Great Regulars: The star perched atop the poetry

Christmas tree this year is unquestionably Carol Ann Duffy, who has not only published her first poetry collection since her appointment as the UK's inaugural female poet laureate, but has also had the chutzpah to overturn centuries of tradition and do it brilliantly.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: Books for giving: poetry

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They're all here: Kurt Vonnegut, Sylvia Plath ("there certainly isn't enough genuine talent for us to take notice"), Gertrude Stein, Isaac Bashevis Singer, for heaven's sake, although Knopf editor Herbert Weinstock does deserve credit for the pithiness of his dismissal ("It's Poland and the rich Jews again.").

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: Thanks but no thanks: famous authors' rejection letters

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