Poem of the week: Simile by Éireann Lorsung
An elegant reflection on experience and imagination complicates a very familiar figure of speech
UN expert urged to investigate Lebanon over alleged torture of Egyptian-Turkish poet
Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi has been imprisoned in the UAE for almost a year for criticising Emirati, Egyptian and Saudi governments
The best recent poetry – review roundup
Namanlagh by Tom Paulin; Foretokens by Sarah Howe; Maryville by Joelle Taylor; Hekate by Nikita Gill; Goatsong by Phoebe Giannisi
Where to start with: Paul Bailey
The novelist and poet, who died a year ago, left a huge body of work distinguished by its melancholy wit and warmth. These are some of the highlights
WH Auden formed ‘intense friendship’ with sex worker who burgled him, unseen letters reveal
Exclusive: The newly released correspondence reveals how a strong bond developed between the Funeral Blues poet and the sex worker who broke into his home
Poem of the week: Storm in Brooklyn Subway by Menna Elfyn
A collective dash for shelter in the city takes on a spiritual, near-religious power
Forward prize names poets Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie its first joint winners
Judge of prestigious award says two best collection winners ‘address the urgent challenges of our time’
Poem of the week: On the Death of Dr Robert Levet by Samuel Johnson
An elegy to the poet’s personal physician is full of vivid detail delivered with infectious warmth
Maurice Rutherford obituary
Poet who wrote with originality, warmth and mischief about his home city of Hull, after turning to writing later in life
Joelle Taylor: ‘I picked up The Weirdstone of Brisingamen in a swoon of nine-year-old despair’
The poet and playwright on queer classics, cinematic TS Eliot and the comforts of a ghost story
‘The jobless should lead the attack’: a radical Jamaican journalist in 1920s London
The long read: Economic insecurity, race riots, incendiary media … Claude McKay was one of the few Black journalists covering a turbulent period that sounds all too familiar to us today
‘After the reading, the poets hold each other’: what happens when Ukraine’s largest literary festival comes under Russian attack
Fiona Benson was invited to Lviv’s BookForum by Ukrainian poet-soldier Artur Dron’. She recounts falling in love with the city and its thriving literary culture, before an air raid siren sounds
Poem of the week: My Mother by Claude McKay
Two sonnets absorb with calm clarity a boy’s anguish at his mother’s loss
‘We’ve all done stupid things but we’re all capable of redemption’: spoken-word artist Joshua Idehen on fighting hate with hope
His poem Mum Does the Washing went viral – but he started out parroting conservative talking points online. Now the British-Nigerian vocalist preaches a message of radical positivity
The Poems of Seamus Heaney review – collected works reveal his colossal achievement
The complete works, including previously unpublished poems and expert notes, are brought together in one volume for the first time