Today’s poetry news round up looks at the White Review Poet’s Prize Winner for 2022, the bombing of a poet-named pub and the new book looking at the life of Sylvia Plath.

White Review Poet’s Prize Winner for 2022

The winner of the 2022 White Review Poet’s Prize has been announced. Fahad Al-Amoudi, has been awarded the £2500 prize for what he judges described as his “distinctly accomplished and mature” visions in poetry.  The prize also includes publication of the winning poetry portfolio and editorial feedback.

The judges of this years competition included the poet Rachel Long, who was the founder of the Octavia Poetry Collective for Women of Colour, and authors Jay Gao and Nisha Ramayya.

Fahad Al-Amoudi has won this year’s £2,500 White Review Poet’s Prize 2022 for his “distinctly accomplished and mature” poetic vision. They selected the winner from a shortlist of 8 collections of poetry.

They were particularly captivated by the poetic vision that they saw in Al-Amoudi’s work right from the very beginning, something that they felt was particularly mature and accomplished. What particularly attracted them to the collection was the mixture of fabulation, tradition, anecdote and allusion that was contained within the collection.

The poet Nina Reljić also received a commendation for her poetry which the judges described as “playful and complex”

Old Hem Destroyed in Shelling

A pub in Kharkiv, Ukraine, that was dedicated to the poet and author Ernest Hemingway, has been destroyed in the war with Russia.

The bar, which was an incredibly popular establishment with the young creative minds in the city, was decorated with pictures of Hemingway inside and had a state of the legendary writer near the door which patrons passed on their way in and out.

The bar was closed at the time of the shelling. However, two people living in the apartments above the bar were killed in the attack. The bar owners decided to close on 24^th February when Russia began its assault on Ukraine, and instead turned the building into a makeshift bomb shelter.

Opened in 2012, the bar was not only a place for people to remember Hemingway but also a spot where local artists gathered to share their craft, from local poets to musicians and vocalist and even ground-breaking rock bands. The owner of the pub is hoping that he will eventually be able to rebuild and create the same type of atmosphere that existed before the war started.

The Last Confessions of Sylvia P

A new novel has just been published which looks at the continuing influence that Sylvia Plath has on society. The book, which is written by Lee Kravetz used fictional and real people as well as events in order to thoroughly explore exactly what kind of influence Plath has on people.

The centre of the novel is based around a mystery that involves “The Bell Jar” the semi-autobiographical written by Plath. This was the last book that Plath published, and it was just a month later that she took her own life, it became a bestseller and is still an incredibly widely read book today.

The author is a physiotherapist and journalist, and the book briefly dissects the character of Plath and how the journey through the manic episodes of her life are still incredibly relevant today.