As this issue of PN Review went to press, we were advised that LES MURRAY's verse novel Fredy Neptune (Carcanet) had won the inaugural Queensland Premier's Prize for Fiction. Worth $25,000, the prize was officially announced and presented on 13 October. A new Murray collection, Conscious and Verbal, is published at the end of this month.

OLGA OROZCO, a prolific and influential writer, was seen as 'an anchor' in Argentine poetry. Writing in the 1940s and 1950s, she belonged to a generation who were 'driven to get together and keep in touch to write something that did not exist'. Although not well known outside the Spanish language, she received about a dozen prizes for her poetry in Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America. Often considered to be the grand old lady of poetry, critics placed her close to the Surrealists. She was, however, at odds with their idea that everything had to start from zero. All the same, she sympathised with their drive towards greater freedom, having been brought up on the Pampas. In an old interview, she said that 'the dry plain was at the root of my writing'. Orozco was born in Toay, Argentina 17 March 1920 and died in Buenos Aires on 15 August 1999.

PROFESSOR JOHN HOLLOWAY, poet, critic and teacher has died at the age of 79. An amazing mind, he ranged over subjects from Shakespeare to the later twentieth century, Holloway had an impressive career. His earliest years are detailed in his memoir, A London Childhood (1966), up to when he won a scholarship to New College, Oxford and took a first in 1941 before serving with the Royal Artillery and later with Intelligence. It was his Fellowship at All Souls, begun in 1946, which marked the change in vocation from Philosophy to English literature. The book which made his name, The Victorian Sage (1953) fully substantiated this shift in interest. His first book of poetry, The Minute (1956) was published whilst he was lecturing in English at Queen's College, Cambridge. This was followed by a critical collection The Charted Mirror (1960) and The Story of the Night: studies in Shakespeare's major tragedies (1961). He became Chairman of the English Faculty at Queen's in 1970 and faced great resistance to his plans for expansion of the academic structure. His determination paid off however and a wider academic structure with more options was introduced, and remains to this day. He continued to teach, write, and be published well after his retirement, with fourteen substantial critical books to his name. In 1994, Holloway published Civitatula, his poem about Cambridge, which his champions declared to be the best long poem written in England since Four Quartets, an odd claim since Holloway's writing was decidedly English and not deeply ruffled by Modernism. His latest poems have yet to be collected, and a no doubt enlightening book on 'how to read poetry' is also waiting in the wings.

PETER HARDIMAN SCOTT, who held the position of political editor at the BBC for fifteen years, has died at the age of 79. Well remembered and admired for his quiet, confiding tone of voice, he inspired trust and was renowned for his ability to get scoops. Known as 'the man who forced Harold Wilson to apologise', he often faced complaints from MPs after broadcasting on the 8am news what a minister was about to announce. He was a modest man despite his high profile, never more so than in retirement. He never wrote memoirs or diaries to record his triumphs, but instead produced four detective thrillers, revealing a good deal about No. 10 Downing Street. He was president of the Suffolk Poetry Society and produced several books of poetry himself, mainly pastoral reflections on nature, deeply English and indebted to the Georgians, but also to poets of the Silver Age. He edited the Selected Poems of his beloved Sir Thomas Wyatt (FyfieldBooks, 1996).

MARY CAROLINE RICHARDS, poet, potter, educationalist and painter, died in Kinberton Hills, Pennsylvania in early September. After studying at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and at the University of California, Berkeley, she taught English at the Central Washington College of Education and the University of Chicago. In 1945 her career took a different turn, and she became a faculty member at the radically experimental Black Mountain College. Her experience there involved her in some of the most innovative educational initiatives this century. Her writings deal with this period and her essay 'The Public School and the Education of the Whole Person' is an underground classic. Indeed her poetry collections, Centering and The Crossing Point, were intended to be, and are, companion volumes. She became a widely sought after instructor and lecturer and in 1967 taught at Goldsmiths' College, London, as American Visiting Professor. Almost all her works are 'responses' to Indian dances, seasonal and cosmic celebrations, the Bible, and to other American writers. Her work harbours something of the anarchy of Antonin Artaud, much of the Quaker's patience, the Orient's faith in the unseen, and elements of Lorca's duende, according to her admirers. Her passion in later life was invested largely in ceramics and painting, and friends agreed that the results were extraordinary.

PAAVO RINTALA, the Finnish writer, has died at the age of 69. He began his career in the 1950s, writing prose, documentaries, stage and radio plays about the suffering caused by war, turning points in twentiethcentury Finnish history, and the ethical problems of religion and art. Towards the end of his life he also wrote on European history and mythology. Rintala's works have been translated into more than ten languages. He received the Nordic Prize for Radio Plays in 1991 and was awarded the Runeberg Literary Prize in 1994 for his most recent novels, Marian rakkaus (The Love of Mary) which tells the tale of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the theologian who conspired against Hitler. He was also a poet.

The next number of The Gig magazine will be a special perfect-bound double issue of essays on the poetry of Peter Riley. This will provide the first substantial collection of criticism and commentary on an oeuvre which has already, with such books as Lines in the Liver, Tracks and Mineshafts, and Distant Points, been influential and much admired. The issue's contributors include Andrew Crozier, Nigel Wheale, James Keery, John Hall, Keston Sutherland, Mark Morrisson, Tony Baker, Peter Larkin, Peter Middleton and others. It will also contain an interview conducted by Keith Tuma, previously unpublished poetry by Peter Riley, new translations by Lorand Gaspar, and a bibliography. This volume will pay longoverdue attention to an innovative poet. The Gig seeks advance subscriptions to enable the publication of the issue. The price is not yet fixed, but a minimum advance subscription of $20 Canadian or £10 sterling (includes surface mail to UK/overseas; add £2 for airmail) has been suggested. For details of subscriptions from Canada and the United States, contact ndorward@ sprint.ca Subscriptions from UK and Europe can be made by contacting priley@dircon.co.uk

The judges (Alan Brownjohn, U.A. Fanthorpe and Morgan Keeny) of the Petra Kenney Poetry Competition are now accepting submissions of poems up to 80 lines. The closing date for entries is 1 December 1999. The entry fee is £3 per poem and the prizes are £1000, £500, £250 plus three commended awards of £125 each. Details and entry forms are available from 1B The Crescent, Filey, Yorkshire YO14 9HZ.

The winners of the Forward Prizes for Poetry have been announced - not without their fair share of surprises. Jo Shapcott picked up the prize for Best Collection for My Life Asleep (OUP). Nick Drake was awarded the Waterstone's Prize for Best First Collection (£5,000) for The Man in the White Suit (Bloodaxe) and Robert Minhinnick received the Tolman Cunard Prize for Best Single Poem (£1,000) for Twenty-five Laments for Iraq first published in this very magazine. The best poems from all the entries for this year's Forward prizes are published in The Forward Book of Poetry 2000 price £7.95.

This year's Manchester Poetry Festival (6-14 November) has a well-blended international and local feel. With events such as 'Poetry in Exile' and 'Global Words' occurring alongside 'Manchester Cathedral Religious Poetry' and 'Unlikely Laureates', there is sure to be something for everyone. Special guests include Sujata Bhatt, Simon Armitage and Douglas Dunn. Details of all the events are available from www.mpf. dnx.co.uk or by telephoning 0161 907 0031.

As this issue of PN Review goes to press, the 22nd Annual American Literary Translators Association Conference in New York is coming to a close. The focus of this year's conference was Translation and Publication, and the discussions planned included a general consideration of American publishing in regard to translation, and publishing tips for amateur translators. Also unveiled at the conference was ALTA's newest project; to create brochures that address translators' most frequently asked questions. The winner of the McMurtry/Rifkin sponsored 1999 ALTA National Translation Award will also be announced. Full reports and details are available from http://www.utdallas. edu/research/cts/

The Ford Madox Ford Society are currently putting together an event entitled 'Ford and the City' on 17 December 1999 (Ford's birthday) at University College, London. This will include the Second Ford Madox Ford Lecture, sponsored by the Everyman Library/Orion Books. To participate, or to receive further details, please e-mail s.haslam@chester.ac.uk There is also a new/updated website which may be of interest to Ford followers: www.rialto. com/fordmadoxford_society

Many European publishers are marking the centenary of the birth of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), but perhaps Gallimard has done most to make the great and always enigmatic blind seer visible in Album Borges by Jean Pierre Bernès. Gallimard are also publishing in Bernès edition Volume II of the Oeuvres Complètes, which runs to 1584 pages.

Hot on the heels of Seamus Heaney's visit to Manchester to read from his new translation of Beowulf for PN Review, we are proud to welcome Harold Pinter to London to read from W.S. Graham's letters. Published this month by Carcanet Press, The Nightfisherman is a beautiful and moving collection of Graham's correspondence with some of his closest friends. Pinter will read poems and letters by Graham at the Swedenborg Hall, Bloomsbury on 2 November. For more information, please contact Gaynor Hodgson on 0161 834 8730.

Following the Oxford launch of the OxfordPoets list from Carcanet, there is to be a London event at the new Waterstone's Piccadilly. Just as the bookshop's brochure claims to be 'giving life to a much-loved and much-admired landmark of London architecture', so Carcanet are giving life to a much-loved and much-admired landmark of contemporary poetry - the Oxford list. All are welcome at the event, to be held on 25 November. Please contact Gaynor Hodgson on 0161 834 8730 for more details.

News & Notes compiled by GAYNOR HODGSON.

Correction: In PNR 129 (p. 59), a reference to Timothy Clark's Farewell to an Idea inadvertently renamed it Farewell to India, an excellent title though unfortunately not of this book. Our apologies.