Emma Lee explores a focussed and sensual collection by Kate Noakes
year 2016
Between 1560 and 1630, Europe experienced the worst of a Little Ice Age characterised by long, cold winters. The cruel weather coincided with the most intensive period of witch hunts in history. Bruegel the elder, is credited with leading the way as Flemish and Dutch artists developed what is now the popular image of a witch, flying on a broomstick with her ragged hair streaming in the wind.
From stylised art nouveau temptresses to giant Tintin cartoons, Brussels has an established tradition of putting art on the outside of its buildings as well as inside. The capital’s newest gallery in a former brewery in Molenbeek – the neighbourhood notorious as a breeding ground of the Paris and Brussels terror attacks – captures that spirit.
D A Prince reviews a narrative collection by Carole Coates and admires both the story and the way it is told
Michael Bartholomew-Biggs draws together his impressions of a novel multi-media show that combines poetry music and film.
Thomas Ovans samples the varied themes in a new collection by Malcolm Carson
Pam Thompson considers Maura Dooley‘s slim but substantial chapbook inspired by a residency at Jane Austen’s house.
Paul McLoughlin takes a thoughtful look at Sarah Howe’s Eliot prizewinning collection – and some issues arising from its success.
For British rock fans, 2016 is marked by the death of David Bowie. In the French-speaking world, it has further significance as the 25th anniversary of the fatal heart attack that ended Serge Gainsbourg’s career as a hell-raising provocateur whose lyrics prompted President Mitterrand to compare him to Baudelaire. To commemorate the poet of the French rock world, Brussels and Paris have both organised exhibitions of French photographer Pierre Terrasson’s portraits of Gainsbourg and of other major 1980s performers, including Bowie.
Caroline Maldonado follows an exile’s search for the past as described in first pamphlet collection from Isabel Bermudez
Paul McLoughlin finds that the poems of Allan E Baker, although carefully crafted, can still sound as though they came naturally
Emma Lee enjoys the translated poems by Emilia Ivancu but regrets not having copies of the originals
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, poetry reviews, year 2016 • Tags: books, Emma Lee, poetry