In this week’s poetry news round up we take a look at a book festival which will honour Nikki Giovanni, a rare poetry book that vanished and the shortlist for The Moth Poetry Prize.
Rita Dove to Honour Fellow Poet at Book Festival
The UVA poet Rita Dove will be honouring her renowned colleague, the late Nikki Giovanni, during the Virginia Festival of the Book which will be taking place from 20th to 23rd March.
This is an annual celebration and this year it will centre around women in Music with a number of guests who will be exploring how women have shaped music.
There will also be a tribute to Nikki Giovannie who died in December. She was a poet, renowned writer and also a former member of the Virginia Humanities’ board of directors. The director of the Virginia Centre for the Books stated that
There will be a reading by Rita Dove the former US poet Laureate, a dance performance and live music. Jericho Brown, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, and a number of other writers will also read poetry as part of the tribute. The programme for the event also promises everything from non-fiction to poetry.
Tickets for the event are now available and registration is required to ensure changes to the programme can be communicated.
Rare Book Sold for £4000 at Auction Vanishes
A book which is filled with 17th century poetry and was sold for £4000 at an auction in Oxford vanished after the sale.
The poetry was written by John Donne in 1639. It was purchased by a rare book collector from West Yorkshire who won with an internet bid. He arranged for the book to book to be packed and couriered to his home address and at this point it appears to have vanished into thin air.
The book was catalogued as a “beautiful edition” that had been bound by Zaehnsdorf, the exclusive London bookbinders. It was believed to be a third edition. It also featured an engraved portrait frontispiece; a full gilt tooled calf that featured marbled end papers. It also featured gilt edges put on by the bookbinders.
The buyer is asking for people to look out for the book and reach out if they know where it might be.
Shortlist for Moth Poetry Prize Revealed
The shortlist of four entries has been selected for the Moth Poetry Prize by Fiona Benson, a Seamus Heaney Fellow. Benson has also commended another eight poems. The prize which is one of the most prestigious in the world of poetry when it comes to an unpublished, individual, poem has a total prize pot of €11,000. Entries are welcomed from poets, both established and emerging, from all over the world.
The four shortlisted poems this year are written by two poets from the US, one from Australia and one from the UK. The eight commended poems which will each receive €250 are from the UK, France, India, Australia, Scotland, China, New Zealand.
The overall winner of the prize will be announced on 9th April in a live event that will take place on The Moth’s Instagram page.
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