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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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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‘The Lost Decade’ is one of the shortest works by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), the American author best-known for The Great Gatsby. Published in Esquire magazine in December 1939, just one year before Fitzgerald died, ‘The Lost Decade’ is one of his most powerful short stories to deal with... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-04-17 14:00:20 UTC ]
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Japanese writer Haruki Murakami offers a collection of imaginative short stories with skewed elements that his many fans are sure to applaud. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2021-04-06 22:11:04 UTC ]
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The pandemic has left me feeling wistful for a past filled with delightful bookish encounters. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-03-16 09:47:33 UTC ]
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An unapologetic proponent of “poetry as insurgent art,” he was also a publisher and the owner of the celebrated San Francisco bookstore City Lights. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-02-23 20:23:41 UTC ]
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Poet, publisher and bookseller Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who helped launch and perpetuate the Beat movement, has died. He was 101. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2021-02-23 20:10:42 UTC ]
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Poet and countercultural pioneer put on trial for publishing Allen Ginsberg’s Howl went on to become a beloved icon of San FranciscoLawrence Ferlinghetti, the poet, publisher, painter and political activist who co-founded the famous City Lights bookshop in San Francisco and became an icon of the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-02-23 19:42:46 UTC ]
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Ferlinghetti was the co-founder of the legendary City Lights bookstore and a champion of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-02-23 18:50:28 UTC ]
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Last March, amid the myriad upheavals and uncertainties that marked early pandemic life, various scientists and public health officials started to model out how many cases and deaths we might be looking at in the long run, and the press, unsurprisingly, took great interest in their work. A team... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-02-23 13:34:38 UTC ]
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The American Library in Paris sits in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Its collection of 100,000 books is spread over three stories. Members from 60 countries can work at long tables or whisper at the coffee machine. As the programs manager, I oversaw the ALP’s weekly Evening with an Author... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-19 09:48:59 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House UK is to publish four books from Amanda Gorman, the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history, including a special edition of “The Hill We Climb” which she read at Joe Biden's inauguration. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-08 03:19:06 UTC ]
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Ty Seidule, taught to glorify Robert E. Lee, later realized the ugly truth behind the myth. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-02-05 13:00:00 UTC ]
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A former New York State Poet, she won the National Book Award and was a Pulitzer finalist for poems in which small details could accrue great power. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-01-07 17:27:38 UTC ]
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“W-3,” Bette Howland’s account of her institutionalization, in 1968, proceeds according to a simple binary: those who suffer are patients; those who don’t are not. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2021-01-05 20:23:25 UTC ]
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Poets House, the poetry library in lower Manhattan founded in 1986, has suspended operations indefinitely, due to budgetary issues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, Lee Briccetti, the executive director of Poets House for more than 30 years, will retire in 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-11-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Nine writers have made the shortlist for the biennial Women Poets' Prize, hailed for their “ambitious, experimental and ground-breaking” work. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-22 20:47:16 UTC ]
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