Yomi Ṣode: ‘The last thing I want to be is a preacher’
The poet and performer on his debut poetry collection, drawing on Caravaggio and the concept of ‘manorism’
Poem of the week: The Revolt of Mother by Alice Duer Miller
Man’s claim to be expert in all things – including how to be a woman – is dismantled with devastating sarcasm
TS Eliot prize announces a ‘shapeshifting’ shortlist
With a record number of entries, half of the ten shortlisted books are debut collections that the judges describe as ‘unflinching in their explorations of love and grief, brutality and desire’
Poem of the week: I Am Not A Falconer by Caroline Bird
An abandoned lover tries not to take their distress too seriously
The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem by Matthew Hollis – genesis of a masterpiece
Hollis brilliantly sifts through the tendrils of TS Eliot’s unhappiness and shows how, with help from friends, he broke through his tortured silence to create an era-defining poem
Top 10 books about Nigeria
Fiction, poetry and history from an extraordinary country of great wealth and deep poverty, of huge promise and extremes of despair
National Book Awards 2022: Gayl Jones, Sharon Olds, Imani Perry among finalists
The winners of the prestigious US awards, in five categories, will be announced in a ceremony in November
Poem of the week: Mist by Maurice Rutherford
A haunting poem in which a mysterious backstory of private loss is bound with nature in a thickening mist and an absence of birds
Tony Mitton obituary
Other lives: Prolific children’s poet and author who wrote the prize-winning verse narrative Wayland
Cool, candid and sometimes angry, New Zealand’s laureate wants to make poetry pop
After years of forging his own path on the literary scene, Chris Tse doesn’t mind taking poetic licence with expectations
The best recent poetry – review roundup
Days Like These by Brian Bilston; A Little Resurrection by Selina Nwulu; England’s Green by Zaffar Kunial; After Sylvia, edited by Ian Humphreys and Sarah Corbett; Journeys Across Breath by Stephen Watts
Where to start with: Langston Hughes
The leader of the Harlem Renaissance wrote poems and plays, short stories and children’s books. If you’re new to Hughes’ work, here are some good places to begin
Seán Day-Lewis obituary
Other lives: Journalist and author who wrote a biography of his poet father
[To] The Last [Be] Human by Jorie Graham review – where angels fear to write
The American poet faces the future anguished but unblinking in this magnificent collection of her four most recent books
Poem of the week: To Mistress Margaret Hussey by John Skelton
An implausibly perfect list of womanly virtues is kept afloat with genial buoyancy