Evan Jones obituary

Poet best known for The Song of the Banana Man who went on to become a prolific playwright and screenwriter

Poem of the week: Crossed Threads by Helen Hunt Jackson

A sonnet by a former schoolmate of Emily Dickinson is both a nature study and a reflection on the tangle of forces that govern human life

Ocean Vuong: ‘I don’t believe a writer should just keep writing as long as they’re alive’

The award-winning poet and author on bringing his career to a meaningful end, processing the death of his mother via verse, and his love of mixed martial arts

The best recent poetry – review roundup

Up Late by Nick Laird; Women in Comfortable Shoes by Selima Hill; Blood Feather by Patrick McGuinness; You Don’t Have What It Takes to Be My Nemesis by CAConrad; Before We Go Any Further by Tristram Fane Saunders; A Method, A Path by Rowan Evans

Poem of the week: Life and Song by Sidney Lanier

Imagining the poet as a kind of musical instrument is a somewhat dotty thought, but here the conceit resonates with irresistible musicality

Sleeping on Islands by Andrew Motion review – candid stories from the former poet laureate

A revealing memoir illuminates the conflict between wordly success and creative freedom

Amanda Gorman ‘gutted’ after Florida school bans Biden inauguration poem

Poet, 25, vows to fight back after single complaint, which wrongly ascribed The Hill We Climb to Oprah Winfrey, prompts removal

No rhyme or reason: why is poetry missing from the new Caffè Nero book awards?

Despite rising sales in the UK, there is no poetry category in the new writing prize. The reason isn’t a lack of audience but a lack of imagination

Pete Brown – the final interview: ‘Music gives you a focus, you can see a goal ahead’

A jazz poet and countercultural hero who wrote lyrics for Cream, Brown died last week aged 82. In this interview at sessions last month for his final LP, he explained why he was making art until the end

Poem of the week: Poem XVII by WH Auden

This mysterious work from 1930 is very tempting to read as a conflicted love poem by the young gay poet

I don’t feel like I was born into the wrong body. There’s not a right or wrong way to be trans

Madison Godfrey inhabits gender beyond a binary, but transition isn’t what makes them trans

Pete Brown, countercultural poet, singer and Cream lyricist, dies aged 82

British poet who wrote lyrics for Sunshine of Your Love, White Room and many more also had acclaimed solo career

Jill Longmate obituary

Other lives: Writer who chronicled the lives of contemporary lesbians

Poem of the week: Der Kleiber … by Sujata Bhatt

Though set in ambiguous territory, the observations of the tiny bird in these verses are precise and pin-sharp

Anthony Anaxagorou wins Ondaatje prize for collection of postcolonial poetry

The British-Cypriot poet took the £10,000 award with his third book of poems, which judges described as ‘pushing the confines of form and language’