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In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve dug up a video with Oscar-nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch reciting the poem “Richard.” Click here to read The Guardian’s post which features the entire piece.
Cumberpatch, who plays Richard III in The Hollow Crown TV mini-series, delivered this reading at the re-interment of King Richard III. British poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy wrote “Richard” specifically for this somber occasion.
The Olympics may be a couple of weeks away, but the festivities are already beginning in the literary world.
As part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, the games’ arts and culture festival, more than 200 poets from around the world came together over the past few days for an open forum on poetry called Poetry Parnassus.
The Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli told The New York Times that it “‘widens your understanding of life and of humanity,’ and enables poets to ‘relativize what is happening’ in their own lives and country and ’to feel part of this global chorus.’”
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By:
michelle lovric,
on 6/9/2012
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An Awfully Big Blog Adventure
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The second in our new series of Sunday guest blogs by booksellers who work with children’s authors. These guest blogs are designed to show life behind the scenes of a crucial but neglected relationship – the one between a writer and a bookseller. These days, such relationships are more intense and more important, as increasing numbers of authors go on the road to promote children’s books – a goal shared by the booksellers who will contribute to this series. The Bookcase is a ‘small independent bookshop with a big imagination’ situated in the village of Lowdham, eight miles north of Nottingham. The Bookcase’s proprietor is Jane Streeter (second from right), who runs the shop with a friendly team: Louise Haines, Jo Blaney, myself, Marion Turner and Kendall Turner (pictured left to right above).
Three years ago I (as one of the assistants) began a reading group at our local village school. This coincided with our 10th Annual Book Festival. So, to celebrate, I went in once a month until we had read 10 books. The 12 children read each book and then wrote a review, which formed the basis of a display at our book festival. We read all sorts – from contemporary authors to Enid Blyton and Richmal Crompton – and one poetry book. I have used a few different poetry books, but the first was Carol Ann Duffy’s The Hat, which was very timely as I’d handed it out to the children just before she was announced as the Poet Laureate! We’ve also used Gervase Phinn’s There’s an Alien in the Classroom, and others over the three years we’ve been involved in the project.
Each month I went into school so that we could have a discussion, which made the youngsters feel very grown up!
The idea became so popular that I have been approached by other schools, so this year I am working in four schools – always with Year 6 children. The group is aimed at the more able readers. (The thinking behind this is that so much is done to encourage the less able readers: those who are keen readers need some sort of outlet for their enthusiasm.)
This year, I have found a real difference in ability from one school to another. Not only is the reading ability markedly higher in one school, but the children are much more mature. This makes it harder for me to choose appropriate books, so I’m always keen to hear of the experiences of others who work with children of a similar age.
Michael Morpurgo is, of course, unfailingly popular, but I’ve also had real success with Michelle Paver’s Wolf Brother and Morris Gleitzman’s Once. In both cases, several of the children have gone on to read the sequels. We have offered a discount to reading group members who have ordered sequels.
After Christmas I will be discussing David Al
Fantasy children’s author Catherine Fisher will be officially named Wales’ first Young People’s Poet Laureate later today (18th October).
The Newport writer will be given the title by Literature Wales, which was established in April this year when the authors' society Academi joined forces with the north Wales writing centre, Tŷ Newydd. The ceremony will take place in Cardiff's Literature Lounge, presented by Welsh singer Charlotte Church.
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The Poetry Society has reinstated Judith Palmer as its director after leading poets and members including poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy called for her to be returned to the post.
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By: lisacampbell,
on 7/28/2011
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Schiel & Denver Book Publishers Blog
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Members of the Poetry Society, including poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, have started a petition to reinstate Judith Palmer as director of the embattled society in hope of a "new start".
The petition follows the departure of Poetry Society director Judith Palmer, president Jo Shapcott and vice-president Gwyneth Lewis and others, and an extraordinary general meeting earlier this month at which the society's board of trustees also agreed to stand down.
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By: Zoe,
on 11/18/2010
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Playing by the book
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**Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a pair of beautiful Moomin Mugs!**
This year’s family Christmas production at an art centre near us is an adaptation of the short story
The Lost Happy Endings by Carol Ann Duffy (the UK’s poet laureate), originally illustrated by
Jane Ray. After the success we had taking M and J to see
When We Lived in Uncle’s Hat I thought we’d also get tickets for this magical tale. With our trip to the theatre now only a few days away
The Lost Happy Endings has been our most-read book this week and definitely one I’d love to share with you today.
Photo: daskerst
A young girl, Jub, lives in a dark forest. She has a terribly important job – every night she must take the sack full of Happy Endings, climb to the top a huge oak tree and then scatter the endings to the wind to ensure they find their way into homes all around the world where parents are telling bedtime stories to their children. She’s good at her job, and enjoys it, spending her days reading and visiting neighbours whilst the Happy Endings fly back to the forest to hang from the ancient silver birch, ready to be collected and distributed each night.
One evening, however, a wicked witch, with “fierce red eyes like poisonous berries” steals the girl’s sack. With no Happy Endings, children in bedrooms everywhere go to bed that night in tears. Cinderella’s foot is too big for the glass slipper. The Big Bad Wolf gobbles up Little Red Riding Hood.
Photo: ((brian))
Jub is distraught. Her heart is “as sore as toothache“. Exhausted by despair, she eventually falls asleep and (appears to) dream of a Golden Pen which can write on the night sky itself. She takes the pen and uses it to re-write her own story, to create her own happy ending, ensuring the witch meets her comeuppance and once again the Happy Endings can find their way into your home, my home and every home where bedtime stories are told.
Duffy has created a fairy story par excellence – mysterious, slightly menacing, with one foot in our world and another in a rather more magical world, a magical world that you nevertheless want to believe in when you read this story. The tale is beautifully told, with so many phrases where each word seems perfectly chosen, where it is hard to imagine a simpler yet more evocative way of expressing a given emotion or situation; Duffy’s first calling, as a poet, really shines through.
Jane Ray&
We have a funny relationship, poetry and I. To be honest, I've never felt we get on as well as we should.
This is probably an odd - and perhaps slightly risky - statement, coming as it does from a man whose website and school visit promo material proclaim him to be 'Author, Poet, Songwriter', but it's true. Sometimes, in fact, I wonder if I should take Allan Ahlberg's line and describe myself as 'a writer of verse' rather than 'a poet'. But then, Ahlberg's wrong about that; anyone capable of writing The Boy Without A Name is certainly a poet. And 'Author, Writer of Verse, Songwriter' wouldn't be terribly snappy.
But I digress. Or do I? Because, I suppose, one of my problems with poetry is: what is it? No-one's ever actually explained that to me. In all my years at school, and then all my years back at school teaching children about poetry, no-one's ever given me a definition that really works for me and that covers every poem I have ever met.
My MacBook's onboard dictionary gives the following definition: "a piece of writing that partakes of the nature of both speech and song that is nearly always rhythmical, usually metaphorical, and often exhibits such formal elements as meter, rhyme, and stanzaic structure." I'm not sure I entirely understand that but, as far as I do, it doesn't describe every poem I've ever met.
Michael Rosen's attitude is, I think, quite healthy: when the accusation is levelled at him that he doesn't write proper poetry, rather than getting all defensive about it he says, fine, if you don't want to call it poetry call it something else. Call it 'bits' and 'stuff', if you like. As far as he's concerned, the important thing is writing it, not what you call it once it's been written.
I've been thinking about all this a bit lately, probably in the light of recent events - congratulations to Carol Ann Duffy, by the way, and if you should happen to read this, my daughter just borrowed The Tear Thief from the library and loved it - and it's occurred to me that perhaps one of the reasons poetry and I rub along together so uneasily is that when I was young I was taught to approach it in the wrong way. Poetry's often an emotional art form, yet so often the teaching surrounding poetry treats it as an intellectual exercise: What does the poet mean by...? What effect is the poet striving for when he...? What is the poem about? What does it mean?
If the poet wanted to "make a point", surely (s)he would write an essay or make a speech? And if a poem works, shouldn't we be able to enjoy it without necessarily getting all that deep analytical stuff? Shouldn't we, first and foremost, just enjoy the words? Shouldn't we spend years reading poetry to children in a way that enables them to enjoy it, before we ask them to pick it apart?
In some ways this is a new thought, and yet in many ways it's an old one for me. Thinking about this lately, I remembered a poem I wrote when I was eighteen and which, from memory, goes something like this:
Note to an English Teacher
A poem
Is like a hamster
Small
(Unless it is a long poem
In which case
It is like a large hamster)
And lively
(Unless it is a dull poem
In which case
It is like a sleepy hamster)
Admittedly
A poem has no fur
But it has a life
A life given it by the poet
Who is to the poem
As God to the hamster
But perhaps
The most remarkable similarity is
That you can take a poem apart
Dissect it
And analyse it
Although
On putting it back together, you find that
Like a hamster in the same situation
It does not work
Half as well as it used to
I submitted that for the school magazine, but the teacher in charge rejected it on the grounds, I was told by another pupil, that it had no literary merit.
I just don't think she understood it...
Note to an English Teacher © John Dougherty 1982 & 2009
Britain picks their first woman as Poet Laureate! Carol Ann Duffy holds that honor.
It’s about time!
We need more people doing this sort of thing! I always feel sorry for the more able readers - all too often left to their own devices. I had a group of more able readers once - took them off to meet one of our local and very well known authors - they reminded me of this years later!
What a terrific idea! Who supplies the books, I wonder - the bookshop or the school?
What an inspiring blog! It's so good to know that booksellers are working with schools in such a proactive way and it sounds as though both you and the children get a great deal of pleasure from it. How fascinating as well that, as an 'outsider', you can see differences in reading ability between schools.
What a brilliant idea Eve and what a great way to introduce children to authors that they may not know about I run a couple of reading clubs in a local primary school.Josh Lacey's Island of Thieves and Ali Sparkes's Frozen in Time went down well. I also did a football theme with Tom Palmer and Helena Pielichaty's books.
The children will love A Boy called M.O.U.S.E.
What a great job you are doing!
This is such a good idea! More strength to your elbow. I love the Bookcase and have very happy memories of my visit there some years back during the Lowdham Festival. Regards to all.
So the children are all reading the same books? Do they ever recommend the books themselves? That might be interesting, to see what they choose.
Sounds a wonderful idea and like others, I agree that more able readers deserve attention as much as the strugglers. Often, inevitably, there isn't much in their school library if they are advanced readers in Year 6.
How about Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh? Lots to discuss there.
Or if they enjoyed Just William then why not read some more contemporary funny authors as a comparison - I've just posted a new ABBA blog with plenty of suggestions! I think The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara
Robinson would be lots of fun and would also be full of ideas for them to discuss.