Today’s round up brings us stories from Poland, Wales and Canada as once again we travel around the globe looking at poetry related stories that have made the news.
Zbigniew Herbert to be Honoured
29th October marked the 93rd anniversary of the birth of the Polish poet, Zbigniew Herbert. The poet, essayist and playwright is considered by the Polish parliament to be one of the most prominent and influential Polish and European poets of the 20th Century and they have declared that in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of his death on the 28th July, that 2018 should be the year of Zbigniew Herbert.
Herbert’s most popular poetry includes
His use of language is credited with introducing many phrases into the Polish lexicon that helped to build the identity and imagination of the country. A number of his works have been translated into 38 languages.
Herbert was an anti-communist who gave his complete support to the Solidarity movement, and his poems were amongst those that were recited at some of the clandestine Solidarity meetings. The Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state distinction was awarded to him posthumously.
Radnorshire Poet in Line for Top Award
Dr Rhiannon Hooson, has been put on the shortlist for the prestigious awards for Wales Book of the Year with her book
“The Other City”.
She is up for Roland Mathias’s Poetry Award.
The book which was published in 2016 has been much acclaimed and the poet describes as being in the forefront when it comes to female voices in literature.
Whilst Dr Hooson’s writing is firmly based in the Welsh landscape she has spent much of her time in Ulaanbaatar, which is in Mongolia. She has now returned to Presteigne where she runs the library and spends time writing and being a creative mentor.
The winners of the three categories in Wales’s Book of the Year Awards; for novels, creative non-fiction writings and poetry, will be announced in Cardiff on 13th November.
Poetry – The Language of Love
For 26 years John Stubbert, from Dartmouth, Novia Scotia has been wooing his wife with poetry. When John met his future wife Kathleen in a bar 26 years ago he began writing poetry as a way of “talking” to her.
Writing wasn’t easy for John, at school he struggled with learning disabilities, he was diagnosed with ADD and ADHD, he also stuttered and slurred his words, he used to read “The Lay of the Last Minstrel” by Sir Walter Scott to help him overcome this. Determined to capture the heart of Kathleen he turned to poetry. Despite being terrible at spelling and having really bad handwriting; John repeated grade eight three times before quitting school, he persisted and won Kathleen over. Now twenty-six years later their home is filled with the poems and stories he has written over the years, and his wife is hoping that one day he will pluck up the courage to have some of them published.
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