CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Nicaraguan guitarist OMAR RIOS MELENDEZ
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Real winners from a trio of politicised poets
SIMON PARSONS applauds an outstanding one woman show that weaves real poems and narratives into the story of one girl’s flight
MARY CONWAY applauds an exploration, through five short plays, that demonstrates the vital role of drama in furthering collective understanding
SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective
Good Cop vs Bad Fascist fantasy, a guilty witness, Scottish witchcraft, and Camino de Santiago shocker
Releases from Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Maggie Nicols/Robert Mitchell/Alya Al Sultani, and Gordon Beck Trio and Quintet
NOW that the exciting race for this year’s poetry awards has begun with the shock news that the winner of the TS Eliot Prize teaches at Oxford, here are three strong new collections from Culture Matters that are not in danger of winning any prizes.
In his latest book From Aberfan t Grenfell (£9) Merthyr poet Mike Jenkins writes about poverty, unemployment and homelessness, combining bleak comedy, righteous indignation and painful wisdom in poems like Merthyr is Vietnam, Got a Season and Carn catch-a Criminals:
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ANDY CROFT rallies poets to the impossible task of speaking truth to a tin-eared politician
The Labour Party proposal to scrap benefits for those unable to work will be debated in Parliament next Tuesday, and threatens the most vulnerable in our society. ALAN MORRISON presents some responses in poetry
ALAN MORRISON hears the tradition of English Modernism in an unusually accomplished debut volume of poetry