Holocaust Poetry: Awkward Poetics in the Work of Sylvia Plath, Geoffrey Hill, Tony Harrison, and Ted Hughes
Litterbug (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
Holed up in a hotel near Amsterdam docks, and deterred from venturing into the city in the evenings by wind, wet, cold and dark, I've been passing the time reading Andrew Duncan's ' The Council of Heresy '. A book about difficult modern poetry which makes you laugh out loud - intentionally - can't be bad. Duncan is a dazzling writer, so much so, that ideas of his which may well be spurious, are, at...
A Writer's Life by John Siddique (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
In recent years, much has been written about terrorism and fiction, both by novelists (Amis, Updike, McEwan, Faulks, et al) and literary critics such as Margaret Scanlan, and Stephen Morton and Elleke Boehmer. However, to my knowledge, little has been said about terror and poetry. This is surprising, given the role of public poetry in delivering swift interventions after cataclysmic events. In the...
Helen Smith (Free subscription) | 10/15/2009
Last night I saw Antonia Fraser again, after a break of about 20 years. She won't have missed me or thought about me in the intervening period as we weren't introduced the first time round. We were in the Groucho Club - it had only just opened and was very much the place to be - and she went past me, with Harold Pinter, to a private party upstairs. I had recently given birth and was very thin, and...
English Pen (Free subscription) | 10/15/2009
October 14th 2009 saw the first awarding of the PEN/Pinter Prize to the 'unmistakable and passionate poet' Tony Harrison. In a ceremony at the British Library, which holds the late Harold Pinter's archives, Harrison delivered his acceptance lecture entitled The Inky Digit of Defiance - a digit which he said symbolised his commitment 'to a vote in favour...
Beattie's Book Blog (Free subscription) | 10/02/2009
The first ever PEN/Pinter Prize to be awarded to Tony Harrison 6.30-7.30pm Wednesday 14th October The Conference Centre The British Library 96 Euston Road London, NW1 2DB In a rare public appearance, Tony Harrison will pay tribute to Harold Pinter and accept the prize in a speech to be published in a limited edition by Faber & Faber following the event. He will also announce the winner of the international...
Beattie's Book Blog (Free subscription) | 09/22/2009
First ever PEN/Pinter Prize goes to ‘unmistakable and passionate’ poet The first PEN/Pinter Prize will be awarded on 14th October to the poet and playwright Tony Harrison. The prize has been established by the writers’ charity English PEN in memory of the Nobel-winning playwright Harold Pinter, pic left. It will be shared annually between a writer who exemplifies Pinter’s commitment...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 09/22/2009
Tony Harrison, the award-winning poet and playwright whose poems from the Bosnian frontline were published in the Guardian, has been awarded the first ever PEN/Pinter prize for a writer following in Harold Pinter's footsteps Poet and playwright Tony Harrison has won the inaugural PEN/Pinter prize for his "unmistakable and passionate voice". The prize is to be awarded annually to the writer...
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