Winter wonder: Jeanette Winterson and others reveal why the cold has them under its spell

Too dark, too cold – winter’s charms aren’t as obvious as summer’s brassy joys. But for Robert Macfarlane, Alice Oswald, Poppy Okotcha and others, this is a rich season. Here, they offer ways to lean into it, with an introduction by Jeanette Winterson

Michael Longley, prize-winning poet of ‘griefs and wonders’, dies aged 85

Part of a gifted generation of writers from Northern Ireland, Longley also gave years of service to the province’s arts council

Michael Longley obituary

Belfast poet of exceptional poise and eloquence – but with a sardonic streak to temper his technical accomplishment

Poem of the week: The Day of Judgement by Jonathan Swift

The stinging wit of the great satirist is at its scalding best in this nightmarish fantasy of the end of days

Shankari Chandran, Robert Dessaix, Diana Reid and more: Australian books to look forward to in 2025

From enthralling debuts to playful premises and national reckonings, here is a whirlwind tour of what’s to come

‘There’s a majesty to grief’: TS Eliot poetry prize winner Peter Gizzi

The American writer won the prestigious prize for Fierce Elegy, a collection informed by the deaths of his family members. He explains why poetry is like friendship – and why he loves small words

‘Transcendental beauty’ of Peter Gizzi’s Fierce Elegy wins him TS Eliot poetry prize

Judges for the £25,00 award say the collection, informed by grief for his two brothers, ‘braves large questions’ with its lyric sequence

Poem of the week: The Reader by Howard Altmann

Words ‘assemble’ into sense in a private, mysterious act of comprehension

‘It will be jolly nice’: illustrator Helen Oxenbury, 86, on preparing for her first solo show – and a new book with Michael Rosen

Acclaimed for her work on children’s books, the artist is teaming up again with her collaborator on Bear Hunt

Poem of the week: Reciprocity by John Drinkwater

Formally adventurous for its time, this poem arrives at its Romantic epiphany by a down to earth route

The best recent poetry – review roundup

Swell by Maria Ferguson; There Lives a Young Girl in Me Who Will Not Die by Tove Ditlevsen; Mind’s Eye by Carol Rumens; Strange Beach by Oluwaseun Olayiwola; Foxglovewise by Ange Mlinko

Poem of the week: Hurry by Marie Howe

An anecdote about a mother and daughter running everyday errands turns into a parable about time passing

Sunday with John Cooper Clarke: ‘My wife does a chicken with 60 cloves of garlic’

The poet talks about newspapers and television, coffee and strawberries, and how Monday’s gloomy presence hangs over every Sunday

On my radar: Jasleen Kaur’s cultural highlights

The Turner prizewinner on the art of the Gaza Biennale, the joys of a queer community choir, and a poet who speaks to today’s injustices

What in Me Is Dark by Orlando Reade review – the afterlife of Paradise Lost

The writers, philosophers and politicians who have raided Milton’s epic poem for inspiration