We keep you updated on the world of poetry with our news roundups.
Frederic Manning was an Australian-born poet and novelist who lived most of his life in England. He was born on the 22nd July 1882 in Sydney into a large family of eight children, His father was the politician Sir William Patrick Manning whose ancestors had emigrated from Ireland. Frederic was educated at home and suffered with asthma from his infancy. Although the family were Roman Catholics ...
Francis Hopkinson was an 18th century American poet, song writer and politician whose major claim to fame would be that he was the designer of the first American flag following the War of Independence. He was also a high ranking lawyer, sitting as a judge and he also filled a number of positions in the fledgling government. He was born in September 1737 in Philadelphia. ...
Geoffrey Grigson was a 20th century English poet and literary critic whose cutting critical reviews of other writers’ work often made him enemies. Additionally he was a naturalist and literary magazine editor during the 1930s. His own poetic output was considerable, numbering some thirteen collections published during his long life time, and he often used the pseudonym Martin Boldero. He was born Geoffrey Edward ...
Edwin James Brady was an Australian poet, short story writer and journalist. A committed nationalist, he took an active interest in the Labour party and wrote a number of articles on socialist and economic issues of the day. He was born on the 7th August 1869 at Carcoar in New South Wales, the son of Irish immigrants. His father, Edward John, had originally ...
Marilyn Hacker is an American poet, literary critic and academic who was until fairly recently a Professor of English at the City College of New York, but is now retired. An acknowledged master of the "French forms" in poetry she has also translated a number of French works into English. She was born on the born 27th November 1942 in the Bronx district of New York City, ...
Alicia Ostriker is an American poet and professor of English who is now in her 79th year. She has been known throughout her life as an outspoken writer often espousing the rights of women through her poetry and has been described in a publication called Progressive as "America"s most fiercely honest poet". She was born Alicia Suskin on the 11th November 1937 into ...
Maxine Kumin was an American poet and occasional teacher of English and poetry at various educational establishments. She had the honour of serving as her nation’s Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress between 1981 and 1982 and, in later life, she was a breeder of Arabian horses on a farm in Warner, New Hampshire. She was born Maxine Winokur on the ...
Hyam Plutzik was a 20th century American poet, journalist and university professor who made the list of finalists for a Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1961, although he did not actually win that award. He was born on the 13th July 1911 in Brooklyn, New York into a family of Jewish immigrants from Belarus who had arrived six years earlier. The family began farming ...
Elinor Morton Hoyt Wylie was an American writer whose short life spanned only four decades either side of the turn of the 20th century. She was a great beauty and, as such, was known for that as much as her literary talent and her poetry was described as having melodious and sensuous properties. She was born Elinor Morton Hoyt on the 7th September 1885 into a ...
Eliza Acton was a 19th century English poet and pioneer of cookery writing. Her books on kitchen arts, including detailed recipes with cooking times, were for the benefit of those cooking in their own homes as opposed to professional chefs. Isabella Beeton followed her example much later and made a great commercial success of her venture. She was born Elizabeth Acton in the south ...
