Today’s poetry news roundup is a mixed bunch. We have the winners of the Mathias Family Poetry Award, the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award and the death of the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko.
Guadalupe Dias Wins Mathias Family Poetry Award
A poet from Goa has been named as the winner of this years Mathias Family Poetry Award.
She will receive the award during the 14th Kavita Festival which will take place on 11th January. In addition to a certificate of appreciation and a citation, there is also a prize of Rs 25,000 for the winner of the award.
With numerous poetry collections to her name, Dias has also written articles and poetry for a number of dailies and magazines.
This is the 12th year of the award which was created in 2008. It was started by the managing director of Merit Freight Systems, Dubai by Joseph Mathias and is run alongside the Kavita Trust. The trust works to promote Konkani poetry and hold a ceremony every year.
Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award
A poet from Peoria has won third place in the emerging writer’s competition named after Gwendolyn Brooks the Illinois poet laureate.
The award is in its 15th year. The winners will all be invited to a presentation ceremony which will take part at the State Library where they will be given the opportunity to read their winning poems out loud. The award looks at encouraging young poetry writers within the Illinois area to come forward with their works and hopes to promote a greater love of poetry within the area.
Yevgeny Yevtushenko Dies Age 84
The Russian poet from the Soviet era, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, passed away at the weekend from heart failure.
The poet rose to fame quickly during the 1960s when he became a non-conformism symbol during the brief thaw towards artists and freedom of expression that took place when Nikita Khrushchev was in power. He had a large following of fans in the West but quickly became a follower of the Russian regime at the time and was a very popular poet until 1991 when the former Soviet Union fell.
He was best known for Babi Yar. Released in 1961, the epic poem tackled the story of the Nazi atrocities that took place in 1941 when the Jews were killed in their thousands.
which he wrote in 1962 was silently permitted by Party of Communists and Yevtushenko was even permitted to travel abroad freely.
Everything changed for him during the 1970s when his reputation became tarnished and his popularity waned.
He came into the world in Siberia in 1933 Yevtushenko was a descendant of exiles from Ukraine. He undertook literature studies at Gorky Institute, Moscow and his early verses were modelled on the stylings of Vladimir Mayakovsky the revolutionary writer.
His first poetry was published when he was just 20 years old, and he went on to publish a number of poetry books over the years.
In his last few days, Yevtushenko expressed a desire to be buried in the former writer’s colony of Peredelkino close by Boris Pasternak‘s tomb.
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