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BOOK WORM: Poet Terrance Hayes (photo credit: Becky Thurner-Braddock)

IN HONOUR of the life and work of US poet and civil rights icon Gwendolyn Brooks, 'The Golden Shovel Anthology' will be released in the UK on June 29.

The anthology includes a range of eclectic international poets, from Pulitzer and T S Eliot Prize Winners to up-and-coming names. It uses a dynamic new poetic form, the 'golden shovel', created by National Book Award winner Terrance Hayes, where the last words of each line of the poem are, in order, words from a line or lines taken from a Brooks poem.

Natasha Trethewey, former US Poet Laureate and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, said of the method:

"What a way to honour Gwendolyn Brooks’s memory, her generosity of spirit, and her tremendous contributions to American poetry."

The Golden Shovel Anthology will be launched in Britain by renowned African-American poets Patricia Smith (co-editor) and Terrance Hayes, who has written the foreword; at the British Library on Thursday June 29. On a rare London visit, they will be joined by sixteen UK poets who have 'golden shovel' poems featured in the book, including Malika Booker and Nick Makoha, both short-listed for 2017 Forward Prizes for Poetry.

Whilst in London, Patricia and Terrance will give public poetry workshops. Terrance will be working with London’s Young People’s Laureate, Caleb Femi on Friday June 30. Patricia will teach with Malika Booker at The Poetry School on Saturday July 1.

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