Writing Australia: can the new national literature body make a real difference for authors?

Supporting writers is nation-building work, and expectations are high for the new body with its re-inaugurated poet laureate

Poem of the week: Nest Box by Simon Armitage

A drunk old man’s report of sighting an angel opens on to much broader mysteries

New prize for translated poetry aims to tap into boom for international-language writing

Award, to be shared between poet and translator, is a joint project by three publishers and will give a $5,000 advance for a new collection

Poem of the week: The Song of Arachnid by Gillian Allnutt

A generous and warm ecofeminist vision of the labours of motherhood

Angela Livingstone obituary

Other lives: Translator who made many great works of Russian literature accessible to English readers

Poem of the week: This Year Her Present by Victoria Melkovska

Gifts sent from a loved one abroad at first bring warmth and joy, then grave alarm

Funny, weird … sexy? How to find your perfect wedding poem

Small, huge, camp, Star Trek-themed … weddings have changed beyond recognition, but we’re still reading out the same old Shakespeare sonnets. What to read at a modern ceremony? Plus, leading poets pick their favourites

Tell us: what poem would you choose to read at a wedding?

We would like to hear what poem you would read - or have read – at a wedding and why

Experience: I live as William Morris for three months a year

It’s made me feel it’s OK to be an artist with a social purpose, though my wife hates the beard

Poem of the week: Hermes by Gabriele Tinti

A statue of the mythological father of poetry becomes an image of the declining authority of the art form

Nan Shepherd: Naked and Unashamed review – the poetry, prose and passion of a Scottish modernist

Richard Baron and Ellie Zeegen’s play follows the writer from wide-eyed child discovering nature in rural Scotland to feisty care-home resident

The best recent poetry – review roundup

Southernmost: Sonnets by Leo Boix; An Interesting Detail by Kimberly Campanello; Autobiography of Death by Kim Hyesoon; Goonie by Michael Mullen; The Age of Olive Trees by Haia Mohammed

British-Palestinian writer NS Nuseibeh wins Jhalak prose prize for writers of colour

‘Timely’ essay collection Namesake explores identity, religion and colonialism as Nathanael Lessore takes children’s and young adult prize and Mimi Khalvati wins for poetry

‘Deliciously addictive’, ‘dripping with suspense’: the best Australian books out in June

Each month Guardian Australia editors and critics pick the upcoming titles they have devoured – or can’t wait to get their hands on

Kwesi Owusu obituary

Writer and film-maker at the heart of the African Dawn group who directed the critically acclaimed 1991 feature Ama