Given up on reading? Elif Shafak on why we still need novels
Recent studies suggest we’ve fallen out of love with reading – but the more chaotic our times, the deeper is our need to slow down and read fiction
Channing Tatum and Pedro Pascal write poems for Canadian musician Mustafa’s book
Actors contribute to the poet and singer’s anthology exploring ceremony, loss and worship
Simon Armitage: ‘Our pace of life is unhelpful to nature, it’s burning it up’
Exclusive: Poet laureate says new book, inspired by wildlife at Cornish garden, is a plea for humans to slow down and reflect
Publisher behind hit bilingual poetry book on A470 turns to Welsh rivers
Arachne Press says Afonydd (Rivers) was inspired by success of A470: Poems for the Road/Cerddi’r Ffordd
Poem of the week: Vergissmeinnicht by Keith Douglas
A soldier comes face to face with another he has killed, aghast to recognise his dead opponent’s humanity
The best recent poetry – review roundup
Midden Witch by Fiona Benson; Dwell by Simon Armitage; Nature Matters edited by Mona Arshi & Karen McCarthy Woolf; Lode by Gillian Allnutt; Silk Work by Imogen Cassels; A History of Western Music by August Kleinzahler
Poem of the week: Gravel by Maurice Riordan
There’s a wry smile underlying Riordan’s examination of the greatness and smallness of a heap of gravel
Wellwater by Karen Solie – landscapes in distress captured with raw candour
In this blazingly honest collection, the Canadian poet catalogues humanity’s destructive impact on the natural world
Poem of the week: The old pond full of flags and fenced around … by John Clare
A closely observed country scene teems with the vitality of early summer
In the Rhododendrons by Heather Christle review – back to the mother land
A poet’s memoir of family, trauma, and Virginia Woolf pulses with feeling and intelligence
‘His delivery cut through class barriers’: Moby, Mala and other musicians on working with Benjamin Zephaniah
On what would have been the late dub poet’s 67th birthday, his musical collaborators remember his warmth, invigorating words and reflections on the state of the world
Poem of the week: Death sets a Thing significant … by Emily Dickinson
The traces of a lost friend are keenly felt in the material things they once touched
Epic win: why the Odyssey is having a moment
With new translations, a film starring Ralph Fiennes and a Christopher Nolan blockbuster on the way, Homer’s saga about a soldier’s return from battle speaks to our times in unexpected ways
Clive Wilmer obituary
Poet and scholar who promoted the work of John Ruskin and edited a selection of Thom Gunn’s essays
Poem of the week: A Sonnet to the Noble Lady, the Lady Mary Wroth by Ben Jonson
A strategically flattering tribute to a pioneering female writer is lifted by authentic warmth and admiration