Our final poetry news round-up of the week takes a look at the 2018 and 2019 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Church where a poet was baptised and the first confirmed names for the 2020 StAnza Poetry Festival.

Nobel Prize in Literature

Earlier this week we brought you an article about some of the bookmakers’ favourites for the Nobel Prize in Literature, we also mentioned that traditionally the winner (or in this case winners) were not normally those who the bookies were giving the best odds for.

The winners of the 2018 and 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature were announced yesterday and the unsurprisingly neither of those named were on the bookie’s favourites list.

The 2018 Nobel prize was awarded to Olga Tokarczuk, the Polish author and the 2019 award went to Peter Handke of Austria.

Handke, who is considered to be one of the most original German-language authors living, is known to be somewhat controversial in his work. He has also in the past been rather scathing about the Nobel Prize in Literature; at one point even calling for it to be abolished. He claimed that winning the prize gave “false canonisation” as well as giving the winner a moment of attention and a few pages in the papers.

As well as being a writer Handke is also a poet and his notable works include “Short Letter, Long Farewell” which is a collection of poetry.

Church Font May Not be as People Thought

The church of St Helen, Kelloe has always been proud of its association with the poet Elizabeth Barrett-Browning.

The poet was baptised at the church, which is near Durham in 1806.

St Helen’s is currently undergoing building work and it has come to light that the font, which up until now was believed to have been the one where Barrett-Browning was baptised is now thought to date from sometime in the 20^th century rather than the 18^th century/ .The Church Council are now looking into having some investigations carried out so that they can date the font properly.

Their claim to fame may still be valid, the parish records show that the poet was baptised there, but not quite in the way they imagined.

Provisional StAnza Lineup Announced for 2020

Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, StAnza, has revealed some of the names that they have confirmed for their 2020 line-up.

Recently announced as a regional finalist in the Scottish Thistle Awards, StAnza will take place from 4^th to 8^th March.

Those people who are already confirmed to be performing at the festival are the youngest female poet who has ever been awarded the TS Eliot Prize, Jen Hadfield, Carolyn Forche the award-winning American poet and Charlotte Van Der Broeck the Flemish poet who was recently awarded the 9^th Paul Snoek Prize.

There will be poets in attendance from all over the world. The festival organisers have confirmed that they are hoping to add a diverse mix of poets – both old and new – to their lineup shortly.

The themes for 2020 will be Coast Lines and Due North.