Great Regulars: [Ghassan] Zaqtan was shortlisted for the C$65,000

(£41,000) Griffin poetry prize in April for his 10th collection Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, described by judges as poetry which "reminds us why we live and how, in the midst of war, despair, global changes". But the Palestinian poet and novelist, who is also founding director of the House of Poetry in Ramallah, found that his request for a visa to travel to Canada to attend the ceremony was denied by the Canadian embassy in Cairo, according to his translator Fady Joudah, on the grounds that "the reason for the visit is unconvincing".

from Alison Flood: The Guardian: Canadian visa refusal for Palestinian poet overturned after social media campaign

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"A letter that casts new light on an author's celebrated work tends to capture the imagination of the collector," said [Adam] Andrusier. "Personally, I rather like his candidness about the possibility of his plagiarism in The Jungle Book; I think people tend to have a misapprehension about writing needing to be unswervingly original, when so much literature is either consciously or unconsciously borrowed."

from Alison Flood: The Guardian: Rudyard Kipling 'admitted to plagiarism in Jungle Book'

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