Conceived & dir by Nicolas Kent, the Ukraine Unbroken season runs at the @arcolatheatre.bsky.social from 26 Feb-26 Mar. The featured plays are by David Edgar, Cat Goscovitch, David Greig, Jonathan Myerson & Natalka Vorozhbit (translated by Sasha Dugdale). Co-produced by Nick of Time Productions.

It is difficult to remember what it feels like to be in any conditions except the ones we’re in. It is almost impossible to pack the right things for a different climate. Alexandra Harris, Weatherland

So much happiness in the little word “clasp” - from Penitential Cries, Susan Howe

This is a really fascinating book. I particularly liked his description of childhood in 40s Dublin, his formative years, the drawing of anthropology into his thinking, and his travels in Iran. But it was full of riches and revelations, & I now have a pile of related articles and books to read.

Grace Nichols' poem 'Like a Beacon' was one of the first five poems to be featured on @poemsonthetube.bsky.social posters 40 years ago. It's included in her Bloodaxe retrospective I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems. A clip from it was included on Radio 4 (at 9:55): www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

This is all right and fair, says Willow from her thermal throw over a velvet divan.

Some real delights approaching!

What a big, what a devilish big artist you are, Marina! (Pasternak does a wonderful job of the genius read)

Many thanks @olgaz.bsky.social for this early review of Disappearing Act by Maria Stepanova @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social - it’s such a humane and real response to the book it made me see it differently again.

Bleak and nameless terror making a sort of static noise over my head like a scene from an 80s film

Very keen to see this. baltic.art/whats-on/oX-...

About five metres short of shelf at the moment

The clouds were lower than the hills the other day – like being on an island surrounded by broiling misty seas

Feels like I have been reading Peter Brown’s ‘Journeys of the Mind’ – the history of an intellectual life devoted to Early Christianity and Late Antiquity – in real time but finally nearing the end. Another book that has changed things for me in numerous subtle ways.

Sun like the tiny bright pupil in the fog’s eye

Shoah (A Forest), 2003, by Polish painter, photographer,poster artist, illustrator and filmmaker, Wilhelm Sasnal.Born 1972 Oil on canvas 46 x 46 cm Wilhelm Sasnal is considered one of the most prominent and internationally successful Polish contemporary artists #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

The Disappearing Act by Maria Stepanova @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social in UK and New Directions in US (and translated by me) is a book recommendation for 2026 @financialtimes.com

Georgia O'Keeffe, American (1887-1986), Eagle Claw and Bean Necklace, 1934, charcoal on paper, 48.5 x 63.9 cm, MoMA, New York City, New York, USA

Wolstonbury Hill at the end of the afternoon today. Bitterly cold but that magic solstice light.

Ah the old Christmas morning tradition of suturing the orange

Keep walking, and if there’s a hill climb it. Someone sent me ‘Christmas Garland’ @candlestickpress.bsky.social and I was entertained to find I had a poem in it…

0840 sunrise – follow the link to see it at Newgrange!

Ukraine Unbroken @arcolatheatre.bsky.social includes a short play by Natalia Vorozhbit (in my translation) about men facing conscription. She’s a brilliant writer & this is unmissable: www.arcolatheatre.com/event/ukrain...

Ukraine Unbroken @arcolatheatre.bsky.social includes a short play by Natalia Vorozhbit (in my translation) about men facing conscription. She’s a brilliant writer & this is unmissable: www.arcolatheatre.com/event/ukrain...

Paul Klee, Swiss-German (1879-1940), Figurine Of The Colorful Devil, 1927, tempera, paper mounted on card, 47.7 x 30.5 cm, Franz Marc Museum, Kochel am See, Germany 18 December 1879 - 29 June 1940

Sarah Hesketh’s 2016 is a fine work of docu-poetry and it’s also an everlastingly relevant text as it returns individual human experience and expression to recent history and politics. It would be on my list of best books of 2025 as well.

This is one of next year’s poetry highlights:

‘…art is the frustration of the desire not to make art, you know?’ Philip Guston, from a conversation with Clark Coolidge in ‘I Paint What I Want to See’

Unsettling, poignant, varied and often very beautiful writing about the post-war Soviet experience of the holocaust tr. by Sasha Senderovich & Harriet Murav.

“I’m coming back. I’m coming home. Sometimes that happens. You think, oh, it’s happening again. You feel an interior quickening. . .” Marie Howe – a guide for this morning and every morning.

“I’m thinking about an institution as some kind of archaeological truth”, says Ibrahim Mahama, No.1 on this year’s ArtReview Power 100 list artreview.com/the-intervie...

Brilliant to get @mptmagazine.bsky.social’s latest issue focusing on the poetry of Greece and Cyprus. Since its foundation in the mid-1960s by Ted Hughes & Daniel Weissbort, MPT has been hugely important in bringing Greek poetic voices to an English-speaking readership. Great that this continues.

For Russian-speakers: NLO has published a focus on Maria Stepanova's Священная зима ('Holy Winter' is published in English @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social) including my piece on translating Maria's Russian text: www.nlobooks.ru/magazines/no...

‘The passing of time has made me more aware of the vertiginous nature of subjectivity, of poetry’s potential to hold us, demand that we pay attention, as we try to go about our daily lives.’ Beautiful blog by @notjustdancing.bsky.social on the composition of her new book ’Hôtel Amour’

‘Thetis‘ from Phoebe Giannisi ‘Goatsong’ tr. Brian Sneeden @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social

Desperately upsetting. We are going backwards.

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

Together with @irishpen.bsky.social and the Estate of Seamus Heaney, we’re delighted to announce Tom Paulin’s Namanlagh @faberbooks.bsky.social as the winner of the #PENHeaneyPrize 2025, awarded tonight at the @nlireland.bsky.social. Find out more ⤵️ www.englishpen.org/posts/news/t...

We are deeply saddened by the death of Tom Stoppard and extend our heartfelt condolences to his loved ones. A longtime supporter of English PEN and the recipient of the 2013 PEN Pinter Prize, Tom's contributions to literature and the arts leave an immense and enduring legacy.

A genius playwright and a total gentleman.

Everyone is posting about the EUP sale but another hot tip is that it also applies to paperback pre-orders, for example Sara Crangle's two-volume study of Mina Loy edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-nethere... edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-elevate...

"We are a country of migrants... The vast majority of refugees who come here want to work hard, give back, and become proud Britons." Watch our CEO Enver Solomon speaking about Britain's asylum system on Channel 4 News last night. @channel4news.bsky.social www.channel4.com/news/debate-...

Going to Athens tomorrow for a reading & discussion of ‘The Strongbox’ @carcanet.bsky.social for the Anglo-Hellenic League & looking forward to a glimpse of the city.

they're auctioning Blake's Tyger next week seems impossible, like selling a comet or a shooting star www.christies.com/en/stories/t...

A new blog @voltaire.ox.ac.uk by Professor Andrew Kahn on revisiting Shmuel Feiner’s 'Moses Mendelssohn: Sage of Modernity' @yalepress.bsky.social and Mark Mazower's book-length essay 'On Antisemitism': voltairefoundation.wordpress.com/2025/11/21/t...

An excellent essay on the close reading of poems and what it can achieve.

On Wednesday 26 November, join us at 6.30pm at Manchester Poetry Library, where @francescabrooks.bsky.social and Martin Kratz will be introducing the life and work of Lynette Roberts, after Carcanet's recent publication of her Collected Poems. Find out more: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poets-who-...

Natalya Vorozhbit’s short play for this is a really great piece of writing. I hope it reaches people: www.arcolatheatre.com/event/ukrain...