The best recent poetry – review roundup
Goyle, Chert, Mire by Jean Sprackland; The House of Broken Things by Kim Moore; The Tree Is Missing by Shannon Kuta Kelly; Dog Star by Michael Symmons Roberts; Horses by Jake Skeets
‘African people are surreal’: songwriter and blues poet Aja Monet on Black resistance and love as spiritual warfare
Radicalised by the inventiveness of groups such as the Harlem Renaissance, the LA-based artist is determined to reclaim the radical possibilities of culture in an age of institutional and algorithmic exploitation
Richard Meier obituary
Other lives: Poet whose work distilled everyday observations with beauty and precision
Country star Ty Herndon: ‘The drugs could be forgiven. Being gay definitely could not’
In an honest new memoir, the musician opens up about being closeted in country, sexual assault and finding love in his 60s
Orwell: 2+2=5 review – documentary portrait doesn’t wholly add up
Raoul Peck’s film about the Nineteen Eighty-Four novelist makes a compelling case for its continuing relevance but could ask more searching questions about its author
Poem about ‘relentlessness of the news cycle’ wins National Poetry Competition
Judges praised the ‘emotional stakes’ of Partridge Boswell’s poem The Gathering, which took the £5,000 top prize
Glenn Storhaug obituary
Other lives: Poet and publisher who founded Five Seasons Press in the late 1970s to share his enthusiasm of the form
‘I want my career, my children and a free supple life’: Sylvia Plath’s radical reinvention
Too often framed as a tragic icon or a victim of domesticity, the poet remade herself and her work at the start of the 60s, as a new collection will show
Ted Booth obituary
Other lives: Lecturer in creative writing for 26 years at Hornsey College of Art in London
University of Liverpool acquires entire archive of poet Roger McGough
Archivist Jo Klett says the 40 boxes of material will provide ‘a full picture of Roger’s entire working career’
Peter Jones obituary
Other lives: English teacher who played key roles in the founding of Carcanet Press and the magazine PN Review
Strange Beach by Oluwaseun Olayiwola audiobook review – a debut that dances with passion
The dancer and author gives this collection clarity and warmth as he narrates poems about family, queer identity, hedonism and race
The best recent poetry – review roundup
Gravity Archives by Andrew Motion; Rabbitbox by Wayne Holloway-Smith; Strange Architectures by JL Williams; I Do Know Some Things by Richard Siken
‘I owe Iron Maiden my English A-level!’ The great literature our writers discovered through pop music
Ahead of World Book Day on Thursday, Guardian music writers pick out the musicians whose literary references illuminated them – from Adam Ant on Joe Orton to the National on Grace Paley
Arts Council England faces legal threat over magazine’s withdrawal of poet’s work
Publicly funded journal pulled poem citing writer’s ‘social media presence’, with solicitors alleging discrimination over gender-critical views