The Scottish poet TOM SCOTT died in Edinburgh in August. He was 77. The natural heir to MacDiarmid as a writer in Scots, he also wrote poetry in English. He was an outstanding singer and placed himself in the great Scottish tradition which looked over (or overlooked) England, finding its place in a wider European context. His Scots versions of Villon, Dante and others achieve unique effects. He wrote ambitious long poems, including The Ship, a vivid assault on what he regarded as the flaws in our civilisation. His place in Scottish and in European poetry is not yet clear, but he was a remarkable, original and neglected talent.

MICHAEL GRIEVE, the son, executor and advocate of Hugh MacDiarmid, died in Glasgow in August. He was 63. A journalist and broadcaster of distinction, Grieve shared - in a less volatile form - some of his father's political views, as a socialist and Scottish Nationalist. After his father's death in 1978, he helped edit the poems and gave his blessing to MacDiarmid 2000, half complete at the time of his death, which aims to collect the prose and verse of MacDiarmid in fourteen volumes and provide a definitive new edition of the poems by the millennium's end.

In July one of the most generous, effective and self-effacing publishers of recent times, peter du sautoy, died in Aldeburgh. He was 83. Chairman of Faber & Faber in the 1970s - he was with the firm for more than 30 years - he was responsible for acquiring some of the outstanding writers on that list and for developing the music and paperback ventures. A close friend and confidant of many, he refused to break their confidences and would not write memoirs. This sense of the unbreachable trust between author and editor was one aspect of his integrity. James MacGibbon described him in the Bookselleras 'an outstanding professional publisher -"professional" as defined by Sir Stanley Unwin: profit was not the overriding factor, literary worth and social purpose came first.' I can confirm this judgement. In the late 1960s, establishing a small press, I found that only Peter among the publishers whose counsel I sought was willing to advise, caution, lunch and believe in what I was then attempting. He had the time and interest to nurture what could be of no benefit to his firm. Three decades ago in Russell Square the principles of permanence survived. There was no sense that he was encouraging competition: he was happy to see and support new initiatives, and his assistance went beyond our meetings and conversations to doors he opened without my asking. Nor was I alone in receiving such creative kindness, such discrete nurture, from a good and generous man. (MS)

The Irish poet and critic séan dunne, who was the distinguished literary editor of the Cork Examiner, died at the early age of 39. As an editor he insisted on devoting scrupulous attention to poetry in a major provincial paper, and he practised an editorial openness unusual at any time of day.

Agenda has published an issue - edited by Richard Swigg - celebrating the work of charles tomlinson (£4/$8 from Agenda, 5 Cranbourne Court, Albert Bridge Road, London SW11 4PE).

Recent issues of the Paris Review have carried outstanding interviews with Thom Gunn and with Ted Hughes.

DREW MILNE has been appointed the first Writer in Residence at the Tate Gallery, London, for Autumn 1995. As part of his residency he is arranging a series of poetry readings featuring Edwin Morgan, Tom Raworth, Denise Riley and others. Further details are available from the Tate.

The British Comparative Literature Association and the British Centre for Literary Translation (University of East Anglia) announce their joint sponsorship of a Translation Competition for 1995-6. Prizes will be awarded for the best unpublished literary translation from any language into English. Literary translation includes poetry, prose or drama, from any period: entries may be up to 25 pages in length. The first prize is £350, the second £150: other entries may receive commendations. Winning entries will be published in the annual journal Comparative Criticism (Cambridge University Press). Winners who wish to become Translators in Residence at the British Centre for Literary Translation, for periods of 1-2 months, will be given special consideration for one of the Centre's bursary awards. The closing date for entries is 28 February 1996. Further details and entry form are available from the Competition Secretary, Dr Stuart Gillespie, Translation Competition, Department of English Literature, The University, Glasgow G12 8QQ

The LONDON QUARTERLY (63 Oakley Square, London NW1 1NJ, editor John R. Bradley) writes to remind poets that the journal is hospitable to poetry, and especially to longer poems, by new and established writers. A recent edition features work by Ashbery, Burnside, Crawford and Feinstein.

ARTES, 'an international reader of literature, art and music' funded by the Swedish Academy, and an oblique descendant of the lamented Antaeus magazine, has published its second, 1995 volume, available from the Ecco Press in the USA and from Natur och Kultur in Sweden. The issue begins with Kenzaburo Oe's Nobel Prize Lecture of 1994. 'Japan, the Ambiguous, and Myself, a fascinating account of the writer's antecedents, European and otherwise. It includes contributions by Susan Sontag, Roberto Calasso, Stanislaw Baranczak, J.M. Coetze and other distinguished writers. It includes an astonishing CD of the music of Johan Helmich Roman (1674-1758).