Gabriel Garcia Márquez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, was also awarded the most valuable of the Latin American literary prizes, the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle. It was reported that Marquez intended to spend his Nobel and Eagle money on founding a radical journal. In the early 1970s, it was Márquez who declared that Latin American writers should 'expropriate the word' as the Latin American governments had expropriated the petroleum industry.

Vittorio Sereni, the Italian poet (b. 1913) won the poetry section of the prestigious Viareggio Prize this year. The occasion was the publication of his latest book, Stelle variabile, published by Garzanti. The prose section of the prize was won by Primo Levi for his latest novel, Se non ora, quando?, also published by Garzanti.

The 1982 Commonwealth Poetry Prize went to Peter Goldsworthy of Australia. His collection Readings from Ecclesiastes was published by Angus and Robertson. Poetry again borrowed some of the glamour of Sport: the announcement was made on 30 September in Brisbane as part of the Warana Commonwealth Festival which coincided with the Commonwealth Games.

In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the local authorities have honoured a distinguished offspring. HD (Hilda Doolittle) was born there in 1886. Judging from the report in the Philadelphia Inquirer (11 September), Bethlehem was about the last place to notice HD. When she died in Zurich at the age of 75, her body was brought back and buried in Bethlehem without much notice being taken. But the 96th anniversary of her death was a different matter. In the words of the Inquirer, 'Bethlehem, the Moravian College Library and the state Historical and Museum Commission reclaimed Hilda Doolittle from the slag heap of local memory'. Well, she might have liked it said a little differently. There is much renewed interest in HD, with her Collected Poems projected for 1983 and a biography just out in the United States.

The Coventry Chamber of Commerce and Industry write to say that they are the administrative base of Rhyme Revival-currently running an international Rhyme Revival Competition. 'Already it is clear that we shall have a fair quantity of first-class rhyming verse by the end of the year,' they report; and they plan to organise a Rhyme Revival Association which 'has the Arts Councils [sic] sympathy' and a 'strong chance of flourishing'. For those who did not know that Rhyme needed financial support and promotion, this came as a surprise-as much as the address of the 'administrative base'. The Rhyme Revival letterhead describes the enterprise as 'a movement to restore to their place in literature the qualities of rhyme & scansion'.

Anvil Press Poetry, now entering its fifteenth year, has just issued its 1983 catalogue (write to 69 King George Street, London SE 10). A special feature this year is the offer of a signed copy of the limited edition of Peter Porter's The Animal Programme to anyone who joins Anvil's complicated but rewarding Poetry Subscription Scheme. Anvil's list of projected titles includes work by Gavin Ewart, Verlaine's and Rimbaud's Femmes/Hombres in paperback, and paperback versions of Richard Holmes's Shelley on Love-an excellent book virtually overlooked by the critics; and George Seferis's Collected Poems.

Angel Books, a new imprint devoted to the publication of literary translations of classics in prose and verse, has got off to a strong start with Antony Wood's translations of Pushkin's Mozart and Salieri: The Little Tragedies, and James Greene's translations of Afanasy Fet's selected poems, I have come to you to greet you. The books are beatifully and spaciously produced by Skelton's Press and priced astonishingly at £2.95 each paperback (£5.95 hardback). Both titles live up to the literary claims their publishers make for them and are highly recommended.

Poetry Ireland, founded by John Deane in 1978, will be housed at 35 North Great Georges Street (described in the News & Notes pages of PNR 29). Poetry Ireland has been responsible for many important reading tours in the Republic. And it has performed other valuable services. It purchased the 6500 volume library of Austin Clarke to prevent its being broken up or exported, promising to keep it as a unit and make it available to poets and scholars. It also publishes The Poetry Ireland Review, a quarterly edited for its first eight issues by John Jordan. There is also Poetry Ireland Choice, a version of the Poetry Book Society. The most recent addition to its credits is the launching of Tracks, a new magazine whose aim is to encourage the publication of longer poems and of sequences, poetry in translation and the like. In this respect it will be unique among the Irish literary journals. Tracks also has ambitions in the area of fiction. Poetry Ireland Review is available at £5.00 for four issues; Poetry Ireland Choice offers four books for £9.00; and Tracks is priced extremely reasonably at £3.00 for two issues. For the time being, Poetry Ireland's address is 'The Nook', Mornington, Co. Meath; and Tracks is available from 19 Monastery Crescent, Clondalkin, Co. Dublin.

The Bloomsbury Theatre (formerly the Collegiate Theatre) in Gordon Street, London WC 1, will be the scene of one of the more ambitious theatrical experiences of recent times. On 27 November Wyndham Lewis's Enemy of the Stars (1914) and The Ideal Giant (1917) will be given their premieres, produced by the Buick of Sighs. Hitherto these two works have been texts only: translating them to the stage is an imaginative enterprise worthy of Lewis himself. Puppets, amplifiers, scale models and lighting will be accessories in the production. The event at the Bloomsbury Theatre is the climax of the Lewis centenary which will begin at the Tate Gallery at 11:00 a.m. with a special symposium.

The Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén was the centre of attention at a recent conference in Havana which brought together many of his translators and critics in a kind of celebratory symposium. Guests saw a film about the poet and received his two most recent books, Thumbed Pages and Sunday Sun. The first of these is a book of memoirs in which Guillén evokes his early years in the little town of Camaguey, taking him through his early literary success with his 'afro-cuban' poems, to Spain and the Civil War, and through his exiles and friendships with Picasso, Alberti, Eluard, Hikmet and others. The other book includes uncollected poems, essays and scattered work. Guillén has remained a close friend of the Cuban Revolution, even as it has affected other writers.

For the eleventh year running, readers and critics of Apollinaire met at Stavelot where a museum commemorates the poet's stay there at the turn of the century. Rather in the manner of the old Browning Societies, people from as far away as Australia, Japan and Canada pored over 'particular texts' and considered the interesting relations between Apollinaire the poet and Victor Hugo. There was also much talk about intertextuality and 're-ecriture'.

The tercentenary of Bossuet was marked in France with celebrations-of a sober kind-at Meaux, where the French writer was bishop. His Universal History has some currency still. One critic argued eloquently that a good reason for reading Bossuet today was his irrelevance. Another reason might be for his style . . .

In Monte Carlo in early October an auction of unpublished letters and manuscripts, including poems, by Paul Valéry was held. It was an auction out of the ordinary in the light it cast on Valery's later years. The letters were addressed to Mme Jean Voilier and are intimate and inédite. They date from 1937 to the year of the poet's death, 1945. The declining years of Monsieur Teste are fertile in observations: of the war, about death and love, and of people. The letters are illustrated with doodles of considerable charm, reminiscent of those of Laforgue. The sale (in batches, so the collection is now dispersed) raised only 1,500,000 francs, less than projected. Not unnaturally, the estate of Valéry was angered by the breach of copyright in the printing of the poems and extracts from the letters in le Monde. It is sad that no French library or institution intervened to protect the integrity of the correspondence and keep it in France. A large chunk went to the Faculty of Letters of Keio, Japan.

The French government announced a 17% increase in the Arts budget for 1983 -it represents 0.78% of the entire budget. The Socialist government aims to increase this percentage to 1% during its tenure of office.

In April of this year a hundred 'representatives of the creative arts in Finland' travelled around the country in a chartered 'peace train' to publicise their support for the preservation of Northern Europe as a nuclear free zone. At each stop they organized musical and dramatic performances, poetry readings and exhibitions. What success did the campaign have? The report only says that the 'peace train' was well-supported by local artists.

In the Times Literary Supplement of 17 September, Godfrey Carter, to whom the drafting of the Public Lending Right legislation was entrusted, let off some eloquent steam. He discussed the genesis of the legislation, the absurdity of the notion of a lending 'right', and the impossibility, given the diverse nature of books and authors, of drafting a law which would cogently govern the cutting up of the little cake. Those who replied to his letter-I had expected more controversy-were clearly tired of the battle and brandished only very old weapons. Nor do they seem terribly pleased with their victory, since the anomalies have been widely canvassed and it will clearly be some years before writers benefit generally and substantially from what must be an administrative nightmare.

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