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.

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November 2013 Poetry News Digest

Tags

2013, Access Hollywood, American, anniversary, art, artist painting, auction, author, award, BBC, Blouin Art Info, book, British, Cardiff, Christies, Cinema Blend, CK Williams, CS Lewis, CS Lewis in Poet's Corner, curriculum, Dan O'Brien, Division Street, Don Paterson, Dylan Thomas, education, English, Esquire, GCSE, George Clooney, GoodReads, Gunpowder Day, Helen Mort, Incarnadine, IndieWire, interview, James Franco, Jean Sprackland, John Constable, John Donne, Joyce Carol Oates, Mary Szybist, memorial, Michael Gove, Mila Kunis, Mouth London, movie, National Book Award for Poetry, National Book Foundation, National Museum Wales, news, November, NY Daily News, OPB, Peter Blake, play, Poet's Corner, poetry, Poor Rude Lines, pop artist, reading, Robert Frost, Romantic, Russell Crowe, Sean O'Brien, sermon, short story, Sleeping Keys, Sonofabook, Tar, The American Conservative, The Anglican News Service, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, The Hungry Reader, The Independent, The Malahat Review, The Oxonian Review, The Telegraph, The Times of India, The Virtual Paul's Cross Project, The Washington Post, The Wrap, trailor, Train Songs, TS Eliot, Tweet Speak, Under Milk Wood, UVA Today, Valerie Eliot, virtual reality, War Reporter, Welsh, Westminster, Westminster Abbey, WriteOutLoud

All the essential poetry news from the month of November.

Bit late, sorry.

News

The author Joyce Carol Oates published a short story portraying Robert Frost as boorish and vainglorious, angering the late poet’s friends and family in the process. Read more at The Guardian, The American Conservative and The Washington Post.

Joyce Carol Oates
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © SpokaneFocus]

Michael Gove (UK Education Secretary) announced a shake-up of the GCSE curriculum, under which a greater emphasis will be placed on Romantic poetry. Read more at The Independent, The Telegraph, and The Daily Mail.

Visualisations of characters from the poet Dylan Thomas’s play Under Milk Wood, painted by pop artist Peter Blake, have gone on display at Cardiff to mark the 100th anniversary of Thomas’s birth. Read more at National Museum Wales, BBC News and The Telegraph.

CS Lewis was honoured with a memorial stone in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey. Read more at BBC News, CS Lewis in Poet’s Corner and The Telegraph.

University researchers have recreated John Donne’s 1622 Gunpowder Day sermon in virtual reality using acoustic and visual models. Listen and explore at The Virtual Paul’s Cross Project and read more at The Guardian and The Anglican News Service.

Quote from John Donne at North Greenwich
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © David Jones 大卫 琼斯]

In an interview with Esquire, George Clooney revealed that Russell Crowe sent him a book of poems to apologise after calling him a sell-out. Read more at Access Hollywood, The Wrap and NY Daily News.

A trailor was released for Tar, the independent movie about poet CK Williams which features James Franco and Mila Kunis. Read more and watch the trailor at IndieWire, The Wrap, and Cinema Blend.

Valerie Eliot, widow of the poet TS Eliot, auctioned her British art collection for more than £7m at Christies, with the highest price going to a pencil and water colour sketch by John Constable. Read more at Blouin Art Info, The Times of India and The Huffington Post.

Awards

Mary Szybist‘s poetry collection Incarnadine won the US National Book Award for Poetry. View readings at National Book Foundation and read more at OPB and UVA Today.

Book Releases

Train Songs ed. Sean O’Brien and Don Paterson (1/5 based on 1 rating at GoodReads). Reviewed at The Guardian, The Independent and WriteOutLoud.

War Reporter by Dan O’Brien (4.6/5 based on 7 ratings at GoodReads). Reviewed at The Guardian and Sonofabook. Author interviewed at The Malahat Review.

Broken Hierarchies: Poems 1952-2012 by Geoffrey Hill (3/5 based on 1 rating at GoodReads). Reviewed at The Sunday Times and The Guardian.

Division Street by Helen Mort (4.3/5 based on 9 ratings at GoodReads). Reviewed at Mouth London, The Independent and The Hungry Reader. Author interviewed at The Oxonian Review.

Sleeping Keys by Jean Sprackland (4/5 based on 2 ratings at GoodReads). Reviewed at The Guardian, Tweet Speak and Poor Rude Lines.

(all ratings are from GoodReads as at 22/12/13).

Poetry News Round Up: August 2013

Tags

Amazon, American, Azerbaijani, Blake Morrison, book, Chairing of the Bard, childhood, Chris Siegfried, Coleshill, competition, corporate, Dear Straight People, death, Denice Frohman, Derry, Desiree Hartsock, Diamonds and Hearts, Digging, Edinburgh, Edinburgh International Festival, Eisteddfod, English, Fiona Sampson, Ian Hamilton, Imagining Alexandria: Poems in Memory of CP Cavafy, Irish, Jeremy Noel-Tod, Latin, LGBT, Louis de Bernieres, Mererid Hopwood, National Eisteddfod, New Welsh Review, news, Nobel Laureate, Patti Smith, performance poetry, poet, poetry, poetry slam, Robert Louis Stevenson, Seamus Heaney, State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan, text message, The Bachelorette, The Guardian, The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry, The Sunday Times, TV, video, viral, Welsh, Women of the World Poetry Slam, Yeats

Here is your regular round up of the last month’s news in poetry, lovingly stitched into a glorious tapestry of, erm, well, poetry news…

Seamus Heaney, the Nobel Laureate and celebrated Irish poet, has died aged 74.

Sad news this month as one of the giants of today’s poetry world has passed away.

Seamus Heaney was often described as the greatest Irish poet since Yeats or, as Blake Morrison put it in The Guardian, perhaps “Yeats was the greatest Irish poet till Heaney.”

Seamus Heaney in 1970
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © SiGarb]

At his funeral, his son Michael revealed that Heaney sent a text message to his wife minutes before he passed away that read “noli timere” (Latin for “don’t be afraid”).

Heaney was laid to rest in the same Derry soil that inspired his most famous poem, ‘Digging.’

The “Bachelorette” has released a poetry book.

The biggest story in US poetry in August (measured purely by the amount of coverage it got from the media) was the news that Desiree Hartsock and Chris Siegfried, the stars of the TV programme “The Bachelorette” 2013, have released a book of poetry together.

The book is called Diamonds and Hearts. The description on Amazon says that in it Desiree “expresses her feelings for Chris in a way no one has ever seen before!”

The standard of submissions to the National Eisteddfod “Chairing of the Bard” poetry prize was so poor that the judges withheld the award.

The “Chairing of the Bard” is a highlight of the Welsh cultural festival, the National Eisteddfod. However, on this occasion, the Eisteddfod released a statement saying:

“The disappointment this year is that the entries – for whatever reason – have been sent without adequate care being taken to iron out the last few glitches.”

As a result, they decided not to award the chair to any of this year’s 12 entrants. As shocking as this may sound, it’s actually not that unusual. It’s the 15th time in the history of the competition (since 1880) that there has been no winner of the chair.

Mererid Hopwood, the first female winner of the Chair, in 2001
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © Polo]

An Azerbaijani oil fund has published several pages of poetry in its annual report.

You might expect a corporate report to be the last place to find poetry, but that hasn’t put off the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan.

The fund has been using its annual report to raise the profile of Azerbaijani poets since 2010, and it continued the practice this month with the release of its 2012 report. You can read the report itself here.

Patti Smith has revealed her passion for the poems of Robert Louis Stevenson.

At the Edinburgh International Festival, Patti Smith said: “I can’t imagine my childhood without him. His poems were my companions, my friends.”

Smith spoke of how Stevenson‘s poems helped her through her childhood illnesses.

Patti Smith in Concert
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © Man Alive!]

A performance of a poem called ‘Dear Straight People’ has taken the internet by storm.

Denice Frohman won the 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam in March this year with her performance of ‘Dear Straight People,’ a poem which captures the swirl of emotions many members of the LGBT community have felt in public.

Her emotional performance has now gone viral on the internet after a video of it was recently posted online.

Book Releases

Finally, here is a small selection of the poetry books published during the month of August.

• The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry edited by Ian Hamilton and Jeremy Noel-Tod. The Sunday Times describes it as an “invaluable guide to poets writing in English since the turn of the 20th century.”
• Coleshill by Fiona Sampson. The New Welsh Review says “the collection represents a departure from Sampson’s earlier work” and complains that “the very power and intensity of her voice through the collection can feel oppressive and absolute.”
• Imagining Alexandria: Poems in Memory of CP Cavafy by Louis de Bernières, his first collection of poetry. The Guardian describes the book as “clunkily prosaic” but says “the rum enthusiasm fuelling this collection endears it to the reader.”

Poetry News Round Up: February 2013

Tags

A E Housman, African, African-American, ambassador, American, animation, Archangel, auction, award, BBC, Black History Month, Black Panthers, book, British, bullying, Charlotte Bronte, childhood, Chris Beckett, civil rights, Dear Boy, Democrat, East Sussex, Emily Berry, English, Ethiopian, Ethiopian Boy, European, expressive men, February, Frost Medal, graffiti, Guardian, handwritten, He Wonders Whether to Praise or Blame Her, Henry Shukman, Herald Scotland, Japanese, Jewish, John Boehner, John Clare, Jupiter Hammon, king, Latin American, Leicester, Les Ballons, London, Manhattan, manuscript, medieval, Mohammed al-Ajami, New Mexico, obscene, Oscar Wilde, Patty Murray, poetry, Poetry Society of America, politics, Qatari, radio, Radio 4, Republican, Richard III, Robert Bly, Romanian, Rudyard Kipling, Rupert Brooke, Russian, Saudi, school, Senate, Shane Koyczan, Telegraph, To This Day, Tony Harrison, translation, treasure, twitter, unpublished, v, Valentine, Valentine's Day, VAWA, video, Welsh

Your summary of all the essential poetry news from the month of February, painstakingly distilled by yours truly…

Be My Valentine

A study in the UK for Valentine’s Day showed that a quarter of women would like their partner to write them a handwritten poem on February 14^th, compared to just 1% of women who said they wanted lingerie.

Love Poem
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © paloetic]

The Republican House Speaker, John Boehner, on the other hand, probably didn’t want or expect the poem he received on Twitter from Democrat senator Patty Murray, which read: “Roses are red. Violets are blue. The #Senate passed #VAWA. Now it’s up to you.” VAWA is the Violence Against Women Act.

Bullying

An animated video about bullying went viral this month. The video is an animated version of Shane Koyczan’s excellent and harrowing poem ‘To this Day’ about the impacts of bullying and it’s a must see.

v

On the 18^th February BBC Radio 4 read out Tony Harrison’s landmark but controversial poem v. The poem was inspired by an incident when Harrison visited his parent’s grave and discovered it has been desecrated by obscene graffiti.

The Guardian published an excellent article about v examining its links to social changes in the north of England.

 “A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!”

The recent news that the body of the medieval English king Richard III has been found in a Leicester car park has attracted a lot of attention.

Richard III’s Remains
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © fotemas]

One interesting story reported that a Welsh poem was being used to work out exactly how Richard died. The poem describes how Richard’s head was scalped or “shaved” and this is being compared to forensic evidence from the remains.

Black History Month

It was Black History month in the USA and this threw up a few stories. A student at the University of Texas at Arlington discovered a poem written by the USA’s first published black writer, Jupiter Hammon. The poem dates from 1786 and is an important addition to the history of African-American literature.

Meanwhile, a poem read out over the intercom at a high school as part of Black History month caused controversy when it was discovered that it was written by a Black Panther. The Black Panthers were a controversial 1960s civil rights movement that supported militant action.

News from the Gulf

The life imprisonment of the Qatari poet Mohammed al-Ajami, which I reported in November, has been reduced to 15 years on appeal.

Poetry in Translation

A Saudi university student attracted plenty of attention in local media by skillfully writing and delivering a poem in perfect Japanese to government officials.

Equally impressively, the British ambassador to Romania wowed local senators this month by reciting an iconic Romanian poem.

Treasure Troves

50 unpublished Rudyard Kipling poems have been found during renovations at a house in Manhattan. The hoard has been described as a “treasure trove.” There are hopes the poems could be displayed at the family home in East Sussex.

Rudyard Kipling’s House in Sussex
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © florriebassingbourn]

Meanwhile a real treasure trove of millions of dollars has been hidden by a New Mexico multimillionaire who has sensationally published a poem revealing clues to its whereabouts.

Up for Auction

There was an unusually steady stream in February of rare poetry manuscripts going up for auction. These included:

• A rare handwritten A E Housman draft of a poem about unrequited love.
• The manuscript of Oscar Wilde’s poem ‘Les Ballons.’
• An extremely rare handwritten poem by Charlotte Bronte.
• A Rupert Brooke poem, ‘He Wonders Whether to Praise or Blame Her,’ which contains multiple revisions in his own hand.
• An unpublished John Clare verse of 12 lines.

Awards

The American poet Robert Bly received the Poetry Society of America’s Frost Medal for a “distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry.” Bly is known for being part of “the expressive men’s movement” that sought to reconnect men with their masculinity, and for his translations of European and Latin American poetry.

Book Releases

Notable poetry book releases in February included:

• Archangel by Henry Shukman, which tells the story of several thousand Jewish tailors who were forcibly repatriated from London to Russia in 1917. Herald Scotland describes the poems as “moving and narrative-led.”
• Dear Boy, a debut collection from Emily Berry. The Guardian says that Berry’s voice is “new yet anything but hesitant” and that “she approaches poetry as a flexible, permissive, dynamic ally.”
• Ethiopian Boy by Chris Beckett, inspired by the author’s childhood in Ethiopia. The Telegraph says that his “colourful incantations evoke the sights and sounds and above all the food of the East African nation.”

Archive: Poetry News from January 2013 can be viewed here.

Poetry News Round Up: November 2012

Tags

Academy of American Poets, Amber Heard, American, Andrew Motion, Anne Evans, Arab Spring, art, autobiography, book, British, Canadian, Chinese, Coleridge, dissident, election, essay, film, First Person Sorrowful, French, gay, God, Jack Gilbert, Jacques Dupin, James Bond, James Dyson, Jane Yeh, Jonny Depp, Kathleen Jamie, Ko Un, Korean, L'Arriere-pays, lesbian, Li Bifeng, Louise Gluck, love, Michael Gove, Mohammed al-Ajami, news, Ninjas, poetry, president, Qatari, Raymond Souster, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, school, Skyfall, Stephen Romer, Tennyson, The Customs House, The Overhaul, TS Eliot, Ulysses, Valerie Eliot, Veterans' Day, Welsh, William Brandon Lacy Campos, Yves Bonnefoy, Zhu Yufu

Poetry news from the month of November, freshly squeezed for your delight and delectation.

We start off with the 2012 US Presidential election which of course took place in November. What better opportunity for the Academy of American Poets to publish a selection of “poems of American experience” to help inject the patriotic spirit into the occasion…

Jonny Depp has being wooing Amber Heard with handwritten daily love poems, apparently. Thankfully I don’t have any examples to share.

In the UK, the Education Secretary Michael Gove caused a stir by defending “French lesbian poetry” as a topic of study for university students, which had been criticised by the engineer James Dyson.

The new James Bond movie Skyfall featured the final lines from the Tennyson poem, ‘Ulysses.’ What better excuse to read the whole poem!

A staged version of Coleridge‘s Rime of the Ancient Mariner is making its way to London.

The American conservative media has been working itself up into a frenzy over the news that a six-year old girl was forced by her school to remove the word ‘God’ from a poem she was to deliver on Veterans’ Day.

It wasn’t a good month for poetry in China. An activist, Zhu Yufu, was put on trial accused of “inciting subversion of state power,” because of a poem called ‘It’s Time,’ which he circulated on the internet. The poem declares “It’s time, Chinese people!/ The square belongs to everyone/the feet are yours/it’s time to use your feet and take to the square to make a choice.” Another Chinese dissident poet, Li Bifeng, was jailed for 12 years for contract fraud.

Things didn’t look much better in Qatar, where the poet Mohammed al-Ajami, a supporter of the Arab Spring Uprisings, has been jailed for life.

We bade goodbye this month to the French poet and art critic Jacques Dupin, the teacher and Welsh poet Anne Evans, the great Canadian modernist poet Raymond Souster, the widow of TS Eliot and long time guardian of his poetic legacy, Valerie Eliot, the poet and gay activist William Brandon Lacy Campos, and the great but independently-minded American poet Jack Gilbert.

Here are some of new poetry books that were published in November. L’Arrière-pays by Yves Bonnefoy (translated by Stephen Romer), is a fusion of autobiography, art essay and poem. The publication of Louise Glück‘s Poems: 1962-2012 is an important American literary event. The Overhaul by Kathleen Jamie uses the figurative to understand the modern world. Ko Un‘s First Person Sorrowful introduces this Korean’s highly personal brand of poetry to a British audience for the first time. Ninjas by Jane Yeh is unsettling but funny. Andrew Motion tackles war in The Customs House.