Poets

William McGonagall’s poetry was the object of scorn and ridicule in 19th century Scotland. Indeed, the author died in poverty, unable to eke out a living peddling his poetry. Today a 35-poem folio of his work has sold for £6,600—more than a first edition Dickens.

Poor fellow must be rolling in his grave.

Just to end off National Poetry Month…

Gary Snyder, a poet known for his verse about nature and spirituality, has won the United States' richest poetry prize, the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. The jury called him "a deeply learned and meditative artist, an impassioned ecologist, and a poet of great scope.

All about Maya Angelou as she celebrates her 80th birthday—“80 years of pain and joy.”

WHEN the poet Rhyll McMaster began her first novel, she found she could no longer write a poem. "It all just went away, just disappeared," says the award-winning poet with eight volumes of poetry to her name.

Yet her very poetic novel went on to win the inaugural $35,000 Barbara Jefferis prize for literature.

A poet struggles with sleep while facing an uncertain future.

2008 marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Milton. Biographer Anna Beer talks about the times in which he lived, his attitude towards women and the power of Paradise Lost, his greatest creation.

Poems recorded more than a quarter of a century ago by Philip Larkin are to be broadcast for the first time after they were found languishing in a garage in Yorkshire.

This will be a big deal to scholars, as Larkin didn’t like to read, and it was thought that his first collection had never been recorded.

[b] When I first joined the Writer\'s Cafe, it was a vibrant website. Sure it had it\'s share of \"contraversial characters\" - Addict and Lyttleton among others, but they shook the status quo and [made life interesting.
Then the Baby Rectangles mess left the Cafe in a shambles. Charles and Patrick made the right decision when they asked moderators to help clean things up.
..

If you publish my wife’s manuscript, I’ll give your upcoming book a rave review. Sounds a rather unethical proposition, but poet Les Murray says the letter he wrote to a Sydney publisher who asked him for a blurb was all a joke. Perhaps, but it sure reads like the real thing, and the publisher isn’t laughing.

The great conflicts of the 20th century were immortalized in verse. But where are all the war poems of this century? Where is the poetry of Iraq? Scarcely a poet is putting war into words these days, and that’s a shame.