We keep you updated on the world of poetry with our news roundups.
At one time considered a poet of the resistance by Israel, Mahmoud Darwish was born in 1941 in the West of Galilee and was a potent voice for Palestine over the last 60 years. Though his mother was illiterate, his grandfather taught him to read at an early age. When his family were forced off their land by the Israelis they ...
Born in Tennessee in 1943, Nikki Giovanni has been one of the most influential voices in American literature in the last 60 years, a poet and activist who was influenced by the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s. She was also greatly influenced in her early years by the stories from her grandmother, introducing her a rich African-American heritage ...
Born in the middle of the Tang Dynasty in 701, Li Po was one of the most prominent writers of his time in China, developing poetic art and producing about 1000 poems in his life time. He and fellow poet Du Fu were responsible for a golden time in Chinese writing, exploring relationships, the natural world, as well as the ...
When most people hear the name Bonnie Parker their first thought is unlikely to be “this was a famous American poet of the early 20th century”. A more likely adjective to use is actually infamous because, of course, she was a part of one of the most notorious criminal gangs in history. Along with her partner Clyde Barrow she set off on ...
Although known as one of the first female writers to be published in the North America colonies, Anne Bradstreet was actually born in Northampton, England, in March 1612. Her father Thomas Dudley and mother, Dorothy Yorke, were able to afford a very good education for Anne and she was well tutored in languages, literature and history. At the age of sixteen she ...
The work of Cecil Frances Alexander will be familiar to people all over the world. As one of Ireland’s foremost writers of hymns and poems she produced what is arguably one of the most famous and well-loved hymns of all time; All Things Bright and Beautiful. In April 1818 she was born in Dublin, the third daughter of land agent Major John Humphreys ...
Donald Hall is a multi-award winning poet, novelist and children’s writer, a sometime sports journalist and editor who has spent the best part of seventy years setting down his thoughts on subjects ranging from living the rural life in New England, baseball and relating the work we do to our contribution to society through that work. At a particularly tragic time in ...
The name of Isaac Rosenberg is one the famous 16 that is engraved on a slate stone that can be found in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. This simple memorial is to commemorate noted poets of the First World War and was unveiled in 1985 on that significant date, 11 November. Isaac’s parents were of Russian descent but they had fled the anti-Jewish pogroms ...
Born in Wales in 1593, George Herbert was an important figure in the world of poetry and an influence on the growth of the metaphysical movement that speculated on notions of love and religion. A gifted speaker and popular Anglican priest, he came from a well-to-do family who were interested and active in the arts. Although his father died when he ...
Brian Patten was born in Liverpool in 1946 and is famous for his lyrical poems that are aimed at children and adults. Growing up in a working class area of the city, like many of his compatriots he left school at the early age of fifteen, heading to work as a reporter in Bootle at the beginning of the 1960s. A ...
