets from 21 countries including George Szirtes from the UK. Read more at The Indian Express and George Szirtes Blog.

• Serhiy Zhadan, Ukraine’s most famous counter-culture poet, was beaten up by pro-Russian activists for being involved in the protests that resulted in the overthrow of President Yanukovich. Read more at The New Yorker and Melville House. Here is a video of Zhadan performing:

• The North Korean state media released poems in the run-up to elections on 9 March. Titles included ‘The Billows Of Emotion And Happiness,’ ‘We Break Into Cheers From The Bottom Of Our Heart’ and ‘We Go To The Polling Station.’ Read more at BBC News, The Telegraph and The Wire.

• A prisoner in HMP Parkhurst was forced to hand back a £25 poetry prize for inmates for plagiarising the poet Alison Chisholm. Read more at The Express and The Telegraph.

• West Virginia officials tried to ban a student from reading ‘Black Diamonds,’ a poem about industrial disasters, at an awards ceremony. They were forced to back down in the face of public outrage. Read more at Raw Story, Crystal Good and The Register-Herald. Here is the student, Grace Pritt, reciting the poem:

• HarperCollins announced that they would publish JRR Tolkein’s translation of Beowulf in May this year. Read more at The Guardian, BBC News and The Independent.

• An archivist at Brentwood School discovered poems in a school cupboard written by Douglas Adams and Griff Rhys Jones when they were teenagers. Read more at The Guardian, Brentwood Gazette and Wales Online.

Douglas Adams
[Flickr Creative Commons © Michael Hughes]

• The UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy led a protest outside Pentonville Prison against a ban on sending books and other essentials to prisoners. Read more at The Guardian, Politics and London Evening Standard.

• The estate of Ted Hughes withdrew access to his private records from biographer Jonathan Bate after Bate uncovered new material about Hughes’s affairs. Read more at The Guardian and The Daily Mail.

Awards

• Afaa Michael Weaver won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his collection The Government of Nature. Read more at Los Angeles Times and Claremont Graduate University.

• Linda France won the National Poetry Competition for her poem ‘Bernard and Cerinthe.’ Read more at The Poetry Society and The Guardian.

Book Releases

• Byssus, the third collection from Shetland-based Jen Hadfield (rated 4.8/5 based on 5 ratings at GoodReads). Read a review at New Statesman.

• I Knew the Bride, the eleventh collection from Hugo Williams (rated 3/5 based on 1 rating at GoodReads). Read a review at The Guardian.

• Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, an anthology of moving poems edited by Anthony Holden and Ben Holden (rated 3.7/5 based on 10 ratings at GoodReads). Read reviews at The Guardian, Storyacious and Off the Book.

• Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting, the second collection from the Iraq war veteran Kevin Powers (rated 3.77/5 based on 22 ratings at GoodReads). Read reviews at The Guardian, NPR and Texas Observer.

All ratings are from GoodReads as at 10/04/2014.

Poetry News Digest: February 2014

Tags

2014, actor, All One Breath, Allie Esiri, American, Andrew Wilson, anthology, App, Arabic, award, biography, British, Carcanet Press, CBR, cello, Chicago Sun-Times, David Green Books, death, debut, Dennis O'Driscoll, Eduardo Lizalde, El tigre en celo, Emma Watson, Emotional Idiot, English, Enitharmon Press, essay, execution, February, Federico Garcia Lorca, Federico Garcia Lorca Poetry Award, folk, Frontpage Mag, Global Post, GoodReads, Hashem Shaabani, Helena Bonham Carter, Herald Scotland, Holding On Upside Down, Huffington Post, human rights, interview, Interview Magazine, Iranian, Irish, John Burnside, Kristen Stewart, Langston Hughes, Latin American Herald Tribune, Leyla McCalla, Linda Leavell, lyrical, Mad Girl's Love Song, Maggie Estep, Marie Clare, Marriane Moore, Maxine Kumin, Mexican, Michael Baldwin, music, New York Times, news, novelist, photo, poetry, poetry slam, PopWatch, Pulitzer Prize, review, Romantic, San Francisco Chronicle, Scottish, Sebastian Barker, slam poem, spoken word poetry, Sylvia Plath, Tara Bergin, teaching, terrorism, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, The LA Times, The Love Book, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Outnumbered Poet, The Poetry School, The Scotsman, The Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, This is Yarrow, Tom Hiddleston, Tower Poetry, tribute, USA Today, Valentine's Day, Vari-Colored Songs, video, William Blake, YouTube

All the headlines from February.

News

• The folk musician and cellist Leyla McCalla released her debut album Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes in which she sets Langston Hughes’s poetry to music. Read more at Boston Globe, NPR and Mother Jones. Here is one of the tracks:

• A poetry app was released on Valentine’s Day which featured names such as Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Watson and Tom Hiddleston reading romantic poems from Allie Esiri’s anthology The Love Book. Read more at The Telegraph, CBR and Chicago Sun-Times.

• The actress Kristen Stewart revealed she has been writing poetry for years and published a poem in Marie Clare which she described as “embarassing.” Read more including the poem itself at The Independent, PopWatch and The Daily Mail.

• It was announced that a collection of poetry by Iain Banks, the novelist who died in June last year from cancer, will be published in 2015. Banks spoke about wanting to publish poetry in his final interview. Read more at BBC News, The Bookseller and The Star.

Iain Banks
[Flickr Creative Commons © Chris Boland]

• The Arab-Iranian poet Hashem Shaabani, was executed in Iran for allegedly having links with a separatist terrorist organisation. The news shocked human rights groups worldwide. Read more at The Guardian, Huffington Post and Frontpage Mag.

Deaths

• Maxine Kumin, the Pulitzer-winning poet who work was known for exploring the most complex aspects of human existence, died aged 88. Read more at The San Francisco Chronicle, The New Yorker and The New York Times.

• Maggie Estep, the spoken-word poet who popularised slam poetry on US television, died aged 50. Read more at The New York Times, USA Today and The LA Times. Watch her performing ‘Emotional Idiot’ here:

• Michael Baldwin, the poet and novelist who had a passion for teaching others, died aged 83. Read more at The Guardian.

• Sebastian Barker, the lyrical poet much influenced by William Blake, died aged 68. Read more at The Guardian, Enitharmon Press and The Independent.

Awards

• Eduardo Lizalde won the Federico Garcia Lorca Poetry Award in recognition of his lifetime body of work. Read more at Global Post and Latin American Herald Tribune. Here is Lizalde reading his poem ‘El tigre en celo’:

Book Releases

• This is Yarrow, the debut collection from Tara Bergin (rated 4/5 based on 2 ratings at GoodReads). Read reviews at The Guardian, The Carcanet Blog and Tower Poetry. Read an interview with Bergin at The Poetry School.

• Mad Girl’s Love Song, a biography of Sylvia Plath by Andrew Wilson (rated 3.7/5 based on 282 ratings at GoodReads). Read reviews at The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Scotsman. Read an interview with Wilson at Interview Magazine.

• All One Breath, the latest collection from John Burnside (rated 4/5 based on 1 rating at GoodReads). Read reviews at The Guardian, David Green Books and Herald Scotland. Read an interview with Burnside at Herald Scotland.

• The Outnumbered Poet, a posthumous collection of critical and autobiographical essays by Dennis O’Driscoll (not yet rated on GoodReads). Read a review at The Guardian.

• Holding on Upside Down, a biography of Marianne Moore by Linda Leavell (rated 4.4/5 based on 16 ratings at GoodReads). Read reviews at The New York Review of Books, The Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal.

All ratings are from GoodReads as at 26/02/2014.

Poetry News Digest: January 2014

Tags

2014, ABC, activist, advert, affair, American, Amiri Baraka, ancient, Apple, Argentinian, artsHub, August Kleinzahler, Australian, award, Bakery and Snacks, BBC, Black Arts Movement, book, BookReviewBlogger, Boston Music Spotlight, British, Cambrian News, Camden Review, Chinese, commercial, Dalit Panthers, Dannie Abse, death, DNA India, Dylan Thomas, English, Examiner, Express, Global Post, GoodReads, Gottfried Benn, Greek, guerrilla, Harvard University, heart attack, Herbie Hancock, HK Standard, Impromptus: Selected Poems and Some Prose, Indian, iPad, iPad Air, January, jazz, Jennifer Maiden, Jose Emilio Pacheco, journalist, Juan Gelman, lecture, Liquid Nitrogen, Literature Works, Liu Xia, Liu Xiaobo, Live Science, Marathi, mayor, Mexican, Minneapolis, music, Namdeo Dhasal, New Republic, New Statesman, New Welsh Review, New York Times, news, News 24, News International, Nobel Laureate, Norton Professor of Poetry, Oh Me! Oh Life!, papyrus, Parallax, PC Mag, Pearl Kazin, photo, Pilgrim's Flower, poet, poetry, prize, prose, Publishers Weekly, Pune Mirror, Rachael Boast, review, RS Thomas, RT Ryback, Russian, Sappho, sex, Sinead Morrissey, Sophie Hannah, Speak Old Parrot, Sydney Morning Herald, The Arts Fuse, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Hindu, The Hotel Oneira, The Independent, The Poetry of Sex, The Root, The Skinny, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Washington Post, TS Eliot Prize, TV, TwinCities, twitter, Tyrrell's Crisps, University of Oxford, Victorian Prize for Literature, video, Wales Online, Wall Street Journal, Walt Whitman, Welsh, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Tech, YouTube

All the essential poetry news from the first month of 2014.

News

• A Russian poetry lover stabbed a champion of prose to death in drunken row over the merits of the two literary forms. Read more at BBC News, The Guardian and Global Post.

• A video of Liu Xia, the wife of imprisoned Chinese Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo, reading two self-written poems while under house arrest, was posted online. Read more at The HK Standard, The Guardian and News 24. Here is the video:

• The mayor of Minneapolis RT Ryback suffered a heart attack and posted a short poem about it on Twitter, which read: “My cardiac surprise/ Gave me quite a start/ But it proves this politician/ Has a great big heart.” Read more at TwinCities.

• A University of Oxford papyrologist said that a poem found on ancient papyrus is indubitably the work of the sixth-century Greek poet Sappho. Read more at The Guardian, Mail Online and Live Science. Read a translation of the poem at The Guardian.

• Apple released a iPad Air commercial that features quotes from Walt Whitman’s ‘Oh Me! Oh Life!’ Read more at Yahoo! Tech, New Republic and PC Mag. Here is the ad:

• It was announced that a forthcoming book will reveal a year-long love affair between Dylan Thomas and the American journalist Pearl Kazin. Read more at Wales Online, Express and Mail Online.

• An image of the Welsh poet RS Thomas appeared on packs of Tyrrell’s Sweet Chilli & Red Pepper crisps as pack of a promotion they were running which featured the tagline “Win a fleeting look of contempt… or £25,000.” Read more at The Telegraph, Cambrian News and Bakery and Snacks.

• Jazz musician Herbie Hancock was appointed the Harvard University 2014 Norton Professor of Poetry. He will deliver six lectures on a variety of topics. Read more at The Root, Boston Music Spotlight and Examiner.

Herbie Hancock
[Flickr Creative Commons © Evert-Jan]

Deaths

• Amiri Baraka, the provocative writer and leader of the 1960s Black Arts movement, died aged 79. Read more at The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Guardian.

• Juan Gelman, the renowned Argentinian poet who was a left-wing activist and guerrilla in the 1960s and 1970s, died aged 83. Read more at BBC News, The Guardian and The New York Times.

• Namdeo Dhasal, noted Marathi poet and one of the founders of the radical organisation The Dalit Panthers, died aged 64. Read more at The Hindu, DNA India and Pune Mirror.

• José Emilio Pacheco, one of Mexico’s foremost poets, died aged 74. Read more at BBC News, The New York Times and News International.

Awards

• Sinéad Morrissey won the 2013 TS Eliot Award for her fifth collection, Parallax. Read more at The Guardian, The Independent and The Telegraph. Watch her read from the collection here:

• Jennifer Maiden won Australia’s Victorian Prize for Literature for her most recent collection, Liquid Nitrogen. Read more at The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC and artsHub.

Book Releases

• The Poetry of Sex, ed. Sophie Hannah (not yet rated on GoodReads). Read reviews at The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Independent.

• The Hotel Oneira by August Kleinzahler (3.8/5 based on 11 ratings at GoodReads). Read reviews at The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly and New Statesman.

• Pilgrim’s Flower by Rachael Boast (not yet rated on GoodReads). Read reviews at The Skinny, The Guardian and BookReviewBlogger. Author interviewed at Literature Works.

• Speak, Old Parrot by Dannie Abse (4/5 based on 2 ratings at GoodReads). Read reviews at The Guardian, New Welsh Review and Camden Review.

• Impromptus: Selected Poems and Some Prose by Gottfried Benn (4.4/5 based on 5 ratings at GoodReads). Read reviews at The Arts Fuse and The Guardian.

All ratings are from GoodReads as at 10/02/2014.

Poetry News Digest: December 2013

Tags

2013, Ahmed Fouad Negm, Ahram Online, Anne Michaels, anniversary, Anvil Press Poetry, Arabic, Arsene Wenger, assassination, BBC, Bernice Eisenstein, British, celebrity, Chilean, Christopher Reid, colloquial, Correspondances: A Poem and Portraits, Daniel Weissbort, Danish, death, death threat, December, Douglas Dunn, eastern Europe, Egyptian, Euronews, football, GoodReads, Herald Scotland, interview, Islam, Modern Poetry in Translation, Mubarak, Musa Okwonga, Muslims, National Post, news, Pablo Neruda, patriotic, poet, poetry, Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, racism, rap, RAPSI, reading, review, revolutionary, Scottish, Six Bad Poets, sport, Steven Gerrard, The Boston Globe, The Copenhagen Post, The FA, The Football Association, The Guardian, The Houston Chronicle, The Jewish Press, The Poetry Archive, The Spectator, The Telegraph, Theo Walcott, translation, tribute, uprising, video, Who Ate All the Pies, Write Out Loud, Yahya Hassan

All the essential poetry news from the month of December.

News

Yahya Hassan, the Danish rap poet, was charged with racism over poems fiercely criticising the actions of fellow Muslims in Denmark. Hassan has also faced 27 death threats and was recently assaulted. Read more at The Copenhagen Post, The Guardian and The Jewish Press.

Yahya Hassan Performing
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © Radikale Venstre]

Poet and sports writer Musa Okwonga produced a tribute to football to celebrate 150 years of the FA. He was joined by Steven Gerrard, Arsène Wenger, Theo Walcott and a number of celebrity guests. Read more and watch the video at The Football Association, Who Ate All the Pies and The Guardian.

Members of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda’s family contested toxicology reports that appeared to conclusively prove that he died of natural causes rather than being assassinated. Read more at The Guardian, RAPSI and The Houston Chronicle.

Deaths

Ahmed Fouad Negm, Egypt’s ‘poet of the people’ who used colloquial Egyptian Arabic to write patriotic and revolutionary poetry and supported the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak, died aged 84. Read more at The Telegraph, Euronews and Ahram Online.

Ahmed Fouad Negm
[Source: Wikimedia Commons © Michael Nabil]

Daniel Weissbort, the translator and poet who founded Modern Poetry in Translation and brought the work of eastern European poets to the West, died aged 78. Read more at The Guardian, Modern Poetry in Translation and Anvil Press Poetry.

Awards

Douglas Dunn won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry 2013 in recognition of his lifetime contribution to literature. Read more at BBC News, Herald Scotland and Write Out Loud. Listen to Dunn reading some of his poems at The Poetry Archive.

Book Releases

Six Bad Poets by Christopher Reid (4/5 based on 2 ratings at GoodReads). Reviewed at The Spectator and The Guardian. Author interviewed at The Telegraph.

Correspondances: A Poem and Portraits by Anne Michaels and Bernice Eisenstein (4.4/5 based on 8 ratings at GoodReads). Reviewed at The Guardian, National Post and The Boston Globe.

(all ratings are from GoodReads as at 31/12/13).