Poem of the week: On the Death of Mr Purcell by John Dryden
The death of the English composer at a young age inspired this ode by his collaborator in theatrical productions of the 1690s
Poems on London’s underground: free riches I hold in high esteem
This public poetry scheme has been taking the grind out of commuting and delivering ‘life-worth’ since 1986
Mercedes de Acosta: The poet who had affairs with the 20th century’s most famous women
An unpublished book has emerged by the woman best known for her liaisons with Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and Isadora Duncan
The best recent poetry – review roundup
36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem by Nam Le; Three Births by K Patrick; After You Were, I Am by Camille Ralphs; Wrong Norma by Anne Carson; Poems 1968-2020 by Nikki Giovanni
Hollie McNish: ‘Being a writer didn’t enter my mind – I wanted a job that involved roller-skating’
The poet on discovering Seamus Heaney, revisiting Alice Walker and the joy of Allan Ahlberg
The return of Nam Le: ‘As long as I’m terrifying myself a little bit, I’m on the right track’
Sixteen years after his internationally lauded debut, the author of The Boat is back. He talks about writing under pressure, and why ‘authenticity’ is a trap
Alan Brownjohn obituary
Prolific poet, novelist and critic who was an astute and sometimes satirical observer of life in modern Britain
Poem of the week: Spring Equinox, 2021 by Gillian Clarke
A tender hymn to rural Wales in the wake of the Covid pandemic from the Cardiff-born poet’s new collection, The Silence
Wrong Norma by Anne Carson review – unjoined-up thinking at its best
The poet’s new collection of mainly prose pieces on subjects as diverse as Flaubert, snow and Roget’s Thesaurus is a nonstop triumph
‘At 80, I still have a lot of anger’: American poet Nikki Giovanni
The activist and poet Nikki Giovanni talks about fighting racial segregation, dealing with mobsters – and why her sense of outrage is undiminished
Byron: A Life in Ten Letters by Andrew Stauffer review – wrong but Romantic
An impressively rounded portrait of the raucous and manipulative poet, venereal scars and all
Molly Goodland obituary
Other lives: Writer and poet who described her childhood in Growing Wild on Exmoor
Poem of the week: Blue Field by Lavinia Greenlaw
The elusiveness of a twilight shade inspires a dazzling riff that never settles on a decided colour
The Guardian view on festivals and the future: bound together by the power of a shared vision
Editorial: We need international gatherings if we are to find a common language to resist environmental destruction
‘I write all my poems with a quill by candlelight’: John Cooper Clarke on the joy of life without tech
The punk poet has no smartphone, no email, not even a computer. Everyone should try it, he says