I was an evangelical Christian for 35 years – until my transgressive big sister gave me the courage to break free

My sister Dorothy Porter was a bohemian gay poet; I was a respectable church handmaiden. But she cracked the door open for me to start seeing the world differently

Measures of Weather by JR Carpenter review – deft verse that offers a guiding light

The British Canadian poet’s new collection invokes the elements as it interrogates imperialism, patriarchy and climate emergency

Poem of the week: Are they shadows … by Samuel Daniel

A beguiling look at the fleeting pleasures of theatre, and the fleetingness of pleasure itself

Gwen Watkins obituary

Codebreaker at Bletchley Park during the second world war who went on to become a successful author

What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in January

Authors and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month

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?