Like a rolling ode: academic conference weighs up Bob Dylan’s poetic licence

Seven Ages of Dylan event at Bristol University sees professors discuss whether musician should be considered a poet

Calling all young arts critics

Ahead of the launch of the Guardian's fourth annual young arts critics competition, we need your help. Send us your questions and we'll put them to our team of critics

Flashman’s elitist idea of public schools is still pure fiction

Response: Here at his old school, Rugby, we have always supported less privileged pupils, says Patrick Derham

Can you teach creative writing?

There has been a huge expansion in creative writing courses in the last decade, but is it something you can teach? Well-known writers give their verdicts

Children’s authors rail against Michael Gove’s reading lists

Michael Rosen and Alan Gibbons line up to reject proposal for primary schools floated by national curriculum panel

In praise of … the essay

Editorial: Michel de Montaigne crafted an intensely personal and conversational genre which has been the preferred literary mode of free spirits

Henry Pluckrose obituary

Leading educationist with an intuitive grasp of how children learn

WD Halls obituary

Educationist and historian with a special interest in France

Political Journeys: The openDemocracy Essays by Fred Halliday – review

This collection of essays shows Fred Halliday's depth, drive and wisdom, writes Nick Cohen

What do you want? Libraries all over the bloody place?

Poor Glonk could barely swallow a mouthful of dinner. She was too busy rattling on, distraught, that the council now calls library members 'customers'

Leo Steinberg obituary

Art historian and critic known for his elegant investigations of Renaissance paintings

Computer gamers less likely to go to university, research shows

Report by Oxford University also reveals that reading enhances the likelihood that teenagers will go on to study for a degree

Michael Gove is right about reading – so fund humanities

Sarah Churchwell: Yes, English literature students have often read just three books. But Gove must stop blaming schools and look to Whitehall

Niall Ferguson: school history lessons ‘lack all cohesion’

Historian says too few pupils are spending too little time studying history, particularly in state schools

Leonora Rustamova: I taught my pupils to enjoy books – and got fired

Dedicated teacher Leonora Rustamova wrote a book to engage five teenage rebels in her class. But after it went up on a website she was dismissed, a decision that was upheld at a tribunal