News from Authors

Watch Diana McCaulay read from and discuss her latest novel Daylight Come, third place winner of the 2019 CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature.

Marvin Thompson's Road Trip and Roger Robinson's A Portable Paradise are included in the National Poetry Day recommendations for 2020 See the full list of recommended titles for more information.

It’s time to sharpen your poetry appetite, scan the poetry landscape and sample work by the names behind the poetry boom by reading the Forward Book of Poetry 2021.

This selection of the best poetry published in the UK and Ireland in 2020 has been harvested from more than 200 collections and journals eligible for the Forward Prizes. It includes work by the 15 poets shortlisted for 2020 Forward Prizes, plus 50 commended poets showing range and depth of the year in poetry.

Watch writer and scholar Velma Pollard read Kamau Brathwaite's poem 'Son' on the occasion of August Morning, Emancipation Day 2020.

Activities at The Grange: Your Story with Monique Roffey
Mon 7 - Fri 11 Sep 2020

YOUR STORY, how and why you should write it down.

In its 'Poems to Share' section, National Poetry Day has published Marvin Thompson's marvellous poem, 'The one in which I drive through Crumlin wondering where the cigarette-razed crisp factory used to be' (obviously named in the tradition of a Friends episode). The poem is about a Black father who takes his mixed race children to see the Lego Batman Movie in Blackwood, South Wales.

David Dykes interviews Marvin Thompson about his work for Poets for the Planet.

Marvin Thompson is a British poet and Poets for the Planet member, born in Tottenham to Jamaican parents and now living in south Wales. His poetry is both peaceful and strident, straddling traditional European forms and African mythology. In 2019, Thompson’s poem “The Many Reincarnations of Gerald Oswald Archibald Thompson” was submitted for the Forward Prize for Best Poem.

In this contribution to the F-words series, Raman Mundair explores the power that words can have in giving voice to experiences and identities so often ignored. F-words is a blog series at Engender exploring feminist language, from specific terminology to general reflections. 

Follow Raman on Twitter @MundairRaman, and Instagram (@ramanmundair & @rmundair), and listen to her 'intersectional voices' work at Anchor.fm.

Content note: this article discusses racism, childhood abuse, and victim-blaming.

Leeds-based poet Rommi Smith has been awarded a highly prestigious grant by the Society of Authors to finish her next book. Rommi is one of 50 writers who received a portion of the £185,000 in funding, including Jesse Bernard, Jack Mapanje, Derek Owusu, Angela Saini and Patrice Lawrence.

Catch the recording of 'A Conversation with Curdella Forbes' on her novel Ghosts.