Poetry blog

We keep you updated on the world of poetry with our news roundups.

Recent posts

World Congress of Poets, awards & more – Poetry roundup 23rd August

 

From Mongolia to America; todays poetry news brings you details of the 37th World Congress of Poets, a lifetime achievement award and what many perceived as at attack on an iconic sonnet that symbolises America. 37th World Congress of Poets Yesterday saw the end of the 37th World Congress of Poets which this year was held in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. The event which was titled “The Mind of Nature of the Human ...

Jean Hans Arp Poems

 

Jean Hans Arp was a German-French poet who was, perhaps, better known as a sculptor and abstract artist who used a variety of materials to create his art.  There seems to have been some confusion over his nationality at first.  When speaking in French he liked to be called Jean.  When speaking in German he was Hans.  He would eventually formally take ...

English poets, decorated war heroes and invisible poems – Poetry news roundup 22nd August

 

Today news articles bring us a meeting between two poets that changed the course of literary history and we see how science and religion are working together to uncover some long-lost poetry. When Owen Met Sassoon – One Hundred Years Ago In Edinburgh, just over 100 years ago Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, both English poets and decorated war heroes met for the first time. They had both been invalided ...

Jean Starr Untermeyer Poems

 

Jean Starr Untermeyer was a US born poet, college lecturer and translator of works by Hermann Broch, an Austrian author with whom she collaborated.  She published at least six collections of her own poetry and wrote a memoir later in life. She was born Jean Starr on the 13th March 1886 in Zanesville, Ohio.  Her well-to-do Jewish parents had family roots in Germany and ...

From Isolated Poet to Celebrity – News roundup 21st August

 

We begin this week by looking at an article on the Chinese poet who rose to fame via a few lines published on a blog and a new book which asks the interesting question “Why Poetry?”. From Isolated Poet to Celebrity In 2014, Chinese poet Yu Xiuhua created a sensation when she published a few lines from her poem “Crossing More Than Half of China to Sleep with You” on her blog, ...

Jeanne Robert Foster Poems

 

Jeanne Robert Foster was the pen named used by the American poet, fashion model, teacher, social reformer and journalist.  She spent much of her life in the north eastern area of the United States having originated from the Adirondack Mountains region of upstate New York and she wrote at length about life in the mountains. She was born Julia Elizabeth Oliver on the 10th March 1879 in Johnsburg, ...

The Edinburgh Festival and old English dialects – Poetry news roundup 18th August

 

Poetry gets loud at Edinburgh The Edinburgh Festival, the largest arts festival in the world this year sees poetry is getting in on the act in a big way.  The Loud Poets are a collective of poets who established themselves in 2014 as a group determined to bring poetry to people who may not previously have considered it as entertainment. The Loud Poets, who comprise ...

Jessie Redmon Fauset Poems

 

Jessie Redmon Fauset was an African American writer, literary editor and teacher.  During the 1920s she was one of the first to present a true record of African American history through her poetry and essays, introducing characters who were of the professional class.  Writers before her, and sometimes since, had focused on the downtrodden, the disadvantaged, the enslaved.  Along with others of ...

India’s Poetry Scene And HaikuJam – Poetry News Roundup 17th August

 

Haiku conquering continents! For today’s poetry news round-up we bring you a tie-in with recent posts on India’s burgeoning poetry scene and the growing popularity of Haiku as a competitive activity. HaikuJam is poetry that is bringing together the poets and poetry lovers of India and Pakistan, and in the light of this year being the 70th anniversary of the partition of that great continent ...

Jean Antoine de Baïf Poems

 

Jean Antoine de Baïf was a translator of Roman and Greek and poet in classics16th century France.He was a member of the small group of French Renaissance poets who called themselves La Pléiade, other leading members being Joachim du Bellay and Pierre de Ronsard. He was born on the 19th February 1532 in Venice, the son of the French Ambassador at that ...