Poem of the week: Four rispetti from Tuscan Olives by Agnes Mary Frances Robinson
The changing colours of the fruit provide rich images of ripening and bruising love
Dave Crook obituary
Other lives: Bookseller, writer and editor of the cultural magazine Out of the Circle
The best recent poetry – review roundup
Modern Poetry and Frank: Sonnets by Diane Seuss; That Broke Into Shining Crystals by Richard Scott; My Secret Life by Krisztina Tóth; The Grimoire of Grimalkin by Sascha Aurora Akhtar; Flood by Jessica Mookherjee
The Long Wave: Poet Caleb Femi’s tender ode to Black nightlife in London
The British Nigerian writer’s beautiful new collection captures the spirit and importance of house parties. Plus, remembering Toni Morrison’s oeuvre
Poem of the week: there’s a bird … by Billy Mills
Small details of nature in a garden expand into an anxious global picture
Winter wonder: Jeanette Winterson and others reveal why the cold has them under its spell
Too dark, too cold – winter’s charms aren’t as obvious as summer’s brassy joys. But for Robert Macfarlane, Alice Oswald, Poppy Okotcha and others, this is a rich season. Here, they offer ways to lean into it, with an introduction by Jeanette Winterson
Michael Longley, prize-winning poet of ‘griefs and wonders’, dies aged 85
Part of a gifted generation of writers from Northern Ireland, Longley also gave years of service to the province’s arts council
Michael Longley obituary
Belfast poet of exceptional poise and eloquence – but with a sardonic streak to temper his technical accomplishment
Poem of the week: The Day of Judgement by Jonathan Swift
The stinging wit of the great satirist is at its scalding best in this nightmarish fantasy of the end of days
Nobody could help me with my psychosis. Then I was sent to jail for holding up a shop with a toy gun
I didn’t remember committing my crime but I knew I had fallen through the cracks of the system. Could prison really be my salvation?
Shankari Chandran, Robert Dessaix, Diana Reid and others: Australian books to look forward to in 2025
From enthralling debuts to playful premises and national reckonings, here is a whirlwind tour of what’s to come
‘There’s a majesty to grief’: TS Eliot poetry prize winner Peter Gizzi
The American writer won the prestigious prize for Fierce Elegy, a collection informed by the deaths of his family members. He explains why poetry is like friendship – and why he loves small words
‘Transcendental beauty’ of Peter Gizzi’s Fierce Elegy wins him TS Eliot poetry prize
Judges for the £25,00 award say the collection, informed by grief for his two brothers, ‘braves large questions’ with its lyric sequence
‘Listen my soul to the glad refrain’: poetry prescriptions to beat the January blues
If the dark nights and bleak days are getting you down, Poetry Pharmacy founder Deborah Alma has treatments available from Philip Larkin, Imtiaz Dharker, Edward Thomas and more
Poem of the week: The Reader by Howard Altmann
Words ‘assemble’ into sense in a private, mysterious act of comprehension