It Says Here by Sean O'Brien review – impossibility made possible
The best recent poetry collections – review roundup
August 2016
Once Again Assembled Here by Sean O’Brien review – a dark, distilled form of Englishness
A public school falls under the shadow of fascism in a retired teacher’s chronicle of deaths foretold
January 2016
The Beautiful Librarians by Sean O’Brien review – a bleak and comic lament for lost England
A curmudgeonly portrait of British cultural life echoes Philip Larkin, WH Auden and Jim Royle
October 2015
TS Eliot poetry prize shortlist stretches to Jamaica and beyond
Claudia Rankine joins past prize winners and debut authors on a shortlist that encompasses questions of racial identity, depression, love affairs and librarians
May 2015
The Saturday poem
The Saturday poem: Audiology
by Sean O’Brien
March 2015
Carol Rumens's poem of the week
Poem of the week: The Beautiful Librarians by Sean O’Brien
A nostalgic homage to the glory of libraries and librarians harnesses Larkin and Keats to point up our lost visions of social betterment
February 2015
Seamus Heaney focus of ‘tribute album’ by 50 leading poets
Simon Armitage and Lavinia Greenlaw among contributors to special issue of Poetry Ireland Review compiling writers’ tributes to their favourite poems
December 2013
2013 in review
The best poetry of 2013
From Fleur Adcock's Glass Wings to Train Songs edited by Sean O'Brien and Don Paterson, Adam Newey rounds up the best poetry of the year
November 2013
Train Songs edited by Sean O'Brien and Don Paterson – review
A collection of poems and lyrics, from Tom Waits to Philip Larkin to WH Auden, makes for an enchanting tribute to the railways, writes David Wheatley
March 2013
Oysterity, a poem for the budget by Sean O'Brien
As an appetiser for Wednesday's budget announcement, we publish a new poem about consumption and regret by the Forward prize-winning poet
June 2012
Diamond jubilee: writers reflect on growing up Elizabethan
Hilary Mantel, William Boyd, Andrew Motion and Sean O'Brien – who were all born in 1952 – on the past 60 years
April 2012
Sixty years in poems
Carol Ann Duffy invites leading poets to recall a year in verse
December 2011
2011 in review
Books for giving: poetry
Both new and established voices impressed Sarah Crown in 2011
November 2011
Costa book awards shortlists pit nurse newcomer against big-name veterans
Costa book awards 2011: the shortlists – in pictures
October 2011
TS Eliot prize 2011 shortlist revealed
Carol Ann Duffy pitted against Sean O'Brien, Alice Oswald and John Burnside for 'prize most poets want to win'
July 2011
Books blog
Forward poetry prize: who got rid of the women?
Forward shortlist includes Geoffrey Hill, Sean O'Brien and David Harsent
May 2011
November by Sean O'Brien – review
Paul Batchelor acclaims Sean O'Brien's elegaic new collection
