Poetry News

A Profile of Alice Oswald

By Harriet Staff

Here’s a Guardian profile of poet Alice Oswald—recently “slayed” by Jason Guriel, and less recently withdrawing from the T.S. Eliot prize.

A teaser:

Which artists do you most admire?

At the moment, I am fixed on Milton, but I always think Beckett is interesting. He’s a pinhole writer: he created a darkroom of language through which, despite himself, light passes. And there’s Samuel Johnson. I am slowly reading his dictionary.

Does poetry have a place in the modern world?

I don’t think you should compromise what you need to say to scoop an audience. But I do work on projects to bring poetry into people’s lives. I’m working on a 12-hour reading of Paradise Lost with the communities near where I live in Devon. We will perform all 12 books in Totnes next summer.

Full profile here.

Tags: Alice Oswald
Posted in Poetry News on Thursday, October 4th, 2012 by Harriet Staff.