We’re launching a writing competition in September for the best poem or short story inspired by life at sea. I wanted to call the poetry prize the Hart Crane Award, but my colleagues all looked blank. After a quick straw poll, I couldn’t find a single person in our organisation who’s even heard of him.

To me he’s the greatest of the sea poets, one of the all time great American poets and a giant of world literature. I know the Bloodaxe Collected Poems is out of print but the wonderful Selected Poems published by Faber and edited by Maurice Riordan is still available.

Hart Crane, ed Maurice Riordan, Faber 2008, ISBN:  9780571238033 £5.99

Surely he can’t have been forgotten?