Poetry

Hip-Hop & the Apocalypse

Jordan Aitcheson-Labarr on viewing a turbulent world through Hip Hop

To Which Homeland Should I Send My Letter?

Kamran Sajid on Panjabi folk music

Find Your Mind

Tallulah Howarth on embracing your poetic mind.

When You Are Stripped of All Else, You Will Need Poetry

lisa minerva luxx on poetry, memory, and breathing.

Relishing In My Pain

Simone Yasmin on the catharsis, and trauma, of performing poetry

Art and Fire: An Interview with Ben Okri

Ben Okri on climate crisis, the purpose of writing, and what we leave behind.

In the Midst of This, I Write

Michael Rosen's PEN Pinter Prize 2023 speech

When a Country’s Soul Succumbs: Laws, Migration and Culture

The 2022 StAnza Lecture by Mona Arshi.

Why I Wrote ‘England Street’

Read Jay Bernard's 'England Street (Reggae fi Linton)', commissioned to celebrate Linton Kwesi Johnson winning the 2020 PEN Pinter Prize. Featuring a specially commissioned introduction to the poem from Jay.

Latinx Letters: An Interview with Leo Boix

Leo Boix discusses bilingualism, British Latinx poetry, and race in Latin America.

Poetry’s Democracy: An Interview with Anthony Anaxagorou

Anthony Anaxagorou - poet, writer, publisher and educator - discusses spoken word after COVID-19, Cyprus, and poetry in the age of social media.

Being Seen: Dean Atta in Conversation with Keith Jarrett

As part of our Digital Literary Salon, Dean Atta speaks to Keith Jarrett about queer black British experience, schools, and writing for teens.

Always Against the Idols: A Conversation with Chus Pato and Erín Moure

Galician poet Chus Pato and Canadian poet and translator Erín Moure discuss collaboration, Francoism, language rights and iconoclasm.

Nature bubbling out: a conversation with Mahvash Sabet

We spoke to poet Mahvash Sabet about her connection to nature, writing poetry while in prison, and why, after all, life is beautiful.

Instructions Within — Andrew McMillan reads Ashraf Fayadh’s poetry

The right/write to roam

Inua Ellams discusses how his heritage and his multi-placed identity laid the foundations for his new collection #Afterhours.

Bards without borders

Two members of the Bards Without Borders poetry collective reveal their split opinions on Shakespeare in the lead-up to the 400th anniversary of his death.

My search for meaning

Femi Martin, founder of Full Circle Projects, discusses the impact of creativity in her own life and in the lives of the people she works with.

Talking about home

Sudanese-American poet Safia Elhillo shares two new poems and comments on the complex relationship between language, identity, family and the concept of home when living in the diaspora.

PEN Atlas Q&A: Ihor Pavlyuk and Steve Komarnyckyj

The author and translator of A Flight Over the Black Sea (Waterloo Press) talk to PEN Atlas about working together, their inspirations and the power of poetry in times of war.

Protest as Dance

Ahead of his appearance at Ledbury Poetry Festival, poet and translator George Szirtes writes on the lyricism and wit at the heart of poetic protest.

Wole Soyinka’s poetry: the insistence on liberty

Carmen Bugan on Wole Soyinka's insistence on liberty.

The erotic and revolutionary poetry of Afghanistan

Amid recent election controversies, Bashir Sakhwaraz writes about Afghan women's poetry

My Literary Form(s)

In the run-up to London Book Fair 2014, where Korea is the market focus, Han Kang writes about women that turn into plants, the intuitive process in choosing between prose and poetry, and what the future holds for her writing

Poetry in translation – The Popescu Prize 2013

David Wheatley writes about the genius of mistranslation, Finnegans Wake syndrome, and being a judge on The Popescu Prize for poetry in translation, which was awarded this year to Alice Oswald

Tadeusz Różewicz and The Struggle for Poetry

Basia Howard writes about Tadeusz Różewicz, Poland's most translated author

How international is poetry?

In this week's PEN Atlas piece, Michele Hutchison reports from the 43rd Poetry International festival in Rotterdam, investigating why it is certain poems are more likely to be translated