Is rhyme a dirty word? Hollie McNish talks about her poetry style
A discussion at Aldeburgh poetry festival that was billed as examining “the confines of form” and the “shortfalls of free verse” developed into a focus on the use of rhyme after Hollie McNish – “I resist being called a performance poet” – declared: “I never realised it was a dirty word. I just thought poetry rhymed.” Her remarks came after the chair of the discussion, Poetry Society director Judit...
18th November 2015
'Obviously I don't have a self-doubt gene': the thoughts of Attila the Stockbroker
Attila the Stockbroker has an autobiography out that has been very well received – and he’s very happy to tell you all about it. Write Out Loud’s Laura Taylor can testify as to what a good read it is – and so can I, as it happens. But as I listened to him being interviewed by the Poetry Trust’s arts...
16th November 2015
Travelling ladders, Shetlandic translations, and outlaw poets
MOST VISITORS to the Hoffman Building at Snape Maltings during the Aldeburgh poetry festival could not have failed to notice a number of roughly made ladders attached or suspended about the place, wri...
16th November 2015
Quoting Thoreau to sell retirement homes: Tony Hoagland laces anger with wit and humanity
American poet Tony Hoagland provided a fitting and satisfying finale to round off this year’s Aldeburgh poetry festival on Sunday afternoon. His poetry abounds with warmth, wit, anger, and humanity, a...
15th November 2015
Andrew McMillan wins first collection prize
Andrew McMillan’s new poetry collection physical has won this year’s Fenton Aldeburgh first collection prize. His book, described by one of the judges, Tiffany Atkinson, as “a dazzling meditation on c...
13th November 2015
Undertone of disaster: John Burnside mourns the countryside's disappeared
This conversation between leading poet John Burnside, pictured, and Costa prize winning writer Helen Macdonald at Aldeburgh poetry festival was billed as “language and nature’. But it proved to be abo...
12th November 2015
