This week in our poetry news roundup, we look at some recently discovered Virginia Woolf poetry and the new poet laureates for Canada and Jamaica.
Lighter Side of Virginia Woolf Revealed in Unearthed Poems
A researcher at the University of Liverpool has recently discovered two poems written by the literary icon Virginia Woolf that had previously been unknown.
Dr Sophie Oliver from the Department of English at the University of Liverpool found the two poems in the back of a file of letters written by the poet to her niece. The collection is currently located at the University of Texas in Austin in the Harry Ransom Center.
Titled Hiccoughs and Angelica the poems were written for Angelica and Quentin Bell, her niece and nephew and date to shortly after March 1927. They were drafted in pencil and show several alterations. They offer a glimpse of imagination and humour that point to a lighter side of the poet.
Mrs Dalloway, the writer’s seminal novel was published a century ago. Woolf is better known for her work as a novelist, and often spoke about poetry as simply being an art form. However, she often turned to it as a tool for bonding, play and satire.
Angelica makes a playful critique on the girlish antics of her niece, with reference to “Dadie”, who is George Rylands, a Shakespeare scholar and poet. Hiccoughs, on the other hand, draws on animal imagery and whimsical wordplay, making comparisons to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. While Woolf did not have any children of her own, the poems show how she strived to create relationships with her nephew and niece. They are a snapshot of her lighter moments and offer an insight into the vitality and energy evident in her fiction.
Woolf was born in 1882, a pioneer of modern literature as well as being the central figure in the Bloomsbury Group. She is known for her deep psychological insights and her experimental style, and her work is still influential to this day.
Chimwemwe Undi to be 11th Parliamentary Poet Laureate in Canada
Having served as Winnipeg’s third poet laureate from 2023 -24, Chimwemwe Undi has been chosen to serve as the parliamentary poet laureate. This is the 11th appointment to the position, which has a two-year term that began on January 1, 2025.
In addition to being a poet with a full-length collection of poetry under her belt she is also an editor and a lawyer. Her debut collection “Scientific Marvel” which explored themes of belonging and gender, racism, language, and immigration was the winner of the 2024 Governor General’s Award for Poetry.
The position is a relatively new one having been created under the Parliament of Canada Act in 2001.
Kwame Dawes – New Poet Laureate in Jamaica
Professor Kwame Daes, author of both poetry and fiction, has been appointed poet laureate of Jamaica. He will serve until 2028.
The role of poet laureate in Jamaica is slightly unusual. The public can make nominations for the role, and these nominations are then voted on by a nine-member panel that determines who would be suitable. The decision is made through a secret ballot.
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