The Guardian's Blog, page 96

Poem of the week: Peasants by Marin Sorescu

A fictional government report on the most benighted citizens of Ceauescus Romania, this is satire written in a time when all hope of change seemed futile

Marin Sorescu, one of Romanias most widely known poets, was a shrewd comedian, loved by his readers and tolerated by the political establishment. At the same time, more critical than he appeared, he wrote poems that were far too outspoken to have been publishable while Ceauescus miserable regime still tottered upright. This weeks poem, Peasants, (arnii), is one of those.

Peasants is a translation by John Hartley Williams and Hilde Ottschofski from the Bloodaxe collection, Censored Poems. It draws on two books by Sorescu, Poezii alese de cenzur and Traversarea, and was published in 2001, some five years after the poets premature death. A further collection, The Bridge, gathering up the extraordinarily brave poems he wrote during his final illness, with translations by Adam J Sorkin and Lidia Vianu, appeared from the same publisher in 2004.

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Morts Division Street wins the distinguished Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection prize, placing her among a distinguished line of poets

Morts Division Street wins the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection prize 2014

Read a poem from Division Street

A poet whose first visit to Aldeburgh poetry festival was as a volunteer returns this weekend as a prizewinner. Helen Morts Division Street was chosen from a shortlist of five as the winner of the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection prize 2014. The win places her in a distinguished line of poets to have taken the 25-year-old prize, distancing her decisively from the subject of one of the shorter poems in her book. In The Collective Works of Anonymous, the 29-year-old poet writes Ill raise a glass to dear Anonymous: the old / familiar anti-signature. Other poems deal with Sheffield riots and the miners strike, which convulsed her native city in the years before she was born. Division Street is properly and richly ambitious, speaking to culture now in a way that is both eerily prescient (Seven Decapitations) and a mirror to what has been lost (Scab, Pit Closure as a Tarantino Short), said one of the three judges, Anthony Wilson.

The three-day festival will also showcase the work of another rising star, Hannah Silva, whose specially commissioned performance piece, Shlock!, is described as a powerful feminist satire for the cut-and-paste generation the result of a collision between Fifty Shades of Grey, the radical punk-pirate Kathy Acker and the sounds of Sonic Youth. But its not all about novelty. One of the highlights this year is a rare appearance outside her homeland by the great Brazilian poet Adélia Prado, who is making her UK debut at the age of 78 after winning the USs Griffin prize for lifetimes achievement in the summer. Her visit coincides with the first UK publication of her work. But among the celebrations will be a note of melancholy, as this is the last festival for Naomi Jaffa, who is stepping down as director after 22 years.

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Roth revisits Portnoy: the virile rage survives despite the author's complaint

Philip Roth says that his most famous novel is dated, but like the fallacy of authorial intent we should be sceptical of that reading

Philip Roths revisitation of Portnoys Complaint, his most famous novel, in an essay in the New York Times this week is delicious and poignant and to be taken with a pinch. In what reads like the final, freeing stage of his retirement, Roth drives a stake through the heart of the books eponymous hero, yet again explaining his intent when he wrote it and then promptly dismantling its relevance. Alexander Portnoy, RIP, he writes.

Well, not RIP to the rest of us, for whom the mythology around Portnoy continues to beguile. Roth talked about the novel in last years PBS documentary, telling the story of how, just before it was published, he warned his parents it was likely to cause trouble, at which his mother burst loudly into tears. He has delusions of grandeur, she said.

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Whatever happened to cyberpunk?

The literary genre defined by William Gibsons Neuromancer had a massive influence on pop culture. But the cultural future it described is now both daily reality, and a distant digital past
John Mullan rereads Neuromancer, 30 years on

The girl in the black vinyl minidress, shit-kicker boots and neon hair braids told me she was a cyberpunk. Wow, I answered, shouting over the clubs thumping techno-trance beat, I love William Gibson. I may as well have namechecked Samuel Taylor Coleridge at a Metallica gig. She stared at me for a while, then shouted back Im not into the Bee Gees.

Pop culture rarely recognises its influences, especially when they are literary. But its a testament to just how closely attuned Williams Gibsons work was to the zeitgeist, that in 1992 cyberpunk was manifesting in the cultural interface where 80s goth met 90s techno.

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Joshua Ferris wins Dylan Thomas prize

Ferris beats favourites Eleanor Catton and Eimear McBride to win the £30,000 prize for his novel, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

The 2014 Dylan Thomas prize was billed as a Champions League final between already multiple award-winning Eleanor Cattons The Luminaries and Eimear McBrides A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing. But in the end, after a long judging session, the £30,000 cheque, awarded in Thomass centenary year, went to Joshua Ferris for his deeply funny and deeply serious novel To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, in which dentistry, baseball and existential dread combine with contemporary New York, unlikely Old Testament peoples and the modern malaise of being emotionally disconnected in a hyper-connected age.

As a prize that traditionally has to decide between all types of fiction - this years the shortlist featured poetry, drama, short stories and novels from writers Owen Sheers, Kei Miller, Naomi Wood and Kseniya Melnik, as well Ferris, McBride and Catton the final showdown between Ferriss angsty philosophical humour and McBrides re-invigorated modernist take on Irish gothic made the job of myself and fellow judges, chaired by Peter Florence of the Hay festival and including musician and broadcaster Cerys Matthews and novelist and poet Tishani Doshi, a task of almost comic difficulty.

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Scientists outshine arts students with experiments in creative writing

With no publication angst and a killer work ethic, science students easily match their peers in the humanities in the art of creative writing. It even makes them better scientists

We are eating noodles in the sunshine at Imperial College, London, when my former student tells me about his invention. Meet SAM, says Joachim and places his prototypes on the bench a tiny switch and actuator that will allow everyone to make wireless smart things without knowing anything about coding or electronics. A jacket that heats up when your body temperature drops, a fridge that warns youre out of milk its an Internet of Things idea and the applications seem endless once you start connecting people and objects. While Joachim answers my questions about how he and his team will manage the journey from inspiration to execution, Im reminded of another conversation we once had about risk.

It was inspired by a story about an assassin in the murderous heat of a noonday piazza one of those ambitious narratives whose success depends entirely upon managing uncertainty. For I am a novelist and Joachim is a mechanical engineer who took my creative writing class as part of his degree, and he outlines his business plan with the same passion and precision as he wrote that short story.

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Im hooked on ebook highlighting what we underline is so revealing

Ebook readers reveal the most highlighted passages in Harry Potter, the Bible, Lord of the Rings and many more

Its an odd sensation to be reading an ebook and to suddenly notice that thanks to the providers data-tracking software youre on a passage that other people have already highlighted. I had it recently, reading David Nichollss Us, where readers have been quick to wield their virtual pens.

I had always been led to believe that ageing was a slow and gradual process, the creep of a glacier. Now I realise that it happens in a rush, like snow falling off a roof, writes Nicholls, in a passage picked out by 18 previous gently ageing? readers. Twenty seven, meanwhile, in long-term relationships of their own perhaps, went for of course, after nearly a quarter of a century, the questions about our distant pasts have all been posed and were left with how was your day? and when will you be home? and have you put the bins out?

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Gunpowder, treason and plot: literary conspiracy theories for bonfire night

Did Charlotte Brontë kill her sisters? Was Hunter S Thompson murdered? And were Shakespeares plays actually written by Queen Elizabeth? Its a fine night to burn your convictions

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November, the day Guy Fawkes was discovered in the cellar of the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder, in one of historys great conspiracies. The precise details of the gunpowder plot have been contested over the centuries. Was Fawkes part of a group of Catholic militants planning on blowing up the Parliament at its 1605 state opening, as the best-known story goes. Or was the whole plot organised by the Earl of Salisbury as a way of pressuring King James I to toughen up his anti-Catholic laws, as recent conspiracy theorists have suggested? Either way, weve decided to celebrate bonfire night with eight of the best literary conspiracy theories.

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Tom Hanks beware: typewriters spawned rubbish as well as great novels

Yes, they sound workmanlike, and their keys are more satisfying to pound than a computer. But merely using a typewriter cannot magic anyone even a Hollywood great into an author

Writers and their typewriters - in picturesShare your photos and stories via GuardianWitness

I am delighted to hear that Tom Hanks is writing a collection of stories inspired by his love of and obsession with typewriters; and that he has released an app for iPads which somehow recreates the sound and motion (?) of writing on a typewriter.

Actually, Im not delighted, because Ive read his first published fiction, a short story called Alan Bean Plus Four, and it is painfully clear that Mr Hankss talents belong on the screen, or maybe the stage, but certainly not the page (I doubt the New Yorker has published a worse story in its history). Also, Im not particularly delighted that he has created (or had the idea for) the pseudo-typewriter app, for about the only good thing that I can think of about an iPad is that it is not a typewriter.

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Typewriters and their owners: famous authors at work in pictures

Tom Hanks loves typewriters, as he made clear when he co-developed an app that emulates the experience of writing with them. After debuting as a writer with a short story in the New Yorker last month, the Oscar-winning actor is taking his fascination to a new level: he has signed a deal to publish a collection of short stories inspired by the machines, which hes been collecting since 1978.

Hes in good company, as these classic photographs of writers at work reveal.

Nicholas Lezard: a typewriter does not a writer make
Love typewriters too? Share the photos of your treasures and their stories here and we will publish the best
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