We keep you updated on the world of poetry with our news roundups.
Born in 1913 in Cardiff, Welsh poet and fervent nationalist, R. S. Thomas wrote about his ideal of Wales and the role of the English in stripping it of its wild and natural essence. When Thomas was just 5, his family moved north to Holyhead where his father was stationed as a merchant seaman. In 1932 he studied at the ...
Robert Hayden was an American poet who rose from humble beginnings to the very pinnacle of his craft when, in 1976, he was appointed to the position of consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress. This appointment was later called Poet Laureate and, of particular note, Hayden was the first black American to achieve this honour. It was richly deserved though ...
Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet James Wright came to prominence in 1956 with The Green Wall, a volume of poems which was awarded the Yale Younger Poets Prize. He has been called: “a craftsman who can put to use the traditional elements of his art while at the same time exploring new means of expression.” Wright was born December 13th 1927 in Martins Ferry, Ohio, ...
Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse was born July 2nd 1877 in Calw, Southern Germany. He was raised in a pietist family; pietism having its origins in the Lutheran Church of Germany and its philosophy was utter devotion to God above all others and respect for family. Throughout his life he tried to rebel against his religious upbringing but did not abandon ...
Not much is known about the life of the 4th Century Sanskrit dramatist and poet Kalidasa although he was profoundly influenced by Ashvaghoshha who was writing three hundred years earlier. His name is linked to many legends including that he was known for his great beauty which attracted the attention of a princess who decided to marry him. It is said that he ...
Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad was born in 1935 in Tehran and is noted as one of the most influential female writers and film makers of her time. She studied dressmaking and art at Kamalolmolk Technical School where she also began to write her own poetry, before being engaged to marry noted satirist and writer Parviz Shapoor who was her cousin. Her family ...
Charlotte Brontë, one of the greatest English writers of the Victorian period, was described uncharitably as ‘a little, plain, provincial, sickly-looking old maid, which was not strictly true. Whilst her health undoubtedly suffered in adulthood she conformed to the fashionable attractiveness of the era and, far from being an old maid, did marry. She is known best for writing novels, most notably Jane ...
Richard Wilbur has had a long and interesting writing and teaching career which actually began when he had his first poem published in a magazine in 1929, when only 8 years old. Since then he has published a good number of collections of poetry for which he has won countless honours and awards. He also became only the second United States Poet ...
Born in Michigan in 1908, Theodore Roethke was one of the major poetic voices of the first half of the 20th Century and was awarded the Pulitzer in 1954. His father had immigrated to America and was an accomplished gardener, and the young Roethke spent much of the time in his family’s large greenhouse, something that influenced his sense of imagery ...
Noted for his dark satires and parodies, American poet and author Richard Brautigan was born in Washington in 1935. Raised in a working class family, his father left home before the young Brautigan was born, though his mother had begun living with another man by the time he was four years old. His real father would never learn that his son ...
