Rosemary Tonks was a feted poet, trenchant reviewer and literary socialite. And then she 'disappeared'. Following her death last month, Neil Astley traces her extraordinary storyThe "disappearance" of the poet Rosemary Tonks in the 1970s was one of the literary world's most tantalising mysteries. Bizarre theories abounded as to her whereabouts if she was still alive. As the poet Brian Patten put it in a BBC radio feature about her in 2009, she "evaporated into air like the Cheshire cat". One contributor imagined her living in Cuba, "smoking cigars in a doorway". Other commentators over the years have made her into a nun; consigned her to a sect; had her communing with the ghost of Charles Baudelaire; or put her in a shed at the bottom of someone's garden. For some reason, these mythmakers always required her to be living in poverty.Having tried to visit her myself, 10 years ago, I knew all these theories to be far from the truth. But out of respect for her declared wish, maintained by her family, that she should be left in peace, I kept her address and situation secret. Tonks died last month at the age of 85 (all the existing records had her as four years younger). She had indeed been living as a near-recluse but out of choice, quite comfortable in her circumstances. Even so, she remained restless in spirit, defiantly independent and quite alone in her continuing search for God, for she was ever alert to the "brainwashing", manipulative tendencies in the religious... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Are there certain books with topics you avoid? That you fear may leave you a little worse for wear? Here's what may happen if you read them. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-12-07 11:38:00 UTC ]
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For this installment in a series of interviews with contemporary poets, contributing editor Peter Mishler corresponded with Tongo Eisen-Martin. Eisen-Martin is the Poet Laureate of San Francisco, California. He is the author of Heaven Is All Goodbyes (City Lights Books, 2017), which was... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-12-01 09:49:18 UTC ]
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Yomi Sode, Raymond Antrobus and Victoria Adukwei Bulley are among 17 contemporary Black British poets recording their poems for a new collection by the Poetry Archive and Obsidian Foundation. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-25 19:40:50 UTC ]
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He distilled the passions of the antiwar movement into poetry during the Vietnam War and later, with his bestselling book "Iron John," awakened a movement of men in search of deeper masculinity. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-11-24 03:56:49 UTC ]
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The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. * While writing my first novel, I was hungry for advice, like many young writers, and soaked up tenets like write every day or wake up before work to go to your desk or hit 1000 words every session. But these... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-11-12 09:55:05 UTC ]
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British publishers must not hang on to rights they cannot exploit, Nigerian poet and novelist Lola Shoneyin told delegates at a session on decolonisation at a publishers conference in at The Sharjah International Book Fair. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-31 15:54:59 UTC ]
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Essay Photo by Eileen Pan / Unsplash “Instead of a totalizing interpretation,” writes the author, translators should seek a dialogical one. “We have to leave space,” he writes, “for a story, an anecdote, a metaphorical footnote.” We all spend a... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-10-20 18:36:14 UTC ]
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‘Oscar: A Life,’ by Matthew Sturgis, delivers a thorough assessment of Wilde on the occasion of his birthday this month Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-10-13 14:00:00 UTC ]
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William Collins has landed a book by environmental campaigner Guy Shrubsole looking at Britain's lost rainforests. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-08 15:11:28 UTC ]
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Interviews Photo by Kari Gunter-Seymour / www.karigunterseymourpoet.com Kari Gunter-Seymour (b. 1955) is having a moment—soon to become two years of moments since she was appointed in June 2020 to a two-year term as the Poet Laureate of Ohio.... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-10-07 13:41:36 UTC ]
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On this day in 1935, the highly acclaimed poet Mary Oliver was born in Maple Heights, Ohio. Oliver, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and later the National Book Award for Poetry in 1992, was by all accounts a private person who sought solace in the natural world. Throughout the course of her... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-09-10 15:24:16 UTC ]
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How do you make a book about bookstores even better? With a little romance, of course! Prepare to swoon over these bookstore romances, including Meet Cute Club by Jack Harbon. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-08-11 10:36:00 UTC ]
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UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has convened 30 poets from around the world including Imtiaz Dharker and Raymond Antrobus to create a new response to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-11 03:37:51 UTC ]
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He was known for his plain-spoken poems that drew universal meaning from everyday occurrences. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-06-26 13:51:24 UTC ]
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A longtime Georgetown University professor, she published two seminal books about Dickinson, as well as a novel and poetry collection influenced by the belle of Amherst. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-06-23 07:17:52 UTC ]
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I first came to poet Rajiv Mohabir’s work through his cutting meditation on why he will never celebrate Indian Arrival Day, which Guyana celebrates on May 5th to commemorate the arrival of indentured Indian workers in the Caribbean. In the essay for the Asian American Writers Workshop’s The... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-06-22 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Along the coast of California, a vibrant literary community came together, but its many styles could not be defined together. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2021-05-24 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Of Lebanese and German parentage, the poet and author will speak in the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair's Guest of Honor program. The post Pierre Jarawan: Lebanon to Germany, Slam Poet to Bestseller appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-05-20 16:15:20 UTC ]
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Mexican author Valeria Luiselli has won the €100,000 Dublin Literary Award for her novel Lost Children Archive (4th Estate), the world's most valuable prize for a single novel published in English. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-19 15:32:45 UTC ]
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Poet Al Young, who was also a novelist, memoirist, educator, and a former poet laureate of California, died April 17 from the complications of a stroke. He was 81. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-05-18 04:00:00 UTC ]
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