Blanco, 44, will be the youngest-ever inaugural poet and the first Hispanic or gay writer to take the role, according to organisers.

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However, Michael Rosen, the children's writer and poet, expressed doubt about what he called "government diktat".

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Otherwise a poet, writer and folk singer at the local radio station, Santosh has been brought in for her expertise in the local Bundelkhandi cuisine.

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He is the rich writer who befriends the poet Spooner on Hampstead Heath and takes him home.

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Writer, poet, legal specialist and Portuguese Orientalist, he is currently President of the Centre for Arab and Portuguese Studies at Silves.

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Another nonmusical highlight of the trip: a witty, revelatory lecture on the writer Flannery O'Connor, presented at her birthplace by Christopher Hope, the distinguished novelist and poet, who is also Daniel Hope's father.

WSJ: The First Sounds of Spring | Savannah Music Festival | By Barrymore Laurence Scherer