We promised you that we would start featuring a special selection of some of these unique audio recordings from April onwards. We begin with a recording of 1992 Nobel prize winner Derek Walcott (Saint Lucia) reading the second part of his poem ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ during the Poetry International Festival Rotterdam in 1989. Secondly, we commemorate Danish poet Inger Christensen who sadly passed away in January of this year. You can listen to her reading from her poem ‘Alphabets’ during the 1993 edition of the festival. More audio recordings are to come every week from now until the festival.

Lars Gustaffson is a Swedish poet, novelist and scholar, who, since 1970, has performed many times at the Poetry International Festival. In 2005, he was asked to write the Defence of Poetry. Here, you can listen to his poem ‘Aristotle and the Crayfish’. Our fourth audio fragment is from Makoto Ooka, a Japanese poet and literary critic, who is also of special importance to Poetry International, acting as editorial advisor to our PIW Japanese domain.

Carol-Ann Duffy, the UK’s new poet laureate, performed at Poetry International Festival in 2004, where she read, amongst other poems, ‘Circe’, which you can listen to here. Acclaimed Australian writer David Malouf performed in 1996; we've published here a recording of his poem ‘An Ordinary Evening at Hamilton’.

German author and poet Hans Magnus Enzensberger was a festival guest in the years 1972, 1974, 1979 and 1994.  You can listen to the 1994 recording of this poem ‘The New Man’ .

Vasko Popa, Serbian poet of Romanian descent, performed at the very first festival in 1970. Here we've published a recording of a poem he read in 1979: ‘A Poetry Night for Migrant Workers’.

Allen Ginsberg, the American Beat Generation poet who is probably best known for his long poem ‘Howl’, was a guest at the festival in 1979. Here you can listen to him reading ‘Conversation with My Dying Father’.

Palestinian poet and author Mahmoud Darwish, who died last August, attended the festival in 1986, when he recorded ‘Other Barbarians Come’.

Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writer, poet and playwright, and the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, was a guest at the festival in 1994. His poem ‘No! He Said’ is a powerful tribute to Nelson Mandela.

Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet and politican, attended the festival in 1971, the year he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Here he reads ‘The Heights of Machu Picchu’.

Austrian poet Ernst Jandl came to Rotterdam in 1994. Below you can listen to a recording of his short sound poem, ‘Die Sonne scheint’ (The sun shines).

  Derek Walcott:  ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ (Poetry International, 1989)

 Inger Christensen: ‘Alphabets’ (Poetry International, 1993)

 Lars Gustafsson: ‘Aristotle and the Crayfish’ (Poetry International, 1993)

 Makoto Ooka: ‘In the Style of Goethe’ (Poetry International, 1993)

 Carol-Ann Duffy: ‘Circe’ (Poetry International, 2004)

 David Malouf: ‘An Ordinary Evening at Hamilton’ (Poetry International, 1996)

 Hans Magnus Enzensberger: ‘The New Man’ (Poetry International, 1994)

 Vasko Popa: ‘A Poetry Night for Migrant Workers’ (Poetry International, 1979)

 Allen Ginsberg: ‘Conversation with My Dying Father’ (Poetry International, 1979)

 Mahmoud Darwish: ‘Other Barbarians Come’ (Poetry International, 1986)

 Joseph Brodsky: ‘ ‘NO!’ HE SAID’ (Poetry International, 1993)

 Wole Soyinka: ‘No! He Said’ (Poetry International, 1994)

 Pablo Neruda: ‘The Heights of Macchu Picchu’ (Poetry International, 1971)

 Ernst Jandl: ‘Die Sonne scheint’ (Poetry International, 1994)