This week on My Poetic Side we look at the poet who inspired Robert Burns, the Foyle Young Poet Prize 2024 and Han Kang one week on from winning the Nobel Laureate for Literature.
Poet Who Inspired Robert Burns to be Celebrated
Robert Fergusson, an 18th century poet who is believed to have been the inspiration for Robert Burns was commemorated on the 17th October, the 250th anniversary of his death.
The poet, who is famous for the poem “Auld Reikie” died in an Edinburgh asylum in 1774 aged just 24 following a head injury which led to him being branded “insensible”. His famous poem, written in both English and Scots was inspired by life in everyday Edinburgh. The word Reikie which is now spelt Reekie is the Scots for Old Smoky the name the city was once known by.
He wrote it just a year before his death and it is credited with being one of the works that inspired Burns who erected a memorial on Fergussons unmarked Edinburgh grave, referring to him as “Scotia’s poet.”
The events that took place to commemorate Fergusson included a podcast and a poetry evening to celebrate his work.
Fergusson is also credited with having been an inspiration to the writer Robert Louis Stevenson.
Folkstone Teenager Wins International Poetry Competition for Second Time
The Poetry Society has announced the winners and commended poets for this year’s Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award.
There were a total of 15 winners and 85 commended poets this year and their work was celebrated in an event that took place at The British Library in London. They were picked from over 6,000 young poets who wrote a total of 17,000 poems.
For 17 year old Issac Meredith from Folkstone this was the second time that he has won the award, the first time was in 2022.
2024 Nobel Prize for Literature Winner Refuses to Celebrate
Last week we reported on the news that the South Korean poet and writer Han Kang had been named of the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. In a great feat that sees the poet walking her own work she is refusing to celebrate the award.
On Friday via paternal proxy Kang shared that there would be no typical press conference following the win. Instead her father Han Seung-wo, himself a novelist, explained her decision. With wars raging between Ukraine and Russia, and Israel and Palestine, and with the number of deaths being reported on a daily basis she feels that holding a celebratory press conference would be wrong. She also asked that the press respect her in the decision.
Since news of her win broke her books have been selling out on a global scale. It is believed that as many as 1.06 million copies of her work, including e-books have sold in the last week. Sales have been so high at points that they have been responsible for the crash of the websites for several bookstores as well.
It is not just Kang’s books that have seen a boost in sales but also the works of other Korean writers as well.
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