With stories from across the globe surrounding both old and newly discovered poets, we bring you today’s news roundup.

Poet gains Master’s Degree from fifth top University

South African born poet, Athol Williams, was awarded a distinction this week from Oxford University, bringing his total Masters degrees tally to 5 – with degrees from University of Witwatersrand, Massachusetts’ Institute for Technology, Harvard and the London School of Economics as well as his Oxford achievement.  Williams is the first person to achieve such a feat from the world’s top universities, listing his dreams of graduating from Oxford within his autobiography, Pushing Boulders.  Between his studies, Williams twice won the Sol Plaatje Poetry Award, as well as publishing his autobiography and two other books.

Francis Ledwidge celebrated in WW1 Centenary Event

Next week, the works of war poet Francis Ledwidge will be remembered in Enniskillen. Ledwidge served until his death in the first and fifth Royal ‘Inniskilling’ Fusiliers, and left after his passing a wealth of deeply moving and quite vivid poetry, describing life in WW1 through his eyes. One comment on his poetry read:

The commemoration of his work will be held to reflect his life and death, and comprises of readings of his work, and music that has been inspired by his poetry.

One poem likely to be included is ‘A Soldier’s Grave’, some of which has been reproduced below.

Dipak Soti breaks from the norm with Pollution based poetry

Known for his love and nature poetry, Nawalparasi poet Dipak Soti stunned audiences at his latest recital – a commemoration of fellow poet Aadikavi Bhanubhakta Acharya – with a verse of a satirical nature surrounding Kawasoti, a city he terms as becoming filled with garbage.

From this initial recital, it seems that the focus of the recital had shifted, with other performers also speaking out about other pressing problems within the city. The litterateurs hope that by creating a different sort of campaign, more people will take notice of the problems and may work together to fix them.

It will be interesting to see whether this shift in focus of the well-respected poet can bring about change in the city. If so, other poets may well follow suit.