The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an impressive impersonation of Bob Dylan
The poet as lived experience expert
JOHN KENDALL HAWKINS applauds a new volume by black US poet Frederick Joseph, that is precisely cadenced and breathing with lyricism
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Here, Vermiglio, William Tell and Wolf Man
New releases from Thorpe and Morrison, Daria Kulesh, and Will Finn and Rosie Calvert
RINA ARYA confronts the brutal operation of Francis Bacon’s approach to portraiture
Emphasising his continuous engagement in labour movement struggles, ALISTAIR FINDLAY salutes John Foster’s contribution as activist, strategist, intellectual and defender of the Morning Star
ANDY MIAH advocates the use of AI to assist people by expanding access to global literature and culture
EWAN KOTZ relishes a veteran Glasgow band that have lost none of their verve for live performance
We Alive, Beloved: Poems
Frederick Joseph, Row House, £13.06
IT’S a tough nut to crack: ever-escalating violence: war; assassination attempts; BLM protests met with batons and the same old racism; annihilations, terrorism; the US with more guns than people.
When leadership and the vigour of new ideas are needed folks are treated with the same tired bromides that didn’t work to begin with.
The UN, which was meant to be a beacon away from the darkness of interstate conflict and a reminder to co-operate in improving the commonweal of humankind, is a dud outfit.
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ANGUS REID time-travels back to times when Gay Liberation was radical and allied seamlessly to an anti-racist, anti-establishment movement
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New releases reviewed by MARIA DUARTE: Catholic sins, body horror, end-of-life mismanagement and sexual awakening: reviews of Sugarcane, The Substance, His Three Daughters and Girls Will Be Girls
RUTH AYLETT recommends a remarkable collection that is collective in its grief and serious in its demand for solidarity
John Kendall Hawkins speaks to black US poet FREDERICK JOSEPH, author of We Alive, Beloved
ALISTAIR FINDLAY recommends a collection of interviews with 15 award-winning poets discussing how their initial drafts became the finished poem