BBC, Don Paterson, Forward Prize, NanoWrimo, nation's favourite poet, National Poetry Day, National Poetry Month, Script Frenzy, T S Eliot
In creative writing, poetry, topical, writing on October 8, 2009 at 8:17 am
One problem with the Internet is how it emphasises the fact that what is a “national” day for one person is often something else entirely for other people.
The United States tends to dominate the web, so many of the internationally recognised activities and celebrations originate there. In November each year, there’s National Novel Writing Month where participants aim to write a complete 50,000 word novel in a month. Then April is both the month of Script Frenzy and National Poetry Month. The latter includes many suggested activities, one being that some poets try and produce a new work each day of the month.
Back in the UK, though, we celebrate National Poetry Day today, on October 8th. This year, the theme is “Heroes and Heroines”.
dictionaries, information, reference
In books, language, on-line resources, words, writing on September 24, 2009 at 11:17 am
Last Friday was the 300th anniversary of Samuel Johnson’s birth. He was the man behind the the authoritative Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, which listed 40,000 words and took eight years to compile.
Most of the articles celebrating the anniversary (see the BBC account here) managed to find room for a few of the definitions that Johnson included, perhaps the most famous being, “Oats: a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”
Of course now internet access is so easy, printed dictionaries are less and less common, so I’ll take this opportunity to make a note of a few useful websites:
Carol Ann Duffy, Kurt Vonnegut, poet laureate, war poetry
In poetry, topical on August 1, 2009 at 8:28 pm
War is in the news, both past wars and present. In the UK, two of the last WWI veterans have died within a week of each other. Poetry is in the news, too.
The Guardian online has reproduced some of the selection of ‘war poetry for today’ commissioned by Carol Ann Duffy.
The UK poet laureate points out that “Today, as most of us do, poets largely experience war – wherever it rages – through emails or texts from friends or colleagues in war zones, through radio or newsprint or television, through blogs or tweets or interviews.”
But Harry Patch and Henry Allingham experienced the trenches of WWI first hand.
They both died recently and Duffy’s own poem Last Post marks their deaths. In her poem – here on the Times there’s an audio of her reading it –
