Donald Hall on 20th Century US Poetry for the UK's Poetry Archive

Hear excerpts from some classic American poems, and Donald Hall's description of the new additions to the Poetry Archive  (BBC, September 2008).

See Andrew Motion's introduction to the Poetry Archive here.  

Read Lindesay Irvine, "Poetry Needs to be Read Aloud, says Motion," Guardian (September 16, 2008).

See Julie Bloom, "American Poets Added to British Archive," New York Times (September 16, 2008).

Hear Langston Hughes read "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" on the Poetry Archive.

Andrew Motion talks about writer's block on the BBC

It can happen to you, even when you are Poet Laureate.  Hear Andrew Motion and Michelle Roberts talk about this disease here (about 5 minutes).

Guantanamo poems

Poetry, "a form that people turn to naturally in moments of crisis," as Andrew Motion explained in a Guardian audio (December 13, 2007), was written from within the Guantanamo prison.  An anthology of poems was collected and edited as Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak by Marc Falkoff (University of Iowa Press, 2007).  

You can listen to some of the poems here.

Listen to NPR features about Guantanamo here.

Robert Pinsky felt that the value of the poems came from their urgency, see link.

Reviews of the book include:

Yochi J. Dreazen, "The Prison Poets of Guantanamo Find a Publisher," the Wall Street Journal (June 20, 2007)

in the Independent (June 21, 2007)

Dan Chiasson, "Notes on Prison Camp" New York Times (August 19, 2007) also printed as "Poems from Guantanamo: the Detainees Speak," IHT (August 17, 2007)

John Lundberg, "Poems from Guantanamo Bay," Huffington Post (March 16, 2008)

Bristol Poetry Festival September 2008

This year, the Bristol Poetry Festival will be held from September 4-14, 2008.  Information can be found on the Poetry Can website, as well as on the Visit Bristol pages.  Andrew Motion and Carol Ann Duffy will be there.