Poem of the week: Ars Poetica, XI by Mary Jean Chan
A fresh spin on the sonnet, this subtle contemplation of art, love and language makes the poem into a home
Play aims to unravel mystery of poet Nan Shepherd’s masterwork
Production examines why Scottish poet’s The Living Mountain lay unpublished in a drawer for 30 years
Poem of the week: Sea Rose by HD
An austere song of praise to a flower that withstands the battering of nature is also an intense response to classical Greek literature
‘The anti-pet of bourgeois life’: why the world needs big cat energy
Whether by striking workers, poets or Pussy Riot, our feline friends have long been used as a symbol of resistance – radical by nature, they refuse to be tamed
Poet Jackie Kay: ‘I could have been brought up by Tories!’
The writer on being adopted as a baby by Scottish communists, facing racism in suburban Glasgow, and why her late parents are at the heart of her new collection
Kim Taplin obituary
Other lives: Writer and poet whose work celebrated the natural world and raised environmental issues
Crystal by Ellen Cranitch review – a devastating insight into drug dependency
The poet’s uncompromising second collection, about her husband’s addiction to crystal meth, is fascinating and troubling
Poem of the week: Diesel or steam by George Szirtes
A Hungarian schoolboy recently arrived in 1950s England has to switch his allegiances in a hurry
Apology after Benjamin Zephaniah mural painted over in Birmingham
Council contractor says sorry amid anger at removal of artwork of poet from an underpass in Hockley area
The best recent poetry – review roundup
A Year of Last Things by Michael Ondaatje; The Silence by Gillian Clarke; Joy in Service on Rue Tagore by Paul Muldoon; May Day by Jackie Kay; I Cannot Be Good Until You Say It by Sanah Ahsan; Grief’s Alphabet by Carrie Etter
Surge of interest in Ethiopian culture boosts case for return of treasures, says Sissay
Poet who is curating country’s first Venice Biennale pavilion says ‘part of the heart’ of the country was looted and is being held in museums
Eight writers win ‘freedom and time to write’ with $175,000 Windham-Campbell prizes
Honours that span fiction, nonfiction, drama and poetry go to practitioners around the world including novelist Deirdre Madden and poet Jen Hadfield
Poem of the week: The Haunted Oak by Paul Laurence Dunbar
A horrifying story of racial violence told from the point of view of an oak tree bough is all the more disturbing for its imitation of the ballad form
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar review – an antihero in search of meaning
The Iranian-American poet’s debut novel tells the tale of a bereaved writer – but struggles with too much angst
Byron: A Life in Ten Letters review – dispatches from a lusty life
Andrew Stauffer conveys the vigour and pace of the poet’s escapades with brio, but stumbles when he suggests Byron anticipated modern celebrity