BIZARRE: 2 - What They Never Told You

‘There’s a majesty to grief’: TS Eliot poetry prize winner Peter Gizzi

The American writer won the prestigious prize for Fierce Elegy, a collection informed by the deaths of his family members. He explains why poetry is like friendship – and why he loves small words

The Guardian - UK · Jan 17, 2025

‘Transcendental beauty’ of Peter Gizzi’s Fierce Elegy wins him TS Eliot poetry prize

Judges for the £25,00 award say the collection, informed by grief for his two brothers, ‘braves large questions’ with its lyric sequence

The Guardian - UK · Jan 13, 2025

Death is at the heart of Christmas. That’s why we love to tell festive ghost stories

It’s a creepy time of year from The Archers to Nosferatu to Mark Gatiss’ Woman of Stone

The Guardian - UK · Dec 22, 2024

New wars, old wars, famine, panic everywhere. So much for a quiet August

From Bangladesh to Venzuela, one calamity rapidly overtakes another, but common denominators include poverty, corruption and lack of hope

The Guardian - UK · Aug 10, 2024

How do you read a poem? Embrace the sound, the strangeness and the ambiguity

A word is dead When it is said, Some say, I say it just Begins to live That day. – Emily Dickinson If someone asked you how you felt and you said you had “a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused, whose dwelling was the light of setting…

The Conversation · Aug 6, 2024

My encounter with Edna O’Brien, the great literary crusader and giant of Irish literature

The death of Edna O’Brien at the age of 93 brings an end to the long reign of one of Ireland’s greatest writers, who attracted both controversy and adulation throughout her trailblazing career. Lynn Enright remembers the profound personal impact of her debut novel ‘The Country Girls’ – banned in…

The Independent UK · Jul 30, 2024

Martha Whittome obituary

Other lives: Teacher and arts administrator who played an important part in the early days of the TS Eliot prize

The Guardian - UK · Jul 12, 2024

“How could Syd Barrett find being in the back of a van with the lads interesting, when his head was out there? You’re working all the time in your head”: The prog credentials of Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon

There are hints throughout the band’s catalogue, but cult album I Trawl The Megahertz, built from quotes found in broadcast media, is Exhibit A in the prog case

Louder · Jun 7, 2024

Israel and the Puritans: A dark mirror

When English settlers came to the "new Zion," they behaved much like Israeli Zionists today. What's the lesson?

Salon · Mar 31, 2024

‘I want some light in my life’: eight writers make their new year reading resolutions

Finding fun, getting lost in an epic and taking a first peek at science fiction ... Sathnam Sanghera, Elif Shafak, Sarah Waters and more make their reading resolutions for 2024

The Guardian - UK · Jan 6, 2024