Preparing for the United Kingdom's Next Poet Laureate
At The Guardian, Richard Lea documents the "succession race" beginning as England's current poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, prepares to step down next year, after a decade of service. Lea writes, "Carol Ann Duffy ends Sincerity, her last collection as the UK’s poet laureate, with a peaceful image of retirement, the poet looking up 'from the hill at Moniack, / to see my breath / seek its rightful place / with the stars, / with everyone else who breathes'. But the search for her replacement begins this Saturday, with the announcement of a panel of experts to guide the selection." From there:
The steering group assembles the great and the good of the poetry world, from the director of the Poetry Society to the artistic director of the Ledbury poetry festival, with space alongside for the leading lights of the literary establishment.
The Society of Authors’ chief executive Nicola Solomon, who is also serving on the panel, welcomed the opening up of a process that been shrouded in mystery since James I offered Ben Jonson a pension of 100 marks, declaring the society “very pleased to be part of a panel made up of representatives from across the arts sector covering a range of ages, backgrounds and UK regions”.
The culture secretary Jeremy Wright hailed Duffy for “her dedicated service in championing poetry to the nation”.
“I look forward to working with a new advisory panel,” Wright said, “that reflects the whole of the UK and the new ways we consume poetry, in electing her successor.”
But with the panel set to present a shortlist to the secretary of state at the DCMS and the prime minister due to make a final decision to put forward for the Queen, the poet John Agard doesn’t think much has changed.
“I’m certain that the prime minister is very familiar with the iambic pentameter,” Agard said. “But since poets don’t have the final say in politics, logically speaking there’s no reason why politicians should have the final say in poetry.”
Read more at The Guardian.