The Poetry Society: Recent Episodes
The Poetry Society
The Poetry Society was founded in 1909 to promote "a more general recognition and appreciation of poetry". Since then, it has grown into one of Britain's most dynamic arts organisations, representing British poetry both nationally and internationally. Today it has more than 4000 members worldwide and publishes the leading poetry magazine, The Poetry Review.
With innovative education and commissioning programmes and a packed calendar of performances, readings and competitions, the Poetry Society champions poetry for all ages.
"The Poetry Society is the heart and hands of poetry in the UK – a centre which pours out energy to all parts of the poetry-body, and a dexterous set of operations which arrange and organise poetry's various manifestations. It has a long distinguished history, and has never been so vital, or so vitalizing as it is now." Sir Andrew Motion
Townshend Primary School. Their names are Nuraa, Nirvaan and Andrew and in this podcast, you’ll get to hear them read the poem, as well as talk about their experience discovering, writing and performing poetry. You can also find a plethora of free festive KS2 teaching resources and poems on The Poetry Society website at bit.ly/lnmo. Happy holidays from everyone at The Poetry Society!
Martha Sprackland reads 'The Small Picture' at The Poetry Review Summer 2025 launch by The Poetry Society
Kaveh Akbar reads 'Love Poem with Lines from Jesus and Muhammad' at The Poetry Review Summer 2025 launch by The Poetry Society
Bonnie Hancell reads 'Generations of Destroyers' at The Poetry Review Summer 2025 launch by The Poetry Society
Jacob Polley reads 'Dust' at The Poetry Review Summer 2025 launch by The Poetry Society
Taking the Temperature is a panel where brand-new and seasoned editors and publishers will discuss how independent poetry publishing is changing, with Tristram Fane Saunders (GRAVY and The Little Review), Niall Munro (ignitionpress), Jess Chandler (Prototype) and Amy Acre (Bad Betty) in the Library at Free Verse Poetry Book & Magazine Fair 2025.The Poetry Society’s Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair celebrates the vitality of poetry in the UK – it’s an unrivalled opportunity to browse and buy the very best in contemporary poetry, and to meet publishers, organisations and poets.
Polylingual Poetry: a panel on how poetry containing more than one language, and poetry in translation, is speaking to new audiences and welcoming new poets, with National Poetry Competition winner Fiona Larkin (Pindrop Press), Ghazal Mosadeq (Pamenar Press) and Leo Boix (Poetry Translation Centre) in the Library at Free Verse Poetry Book & Magazine Fair 2025.The Poetry Society’s Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair celebrates the vitality of poetry in the UK – it’s an unrivalled opportunity to browse and buy the very best in contemporary poetry, and to meet publishers, organisations and poets.
Tiffany Atkinson reads 'Patrick' at The Poetry Review Spring 2025 launch by The Poetry Society
Joe Carrick-Varty reads 'Almost Back Where We Left Now' at The Poetry Review Spring 2025 launch by The Poetry Society
Rashed Aqrabawi reads 'Poem' at The Poetry Review Spring 2025 launch by The Poetry Society
Inua Ellams reads 'Reminisce of tongues' at The Poetry Review Spring 2025 launch by The Poetry Society
Sorrel Briggs reads 'Heaven Down' | National Poetry Competition 2024 by The Poetry Society
Lesley Sharpe reads 'Eyewitness' | National Poetry Competition 2024 by The Poetry Society
Chris Beckett reads 'The broom upside down' | National Poetry Competition 2024 by The Poetry Society
Hannah Perrin King reads 'Inheritance' | National Poetry Competition 2024 by The Poetry Society
Matt Barnard reads 'Two Boys at Midnight' | National Poetry Competition 2024 by The Poetry Society
Fiona Larkin reads 'Absence has a grammar' | National Poetry Competition 2024 by The Poetry Society
Yong-Yu Huang reads 'Living as My Mother' | National Poetry Competition 2024 by The Poetry Society
Andrew Dennison reads 'Courgettes' | National Poetry Competition 2024 by The Poetry Society
Kit Buchan reads 'Hallowe'en Ghazal' | National Poetry Competition 2024 by The Poetry Society
Jay Bernard Reads 'After Him' at The Poetry Review Winter 2024 Launch by The Poetry Society
Chen Chen Reads '2pm in provincetown—' at The Poetry Review Winter 2024 Launch by The Poetry Society
(EXCERPT) Susannah Dickey Reads 'Sex Horse' at The Poetry Review Winter 2024 Launch by The Poetry Society
Crispin Best Reads 'In This Economy' at The Poetry Review Winter 2024 Launch by The Poetry Society
Denise Saul Reads 'The White Room' at The Poetry Review Winter 2024 Launch by The Poetry Society
Listen to the final five of this year's Young Critics reviews in podcast form. You can watch all ten reviews on our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/YoungCriticsReviewsTallulah Howarth pulls at the many threads of Rachel Mann’s ‘tapestry of alternative visions’, Eleanor Among the Saints, while Elliot Ruff uncovers the intertextual references of Gboyega Odubanjo’s Adam. Ahana Banerji discusses the skilful patterning and mirroring in Carl Phillips’s Scattered Snows to the North, Tusshara Nalakumar Srilatha finds an invitation to consider non-human perspectives in Katrina Porteous’s Rhizodont, and Priya Abularach elucidates the formal inventiveness in Karen McCarthy Woolf’s verse novel Top Doll.Since 2022, the T. S. Eliot Prize (the most valuable prize for new poetry collections in the UK and Ireland) and Young Poets Network, The Poetry Society’s leading platform for poets aged up to 25, have run an exciting new collaboration to support the next generation of poetry reviewers: the Young Critics Scheme.This year’s scheme follows a hugely successful first two years, in which two cohorts of Young Critics’ video reviews were seen over 60,000 times and shared online by readers, publishers, poets and critics. Several of the Young Critics have since been invited to review for leading magazines including The Poetry Review, Poetry London and Magma.Find out more about The Poetry Society's programmes for young people: https://poetrysociety.org.uk/young-poets
Listen to the first five of this year's Young Critics reviews in podcast form. You can watch all ten reviews on our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/YoungCriticsReviewsPriyanka Moorjani reviews Signs, Music by Raymond Antrobus, guiding the viewer through the speaker’s ‘avalanche’ of emotions upon becoming a parent. Joe Wright considers the formal and poetic influences mapped throughout Hannah Copley’s Lapwing, while Sylvie Jane Lewis pays close attention to the epigraphs of Helen Farish’s The Penny Dropping and how they haunt the rest of the text. Eira Murphy situates Peter Gizzi’s Fierce Elegy within the poet’s wider corpus and influences, asking ‘in what ways might we come to a world increasingly pushed to the horizon of its own collapse?’, and Orla Davey interrogates Gustav Parker Hibbett’s use of mythology in High Jump as Icarus Story.Since 2022, the T. S. Eliot Prize (the most valuable prize for new poetry collections in the UK and Ireland) and Young Poets Network, The Poetry Society’s leading platform for poets aged up to 25, have run an exciting new collaboration to support the next generation of poetry reviewers: the Young Critics Scheme.This year’s scheme follows a hugely successful first two years, in which two cohorts of Young Critics’ video reviews were seen over 60,000 times and shared online by readers, publishers, poets and critics. Several of the Young Critics have since been invited to review for leading magazines including The Poetry Review, Poetry London and Magma.Find out more about The Poetry Society's programmes for young people: https://poetrysociety.org.uk/young-poets
Each year, The Poetry Society commissions a new children’s poem celebrating the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, which is a gift from the city of Oslo to London, as a thank you for helping the King of Norway in World War 2. This year, Valerie Bloom wrote a magical new poem is called ‘A Baby and A Tree’, which is on display around the base of the tree in Trafalgar Square over the 2024 festive period. The poem was premiered at the lighting up ceremony of the tree in front of the mayors of Oslo, London and Westminster, plus thousands of spectators, by three children from a local primary school, St Vincent's RC Primary School. Their names are Aiden, Sebastian and Erietta and in this podcast, you’ll get to hear them read the poem, as well as talk about their experience discovering, writing and performing poetry. You can also find a plethora of free festive KS2 teaching resources and poems on The Poetry Society website at bit.ly/lnmo. Happy holidays from everyone at The Poetry Society!
This is a podcast created by The Poetry Society. This podcast features the Top 15 winning poems read by the winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2024. The top 15 winners represent some of the very best young poets in the world.This podcast includes strong language and themes including assault.For more information about the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award please go to foyleyoungpoets.org.uk. Read the top 15 winning poems from 2023 at bit.ly/Foyle2023.
‘We’ve always been here. As long as there has been soldiers, there have been poets. And it’s a long sad, venerable tradition.’ (Peter Gizzi)A Poetry Review podcast between Richard Scott and Peter Gizzi to accompany the Poetry Review Summer 2022 issue. Richard co-edited the issue with Andre Bagoo.You can read more about their issue here: poetrysociety.org.uk/publications/v…2-summer-2022/You can buy the issue here: bit.ly/ThePoetryReviewRichard Scott’s first book is Soho (2018), he guested edited The Poetry Review with Andre Bagoo in Summer 2022. Peter Gizzi’s recent books include, Now It’s Dark (Wesleyan, 2020), Sky Burial: New and Selected Poems (Carcanet, 2020), Archeophonics (Finalist for the National Book Award, Wesleyan, 2016) and In Defense of Nothing (Finalist for the LA Times Book Award, Wesleyan, 2014). His honours include fellowships from the Rex Foundation, the Howard Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has twice been the recipient of the Judith E. Wilson Visiting Fellowship in Poetry at the University of Cambridge. In 2018 Wesleyan published In the Air: Essays on the Poetry of Peter Gizzi. His most recent collection, Fierce Elegy, is available in the Wesleyan Poetry Series in the US, and will be published in the UK by Penguin in July 2024.Music credit: 'A very minimalist improvisation' by Circus Marcus
Each year, The Poetry Society commissions a new children’s poem celebrating the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, which is a gift from the city of Oslo to London, as a thank you for helping the King of Norway in World War 2. This year, Isabel Galleymore wrote a magical new poem is called ‘T is for tree’. It is on display around the base of the tree in Trafalgar Square until the 6th of January 2024. The poem was premiered at the lighting up ceremony of the tree in front of the mayors of Oslo, London and Westminster, plus thousands of spectators, by three children from a local primary school, St Mary of the Angels. Their names are Alex, Tilly and Beatriz and in this podcast, you’ll get to hear them read the poem, as well as talk about their experience discovering, writing and performing poetry. You can also find a plethora of free festive KS2 teaching resources and poems on The Poetry Society website at bit.ly/lnmo. Happy holidays from everyone at The Poetry Society!
Guest editor of The Poetry Review Summer 2022, Andre Bagoo talks to his contributor Jameson Fitzpatrick.
Andre co-edited the summer issue with Richard Scott.
You can read more about their issue here: poetrysociety.org.uk/publications/vol-112-no-2-summer-2022/
You can buy the issue here: bit.ly/ThePoetryReview
This poem was written by Fred D'Aguiar and Sarah Howe in 2021 as part of the TIDE research project, as a collaboration between the University of Oxford, The Poetry Society and the National Portrait Gallery. It is written as a response to the painting in the National Portrait Gallery Louise de Kéroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth with an unknown girl by Pierre Mignard, 1682. The TIDE project received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no 681884). The poem is performed by Jess Murrain and Phoebe Campbell.
Ilya Kaminsky reads at the launch of The Poetry Review 109:2, Summer 2019, held at The Poetry Café, London.Ilya Kaminsky will be giving this year's Poetry Society Annual Lecture / Liverpool University Allott Lecture on Poetry in a Time of Crisis on Monday 15 May 7:30pm.You can book to attend the lecture online here: bit.ly/AnnualLectureOnlineYou can book to attend the lecture in person here: bit.ly/AnnualLectureKaminsky
Kate Wakeling's new poem ‘and a tree’ was commissioned as part of The Poetry Society's annual Look North More Often programme and celebrates the 2022 Trafalgar Square Christmas tree. This is the 75th tree given to London from Oslo as thanks for keeping their king safe during World War Two, and is the 15th poem commissioned to celebrate this annual gift. In this podcast, 'and a tree' is performed by Treymaine Lemar Anderson, Caeculus Baker and Milena Madeiros Tabert, three Year 6 children from Soho Parish Primary School in Westminster. You can read the poem online now, and it is also displayed at the base of the tree in Trafalgar Square until 6 January 2023. You can also find a plethora of free festive KS2 teaching resources and poems written by primary school children in response to 'and a tree' on our website at bit.ly/lnmo. Happy holidays from everyone at The Poetry Society!
After the announcement of the death of Her Majesty the Queen on 8 September 2022, The Poetry Society invited Society President Roger McGough to write a response to the unfolding news. The Poetry Society is very grateful to him for writing a personal and immediate reflection the same evening, as he began to process this great change in our national life.
The text of Roger McGough's poem God Rest the Queen is available here: https://poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/god-rest-the-queen. The poem was commissioned by The Poetry Society in response to the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II on 9 September 2022. You are welcome to reproduce the poem for non-commercial use. Just quote the credit line © 2022 Roger McGough, for The Poetry Society www.poetrysociety.org.uk. If you do use the poem in your community, we’d love to hear about it. (For commercial use, please contact info@poetrysociety.org.uk)
Dzifa Benson speaks to Clementine E. Burnley and Zakia Carpenter-Hall.
Clementine E. Burnley and Zakia Carpenter-Hall are both alumni of the Obsidian Foundation writing retreat. Their poems were published in the The Poetry Review, Winter 2021.
The Obsidian Foundation writing retreat, a week-long retreat of selected Black poets of African descent. The Obsidian Foundation's goal is to create a community of Black creative diversity where poets are fully self-expressed free from racism. Discover more on their website: obsidianfoundation.co.uk
Clementine E. Burnley and Zakia Carpenter-Hall discuss their experience on the Obsidian Foundation writing retreat, what it means to write in vernacular and how poetry can speak on behalf of a community. They read their poems: 'How To Eat Frogs' (Clementine E. Burnley), 'The Gold Price' (Zakia Carpenter-Hall), 'She Found God In Herself and She Loved Her Fiercely' (Zakia Carpenter-Hall) and 'A Swiss Lace Front Wig' (Clementine E. Burnley).
Spend 30 engrossing minutes in the company of the award-winning US poet Shane McCrae and Review editor Emily Berry as they discuss Sylvia Plath’s ‘Lady Lazarus’ as the trigger, when he was just 15, of McCrae’s poetry career; John Keats and the Gothic; George Herbert; and McCrae's conversion from free verse to metrical verse. ‘I can only recommend that everyone abandon the way they’ve been writing and see what happens if they write in a different way,’ he says. Fascinating on the ‘productive panic’ of building a collection, McCrae also gives wonderful readings of his poems published in the autumn 2021 issue of The Poetry Review: 'Explaining My Appearance in Certain Pictures', 'The Fungus Called Dead Man’s Fingers' and 'The Dead Negro in the Modernist Long Poem'.
Sinéad Morrissey's new poem ‘The Fourth King’ was commissioned as part of our annual Look North More Often programme and celebrates the 2021 Trafalgar Square Christmas tree. Here, it's performed by Isobel Chappell, Leon Ganje Day and Vasilis Vasiliou, three Year 6 children from St Saviour’s Church of England Primary School in Westminster. You can read the poem online, and on a banner designed by Marcus Walters on the tree in Trafalgar Square until 6 January 2022. You can also find a video interview with Sinéad, KS2 teaching resources, and poems written by primary school children in response to 'The Fourth King' on our website at bit.ly/lnmo. Happy holidays from everyone at The Poetry Society!
Ben Rogers of The Poetry Society speaks to this year's National Poetry Competition judges Fiona Benson, David Constantine and Rachel Long in a wide-ranging conversation that contemplates the perpetual dynamism of reading, where to find inspiration, poems as little creatures, the nature of poetic truth, and how and when to end a poem. The National Poetry Competition is open until 31 October, open to all poets worldwide aged 18+ at www.npc.poetrysociety.org.uk
In their funny and thought-provoking conversation by telephone, celebrated American poet Mary Ruefle and Review editor Emily Berry discuss starting poems and first lines; working to commission and no longer facing the blank page; writing letters, writing prose, humour and sadness and not being afraid of the latter; pins, paper clips, swimming and getting comfortable with what we don't know... Poetry is to be experienced as a phenomenon on earth, Ruefle says, “[it] is not be understood… it’s a little scary but it’s a matter of letting go”. She gives wonderful readings of her poems in the Review summer 2021 issue: ‘Lament’, ‘Conflict’, ‘My Life as a Scholar’ and ‘Empathy of Cod’.
In the latest Poetry Review podcast, Gail McConnell talks to Emily Berry about loss, parenthood and the resource of language in her debut collection The Sun is Open. Published this September, the book works with archival material related to the life and death of McConnell's father, who was murdered by the IRA outside their home in Belfast in 1984. “Language does the work if you let it,” she observes of this "fraught undertaking". Together they discuss poetry form and performance – typography, breath, sound and “the event of the poem” – and the poets and thinkers who have influenced McConnell’s thinking: Bob Scanlan of The Poets’ Theatre, Jay Bernard, Raymond Antrobus, Denise Riley, Ciaran Carson, D.W. Winnicott and others. McConnell gives astonishing readings of her poems published in the Review: excerpts from ‘The Sun is Open’ and ‘Untitled / Villanelle’.
This is a podcast created by The Poetry Society. This podcast features the Top 15 winning poems read by the winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020. The top 15 winners represent some of the very best young poets in the world.
This podcast includes strong language and themes including racism.
For more information about the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award please go to foyleyoungpoets.org.uk.
In a searching, wide-ranging and often very funny exchange, Selima Hill talks to Review editor Emily Berry about being both a prolific writer and a private person, about secrecy and rebellion, embodiedness and encodedness. Her writing process is, she says, less about cutting (“which sounds so violent”) and rather like “lifting your hair – loosen, loosen, then tighten, tighten, tighten – spread it as far as you can, then tighten”. They discuss relationships with family, men, audiences, Eastern European literature and animals, including Hill’s pet giant land snail. She also describes how her diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome, her experiences in psychiatric hospital, and periods of muteness have affected her writing. Hill gives vivid readings of all of her poems published in the winter 2020 issue of The Poetry Review, including ‘Standing on his doorstep’, ‘Jelly’ and ‘Berries’, which will appear in Men Who Feed Pigeons, published by Bloodaxe this September.
An audio recording of the Welsh translation of the National Poetry Competition 2020 winning poem 'The Fruit of the Spirit is Love (Galatians 5:22)' by Marvin Thompson. Welsh translation and audio recording performed by Grug Muse. You can read the text accompanying this recording at https://bit.ly/nationalpoetrycompetition
Join Review editor Emily Berry and poet and novelist Luke Kennard, for an exhilarating unravelling of the prophetic voice and its uses for poetry, the liberating restriction of the poem sequence, and prose poetry as “a space in which to be convolutedly honest” – with passing references to Baudelaire, Chekhov, Ted Hughes, James Tait, Anne Carson and Maggie Nelson, contemporary morality, and anger as a motivating force. Luke also reads his three poems in the autumn 2020 issue of The Poetry Review, from his future project inspired by the Book of Jonah.
Rachel Long, whose brilliant debut My Darling from the Lions (Picador) has been shortlisted for the Forward, Costa and Rathbones Folio prizes, talks to Review editor Emily Berry about dreams and the usefulness of the non-material world to poetry. They also discuss influences on Rachel’s writing including Selima Hill, Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze and the Bible, humour, ‘little-black-dress’ titles, trauma and power. Rachel reads her poems first published in the Review: ‘The Red Hoover’ and 'Mum's Snake', an excerpt from her sequence 'A Lineage of Wigs'. (Rachel Long photo: Amaal Said)
'The Christmas Pine' by Julia Donaldson, commissioned by The Poetry Society for the 2020 Trafalgar Square Christmas tree, is performed by Reinfrancis Bondoc, Fabio Cucinotta and Poppy-Beau Pawsey, three children from St Mary of the Angels Primary School. This is part of our annual Look North More Often programme. Find out more at bit.ly/lnmo and happy holidays from everyone at The Poetry Society.
Review contributor Sandeep Parmar talks to Mary Jean Chan, guest co-editor with Will Harris of the spring 2020 issue of The Poetry Review. Sandeep reads her poem, ‘The Nineties’, and reflects on its origins – growing up in California at the time of the L.A. riots, which followed the arrest and beating of Rodney King, the trial of O.J. Simpson and the 1994 Northridge earthquake – and their relevance now, following the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement as a catalyst for change. In an exhilarating conversation Sandeep and Mary Jean discuss race and contemporary literature, the lyric 'I' and, post-Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric, the fluidities and opportunities of the second-person ‘you’, and changing the critical context of BAME writing with the Ledbury Emerging Critics scheme, which Sandeep co-founded with Sarah Howe.
Will Harris and Nick Makoha, prizewinning poets both, talk about Nick’s poems in the spring 2020 issue of The Poetry Review and how these poems exemplify his interest in song, story and myth, the parameters of self, reconfiguring the problem of the white lens, and how the act of writing poems produces unlooked-for discoveries. Nick gives electrifying readings of his poems ‘Codex 1’ and Codex 2, both published in the Review, and ‘Bird In Flames’ from his Forward-shortlisted debut Kingdom of Gravity.
In Spring 2020, winning poets of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award recorded themselves reading their entries from lockdown in the UK, the USA and Canada.
Listen to them in this podcast recorded from homes across the world as we approach the deadline for this year's Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award - and remember that if you're between 11 and 17 years old, you can enter your own work for free at foyleyoungpoets.org. This year's judges, Keith Jarrett and Maura Dooley, can't wait to read your poems.
Don Paterson talks to Colette Bryce, poet and guest editor of the winter 2019 issue of the Review, about the “dark comedy” of his forthcoming collection Zonal – the inspiration he took from watching old episodes of The Twilight Zone, the freedom of a long line and a looser, narrative form, and the possibilities of confessionalism. “I like the confessional tone,” Don says, “I don’t like that within the confessional tone you’re obliged to confess.” He and Colette also discuss writing routines and the drafting process – “It’s not about getting it right – it’s all about giving yourself to something changing because you’re discovering what you want to say,” he says. Don also gives exclusive readings of ‘The Way We Were’, first published in the winter issue of the Review, and two other poems from Zonal: ‘You Guys’ and ‘Death’.
Each year, the Mayor of Oslo, Norway gifts a Christmas tree to the United Kingdom, in commemoration of the two countries' co-operation in the Second World War. The tree then makes the journey to Trafalgar Square in London, where it's on display throughout the holiday season. And each year, The Poetry Society commissions a leading poet to write a poem to then decorate the tree - with a little help from primary school children all over London! This year's poem is called 'The Gift', and was written by Clare Pollard. You'll hear it read by three children, Pashya, Sophia and Stella from St Peter's C of E Primary School, who were amongst the many to contribute their thoughts and ideas to the poem. If you're in London at all over Christmas, do go and visit the tree, and see the poem with beautiful artwork by Marcus Walters. It'll be in Trafalgar Square until 6 January. We hope you enjoy, and Merry Christmas from all of us at The Poetry Society!
In a conversation that will lighten spirits and fire up brain cells, Emily Berry talks to Mark Waldron in the latest Poetry Review podcast. They discuss children’s books, the theatre and performance, Beckett, Ashbery and “meant silliness”. “I like mixing up childhood and adulthood,” says Waldron, “things from childhood I want to resolve – or look at anyway.” His interest is in the separation between inside and outside – “letting the inside out and seeing if people will accept that.” He also offers two wonderful readings of his poems ‘Contingency’ and ‘To Dig’, first published in The Poetry Review, 109:3, Autumn 2019.
Stephen Sexton's debut collection If All the World and Love Were Young (Penguin, 2019), navigates childhood, memory, grief and loss through the prism of classic 16-bit video game Super Mario World. Kirsten Irving is a poet and co-editor of Sidekick Books, which has published video game themed anthologies such as Coin Opera and Coin Opera 2. Sexton and Irving joined Oliver Fox in September 2019 to talk about the strange and surprising relationship between their poetry and the world of video games, and read work from their video game themed publications.
Both Stephen Sexton and Kirsten Irving have been prize winners in the National Poetry Competition: as of this podcast's publication you can still enter the 2019 National Poetry Competition ahead of the 31 October deadline over at bit.ly/natpocomp.
Mona Arshi, Imtiaz Dharker, Maura Dooley and John Hegley read poems of theirs all of which were published onto the walls of London's Tube carriages as part of the popular Poems on the Underground scheme. The four poets also read work by W.B. Yeats, William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson and Robert Burns. You can order any of the Poems on the Underground posters for free (plus P+P) on The Poetry Society's website: https://poetrysociety.org.uk/product-category/poems-on-the-underground/
"London Underground, Arriving, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license
Mona Arshi, one of three judges in the 2019 National Poetry Competition, joins Wayne Holloway-Smith, the winner of the 2018 National Poetry Competition, to talk to Oliver Fox about what makes a successful poem. They discuss two prize winning poems from the competition's history: 'Oiled Legs Have Their Own Subtext' by Momtaza Mehri (3rd Prize, 2017), and 'The Body in the Library' by Jane Yeh (commended, 2009). If you'd like to enter the National Poetry Competition for yourself, the deadline for entries is 31 October each year. To find out how to enter, visit poetrysociety.org.uk/npc.
Links to featured poems: 'Oiled Legs Have Their Own Subtext' by Momtaza Mehri: https://poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/oiled-legs-have-their-own-subtext
'The Body in the Library' by Jane Yeh: https://poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/the-body-in-the-library/
In the latest Poetry Review podcast, Emily Berry talks to Ilya Kaminsky, author of the astonishing and internationally acclaimed collection Deaf Republic. Their conversation ranges across political poetry (only in English do people try to divide poetry that is political and not political, everywhere else poetry is political, says Kaminsky), of matching your method to show what it is you see as a writer, about the need to witness the good as well as the bad, and the poet as a private person. Kaminsky, born in the former Soviet Union but now an American citizen, describes his unrequited love for English: “sometimes a stranger can make love to the language a little better than the native person... of course it can also be very awkward too”.
On Saturday 18 May 2019, The Poetry Society hosted an all day poetry fundraising extravaganza, including a 10 hour sponsored poetry reading from a line-up of 60 poets. This is part 5 of 5 - you can listen to the first 8 (!) hours of the reading in parts 1-4 on our SoundCloud or via your podcasting app of choice. See below for the timings of featured poets' sets, and remember that you can still donate to the fundraising campaign via bit.ly/poemdonate.
PART 5: FEATURED POETS 0:00 - Isabel White 12:00 - Mark Waldron 20:15 - Chris Hardy 29:10 - Lantern Carrier 39:15 - Fran Lock 46:00 - Isy Mead 55:00 - Rick Dove 1:06:20 - Sue Johns 1:15:00 - Kat Francois 1:28:30 - Siddharta Bose
A live recording of the National Poetry Competition 40th Anniversary Readings at Kings Place, held on 20th March 2019 featuring, featuring Caleb Parkin, Geraldine Clarkson, Mary Jean Chan, Fran Lock, Liz Berry, Mark Pajak, Stephen Sexton, Sinéad Morrissey, Ian Duhig and Jo Shapcott. Supported by Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation. You can enter the 2019 National Poetry Competition for yourself at poetrysociety.org.uk/npc. The deadline for entries is 31 October 2019.
This is part 2 of 2!
A live recording of the National Poetry Competition 40th Anniversary Readings at Kings Place, held on 20th March 2019 featuring, featuring Caleb Parkin, Geraldine Clarkson, Mary Jean Chan, Fran Lock, Liz Berry, Mark Pajak, Stephen Sexton, Sinéad Morrissey, Ian Duhig and Jo Shapcott. Supported by Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation. You can enter the 2019 National Poetry Competition for yourself at poetrysociety.org.uk/npc. The deadline for entries is 31 October 2019.
This is part 1 of 2!
Rachel Long speaks to recent Foyle winners Em Power and Fiy Oladipo, and Chicago Youth Poet Laureates Kara Jackson, Natalie Rose Richardson and Patricia Frazier, about what it means to be a young poet, what UK and American poets can learn from one another, and much more. If you're a young person aged 11-17, remember that you can still enter the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award up to the 31 July deadline at www.foyleyoungpoets.org.
On Saturday 18 May 2019, The Poetry Society hosted an all day poetry fundraising extravaganza, including a 10 hour sponsored poetry reading from a line-up of 60 poets. This is part 4, comprising hours 7-8 of the event.
See below for the timings of featured poets' sets, and remember that you can still donate to the fundraising campaign via bit.ly/poemdonate. FEATURED POETS 00:30 : Leo Boix 11:00 : Matthew Caley 19:30 : Julia Bird 30:20 : Maggie Sawkins 39:50 : Stella Meadows 48:00 : Katrina Naomi 1:01:00 : Fawzia Kane 1:10:00 : Shanta Acharya 1:17:30 : Judy Brown 1:26:00 : Rachel Sambrooks 1:38:00 : Chrys Salt 1:41:00: Emma Gordon 1:57:00 Alice Hiller (CONTENT WARNING: the final reading in this podcast contains subject matter that some listeners may find distressing, including poems dealing with childhood trauma and sexual abuse. We've also added a content warning just before the reading, so listeners can decide whether to continue.)
In a brilliant, wide-ranging discussion with Emily Berry, Editor of The Poetry Review, the celebrated poet Denise Riley talks about the art of composition – of indifferent mechanicals and of jigsaws pieced into sense from the edge pieces, confessional literature, lyric shame and strategies for repair. She also reads two poems just published in The Poetry Review: ‘How does anyone get over these things’ and ‘Another Agony in the Garden’.
On Saturday 18 May 2019, The Poetry Society hosted an all day poetry fundraising extravaganza, including a 10 hour sponsored poetry reading from a line-up of 60 poets. This is part 3, comprising hours 4-6 of the event. You can listen to parts 1 and 2 on Soundcloud or your podcasting app of choice. See below for the timings of featured poets' sets, and remember that you can still donate to the fundraising campaign via bit.ly/poemdonate. PART 3: FEATURED POETS 2:00 : Tamar Yoseloff 12:30 : Claire Collison 23:30 : Martyn Crucefix 33:30 : Sophia Blackwell 44:30 : Claudine Toutoungi 54:00 : Natalie Whittaker 1:03:00 : Noah Jacob 1:09:30 : Graham Clifford 1:24:00 : Sarala Estruch 1:32:30 : Geraldine Clarkson 1:45:00 : Ben Rogers 1:55:00 : Jade Cuttle The final two parts will be made available as soon as we're done editing. Nearly there!
On Saturday 18 May 2019, The Poetry Society hosted an all day poetry fundraising extravaganza, including a 10 hour sponsored poetry reading from a line-up of 60 poets. This is part 2, comprising hours 2-4 of the event. You can listen to part 1 on Soundcloud or your podcasting app of choice. See below for the timings of featured poets' sets, and remember that you can still donate to the fundraising campaign via bit.ly/poemdonate. PART 2: FEATURED POETS 0:00 : Julie Irigaray 10:30 : Eithne Cullen 22:00 : Bridget Minamore 33:00 : Denise Saul 43:45 : Sam Grudgings 52:30 : Lisa Kelly 01:00:00 : Kirsten Irving 01:13:00 : Oliver Fox 01:23:30: Helen Bowell 01:32:30 : Ramona Herdman 01:42:00 : Astra Papachristodoulou
The final 3 parts will be made available as soon as we're done editing: stay tuned!
Soundcloud listeners: please tag poets/readings/poems using the comments feature during playback - this will help us create an index people can use to navigate this podcast in all its enormity. Thanks!!! On Saturday 18 May 2019, The Poetry Society hosted an all day poetry fundraising extravaganza, including a 10 hour sponsored poetry reading from a line-up of 60 poets. This is part 1, comprising the first 2 hours of the event! See below for the timings of featured poets' sets, and remember that you can still donate to the fundraising campaign via bit.ly/poemdonate. PART 1: FEATURED POETS 1:00 : Hilaire 8:45 : Suzanna Fitzpatrick 19:00 :Joshua Idehen 27:00 : Kate Wakeling 40:00 : Felix Stokes 50:00 : Dino Mahoney 1:03:30 : Holly Singlehurst 1:14:00 : Aisling Fahey 01:23:30 : Greg Freeman 01:33:30 : Michael Shann 01 :44:30 : Heather Moulson 01:53:00 : Jake Wild Hall
Stay tuned for parts 2-5, which will be published over the coming days!
To celebrate the poem's shortlisting for the 2019 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, Mary Jean Chan reads 'The Window', which was first published as the 2nd prize winner in the 2017 National Poetry Competition. You can find the poem, and enter the National Poetry Competition for yourself, at http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/npc
Will Harris, Poetry Review contributor and the most recent winner of the Arts Foundation poetry fellowship, started writing poetry when it wasn't cool. Here, he talks to Review Editor Emily Berry about discovering dreams as inspiration, Emily Bronte, the meanings – problematic and otherwise – of 'white', video games and putting together his first full collection. He also reads from his wonderful sequence 'The White Jumper' (which he has also written about in the Review section of poetrysociety.org.uk).
Recorded in his Cornwall home in the 1970s, W.S. Graham, "solitary pioneer at the edge of language", reads his celebrated poem 'The Constructed Space'. Graham's centenary was celebrated in 2018. Join us at bit.ly/wsgevent to hear more. Author photo © Estate of Michael Seward Snow, 2019. All rights reserved.
Recorded in his Cornwall home in the 1970s, W.S. Graham, "solitary pioneer at the edge of language", reads his poem 'I Leave This At Your Ear'. Graham's centenary was celebrated in 2018. Join us at bit.ly/wsgevent to hear more. Author photo © Estate of Michael Seward Snow, 2019. All rights reserved.
Acclaimed children's poet Joseph Coelho performs his new poem 'Look Into My Lights', with images dreamt up by London schoolchildren. This poem was commissioned by The Poetry Society for the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree 2018 and you can read the text online at: poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/look-into-my-lights The poem is displayed on a vibrant banner designed by James Brown around the tree until early January 2019.
Since 2009, The Poetry Society has worked with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London to create a poetry project inspired by the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree, which is now established as a central part of the tradition. Poetry from workshops in Westminster primary schools is presented each year to one of the UK’s best children’s poets. Their task is to produce a new poem celebrating the gift of the tree from the Mayor of Oslo. The poem is read out at the official lighting up ceremony and displayed around the base of the tree.
Find out more about The Poetry Society's Look North More Often programme: poetrysociety.org.uk/projects/look-north-more-often-the-trafalgar-square-christmas-tree/
Photo by Hayley Madden for The Poetry Society.
sam sax, American poet and queer Jewish icon, chats to Joelle Taylor about starting out performing in loud bars, reads his poem 'Haematology', and shares a brand new poem about the devastating California wildfires. Plus, the tough poetry questions are put to sam sax from some of the 2018 participants of SLAMbassadors, The Poetry Society's youth SLAM poetry showcase. We'll also hear poems from SLAMbassadors Noah Jacob and Beth-Ellen Hollis. This podcast was recorded in partnership with Out-Spoken. www.poetrysociety.org.uk http://www.outspokenldn.com
Listen in on influential US poet Chelsey Minnis, author of Poemland, Zirconia, Foxina, Bad Bad and the just-published Baby, I Don’t Care, in a highly entertaining interview with Poetry Review editor Emily Berry. Their conversation ranges across Chelsey’s obsession with Turner Classic Movies TV channel, the usefulness of screenplay structures, being influenced and being an influencer, reading and rereading Plath, Whitman, Chekhov’s plays and Patricia Highsmith’s novels, and the relationships between poetry, play and money.
“I have so many anecdotes and stories [about] how d/Deaf people are excluded from cultural events and how much harder they/we/I have had to work to access culture. I am trying to write into those disconnections and create new bridges.” Raymond Antrobus, Review contributor and winner of the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize, talks to Emily Berry about his forthcoming debut collection The Perseverance, his work as a poet-teacher in d/Deaf and hearing schools, literacy, elegy and the influence of cinema on his work. Poems in The Perseverance challenge and rework the canon as part of a process he describes as “developing a language to explain myself”, of “writing through trauma and coming to different conclusions that I can apply to new bodies of work”. He gives powerful readings of his poems ‘Sound Machine’ and ‘After Reading Ted Hughes’s “Deaf School” by the Mississippi River’.
Congratulations to Will Harris, who reads here his poem 'SAY'. First published in The Poetry Review, Winter 2017, it has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem .
“I think shame is very unhelpful, that taboos can be very unhelpful – maybe we should try and be as brave as our poems.” Fiona Benson, author of the prize-winning collection Bright Travellers, talks to Review Editor Emily Berry, about her new collection Vertigo & Ghost, forthcoming from Cape in 2019. They consider questions of shame, permission and catharsis, the challenges of working with difficult material and ‘breaking through’ – the ways in which writing works to bring the inside outside, and the influence of writers such as Sylvia Plath, Sharon Olds and Lucille Clifton. Benson also reflects on the sublime and its possibilities in contemporary poetry, with reference to Whitman, Rilke and Ginsberg. She reads her astonishing poems ‘Fly’ and ‘[Zeus] Anatomical Dolls’, both first published in The Poetry Review. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
Note: This podcast contains some strong language from the start.
In this collaboration between The Poetry Society, Poet in the City and Out-Spoken, Joelle Taylor brings together of the biggest names on the British and American spoken word scenes about the intersection between their poetic craft, politics and activism. This podcast was recorded backstage at King's Place, London on 24 January 2018, before Danez Smith's sell-out performance of poems from their most recent collection 'Don't Call Us Dead'.
Featuring: American writer and performer Danez Smith, whose work explores systematic racism, police brutality, and the stigmas around being HIV positive; Anthony Anaxagorou, poet and founder of Out-Spoken Press, which publishes new, establishment-shaking poetry giving a platform to oppressed and under-represented voices; Jay Bernard, poet and filmmaker who has helped create spaces and platforms for QITPOC artists in the UK; Writer and activist Imani Robinson, who works with movements seeking to address anti-black racism and fight for black feminist liberation.
Visit The Poetry Society at http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk Visit Poet in the City at http://www.poetinthecity.org.uk Visit Out-Spoken at http://www.outspokenldn.com/
In this bonus festive mini-podcast, poet, comedian, and hair-laden storyteller Rob Auton reads 'Letter From Father Christmas'.
This reading is taken from a longer discussion with Joelle Taylor. You can find the full interview on The Poetry Society's Soundcloud, or by subscribing to The Poetry Society's podcast via your podcast app of choice. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
You can catch Rob Auton at his regular spoken word night Bang Said The Gun, and, in 2018, on The Hair Tour. For dates and tickets, visit www.robauton.co.uk.
In our most festive podcast yet, Julian Stannard reads his poems ‘Boxing Day’, ‘Buddhism’ and ‘Pigs in Suffolk’, and talks about the strange theatre of the dining room: Italy, his mother, Christmas and trifle; bleak poems that end up being humorous; poets Giorgio Caproni, Ezra Pound, Christopher Reid and Selima Hill; of a sense of the absurd as a coping mechanism; and of Donald Davies’s idea of fending off at least some of the stuff trying to get into a poem. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
“Poetry is an inner armour available to anyone,” says the celebrated Jamaican poet Ishion Hutchinson in this latest in The Poetry Review podcast series. In conversation with Review Editor Emily Berry, Hutchinson talks about his influences (citing Donne, Eliot and George Seferis) and his poetics; about homesickness, travel and "returning responsibly". Hutchinson also reads his poems, ‘West Ride Out’ and ‘Travel Axe’, both first published in The Poetry Review. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
SLAMbassadors Artistic Director Joelle Taylor speaks to poet, comedian and all-around stagesmith Rob Auton about becoming one of the spoken word scene's most recognisable (and hairiest) faces, as one of the masterminds behind legendary live poetry night Bang Said The Gun. Plus, they discuss the complicated relationship between poet and audience, Rob's upcoming tour entitled 'The Hair Show', what it means to be known as both a poet and a comic, and much more.
Rob reads his poems 'Poem about a kettle written while listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen', 'A Letter From Father Christmas', and 'My Favourite Bakery', which is probably the best poem about bread you'll hear all week.
You can catch Rob Auton at Bang Said The Gun, which has shows upcoming at the Soho Theatre in November and December 2017, and on The Hair Tour, in 2018. For dates and tickets, visit www.robauton.co.uk.
To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
These are our words: Jen Campbell reviews the anthology Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back, edited by Sandra Alland, Khairani Barokka, Daniel Sluman and published by Nine Arches, which examines the poetics of D/deaf and disabled cultures. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
‘You listen for the poem to say itself’ Emily Berry talks to Gillian Allnutt about meditation, fragmentation and the ‘hinterland’ of the poem. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
The prize-wining American poet Jane Yeh, author of Marabou and The Ninjas (both Carcanet) talks to Sarah Howe, co-editor of the winter issue of The Poetry Review. They discuss Yeh’s use of dramatic monologue and the often fantastical personas she adopts (ninjas, rabbits, androids) to hilarious effect. “I think of Oscar Wilde’s phrase, ‘the truth of masks’ – how when you wear a mask it reveals your identity in a way,” Yeh explains. They also discuss contemporary art, installations and film and influences such as Amy Woolard, Stephen Burt, Lucie Brock-Broido and the work of fellow-writers Safiya Sinclair, Ocean Vuong and Timothy Donnelly. Yeh reads her poems ‘Rabbit Empire’ and ‘A Short History of Patience’, first published in The Poetry Review. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
Jacob Polley reads his poem 'Applejack' from his latest Jackself, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize 2016. The poem was first published in The Poetry Review, 106:3, autumn 2016, co-edited by Kayo Chingonyi and Maurice Riordan. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
Jacob Polley, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize 2016, talks to Kayo Chingonyi, co-editor of the autumn issue of The Poetry Review, about his Eliot prize-winning collection, Jackself. “The self is at the root of all my work, but maybe my work springs from the tension between self-expression and concealment, of running the self through a magic lantern and seeing what comes out the other side,” Polley says. They discuss Polley’s recent collaborations with musician John Alder, the influence of Cumbria or the ‘Debatable Lands’ in which he grew up, acceptance and rejection, and of working with his editor Don Paterson. Jacob also reads the poem ‘Snow Dad’, first published in The Poetry Review. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
Writing in The Poetry Review, Paul Batchelor described the publication of The Poems of Basil Bunting (Faber), edited by Don Share, as “a major event”. “It is to be hoped,” he continued, “that this excellent edition will mark a turning point in Bunting’s fortunes among English readers, for he has yet to receive his due.” To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
Don Share and Paul Batchelor joined Matthew Sperling at University College London recently to reflect on Bunting’s “due”: his place among the greatest of British poets, the triumph that is his masterpiece Briggflatts, and the contemporary relevance of his internationalist, non-isolationist and intellectually curious outlook. You can listen in on the exchange of views in this recording of their discussion.
SLAMbassadors Artistic Director Joelle Taylor speaks to poet Sabrina Mahfouz in this Poetry Society podcast, to discuss How You Might Know Me, Sabrina's new poetic exploration of women who work in the sex industry. They also speak on the surprising ways that fashion, immigrant and queer cultures intersect, the battle for cultural recognition fought by today's spoken word artists, and more. Sabrina reads her poem 'Why I Can't Marry You', taken from her new book.
How You Might Know Me launches on 26 October with Out-Spoken Press. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
Joelle Taylor chats to spoken word artist Salena Godden about the UK's spoken word poetry scene, past present and future, as well as her experience with the recent BBC iPlayer documentary 'We Belong Here'. Salena also reads and discusses her poem 'Titanic', tells us the best and worst gig she's ever been to, and more. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
Jen Hadfield was commissioned by The Poetry Society and the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, to write her poem, ‘The Lantern Fly’, inspired by an exhibition of paintings by the German artist and entomologist Maria Merian. She talks to Judith Palmer about the “jewelline, sparkling” natural world of her home on Shetland, and how Merian’s pioneering spirit and paintings inspired a poem in which death is represented by the lantern fly, “unable to find the person that it’s meant to be ministering to”. She also reads her poem 'Lichen'. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
Listen to Jen Hadfied's entrancing reading of her new poem, 'The Lantern Fly', commissioned by The Poetry Society and the Royal Collection Trust, and inspired by Maria Sibylla Merian's painting of a lantern fly. The exhibition of Merian's paintings, Maria Merian's Butterflies, was first shown at The Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, and continues at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, until 9 October 2016. This recording was made on 26 May 2016 at The Poetry Society premises. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk
Emily Berry, who will jointly edit the summer 2016 issue of The Poetry Review, talks to Maurice Riordan about taste, humour and subverting conventional power relationships. They discuss her Forward Prize-winning debut collection, Dear Boy, and shift in tone and subject matter of her upcoming collection Stranger, Baby. Emily also reads her poem ‘Aqua’.
Frank Ormsby was Editor of The Honest Ulsterman during one of the most illustrious phases of Irish poetry. He talks about the involvement of poets such as Heaney, Longley, Carson and Muldoon, and his own long career as a writer. His poems – modest, humorous, deeply felt and generally slow to appear – have latterly been written in a “mad excitement” he remains suspicious of – “the belated release of something”. Ormsby also talks movingly about suffering from Parkinson’s disease and its effect on his writing. He reads his poem ‘Grandfather’s Week’, published in The Poetry Review, 105:4. His latest book is Goat's Milk, New & Selected Poems, published by Bloodaxe in 2015.
Iain Galbraith reads ‘December 1914’ from his Popescu Prize winning translation of Jan Wagner’s collection Self-Portrait with a Swarm of Bees, published by Arc Publications. The Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize is awarded biennially by The Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. The judges this year are Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard. The prize is supported in 2015 by the British Council. For more information on the 2015 Popescu Prize and selected poems please visit our website: http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/popescu-prize/2015-2/
Ian Galbraith reads ‘December 1914’ in the original German and from his Popescu Prize winning translation of Jan Wagner’s collection Self-Portrait with a Swarm of Bees, published by Arc Publications. The Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize is awarded biennially by The Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. The judges this year are Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard. The prize is supported in 2015 by the British Council. For more information on the 2015 Popescu Prize and selected poems please visit our website: http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/popescu-prize/2015-2/
Anne Stokes reads ‘Earth’ from her Popescu Prize shortlisted translation of Sarah Kirsch’s collection Ice Roses: Selected Poems, published by Carcanet. The Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize has been awarded biennially by The Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. The judges this year are Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard. The prize is supported in 2015 by the British Council. For more information on the 2015 Popescu Prize and selected poems please visit our website: http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/popescu-prize/2015-2/
David Constantine reads ‘When I Left You, Afterwards…’ from his Popescu Prize shortlisted translation of Bertolt Brecht’s collection Love Poems, published by Liveright. The Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize has been awarded biennially by The Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. The judges this year are Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard. The prize is supported in 2015 by the British Council. For more information on the 2015 Popescu Prize and selected poems please visit our website: http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/popescu-prize/2015-2/
Tom Kuhn reads ‘Discovery about a Young Woman’ from his Popescu Prize shortlisted translation of Bertolt Brecht’s collection Love Poems, published by Liveright. The Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize has been awarded biennially by The Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. The judges this year are Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard. The prize is supported in 2015 by the British Council. For more information on the 2015 Popescu Prize and selected poems please visit our website: http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/popescu-prize/2015-2/
For more on Tom's research and translation project go to http://brecht.mml.ox.ac.uk/ or follow @writingbrecht on Twitter.
Susan Wicks reads ‘The Poem for Jacques’ from her Popescu Prize shortlisted translation of Valérie Rouzeau’s collection Talking Vrouz, published by Arc Publications. The Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize has been awarded biennially by The Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. The judges this year are Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard. The prize is supported in 2015 by the British Council. For more information on the 2015 Popescu Prize and selected poems please visit our website: http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/popescu-prize/2015-2/
Helen Mort talks to Maurice Riordan about writing and the problem of observation; Jeremy Deller’s Battle of Orgreave and her poem ‘Scab’; writing on the run; neuroscience, Norman MacCaig, John Burnside and Paul Muldoon, and how writing her first novel is both similar to and different from writing poems. Helen is a five times winner of Foyle Young Poets of the Year. Her first collection, Division Street (Chatto & Windus) was shortlisted for the Costa Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize and, in 2014, won the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize. She also reads her poem ‘Ablation’.
‘Awater’, written by Martinus Nijhoff in 1934, is considered the great Dutch modernist poem. Hailed by Brodsky as “the future of poetry”, it is still barely known outside the Netherlands. In it, the poet-narrator trails his mysterious neighbour – Awater – through the city night before abandoning the trail in a train station. Is the poem about the imagination, the unconscious mind, about bereavement, about the existential hollow in the wake of the First World War, about T.S. Eliot, about religion and the old world, about the future? With the help of David Colmer, Professor Wiljan van den Akker, poets Onno Kosters and Astrid Alben, and artist-writer Bette Adriaanse, Jane Draycott looks for answers to these questions. This audio piece is supported by the Dutch Foundation for Literature.
US poet Paul Nemser was delighted to have been commended in the The Poetry Society's National Poetry Competition – "an opportunity to have one's work looked at [anonymously] by very, very good poets". He spoke to Mike Sims about being taught by Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop and Stanley Kunitz, the benefits of translating poetry and why competitions matter.
"I'm struck by the meaninglessness of words, how slippery they are and yet I also want to believe in them. I'm left stuck between the two." Zaffar Kunial talks to Maurice Riordan about all his successes in 2014: winning the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize, his residency at the Wordsworth Trust (his first job as a 'poet') and publication in the Faber New Poets series. He also talks about writing for Hallmark Cards, bilingualism, identity and discovering his voice as a poet. He also reads his poem 'Fielder'.
Don Share, editor of Poetry, talks to Maurice Riordan, editor of The Poetry Review, about their magazines' latest exchange of American and British poems, and how writers and readers on both sides of the Atlantic benefit from wider exposure to the two traditions. They also discuss 'Prufrock' – first published in Poetry 150 years ago – Young Turks, Old Possums, an editor's luck and typos.
'Enough Sky' was commended in The Poetry Society's 2014 National Poetry Competition.
From the judges: 'From the start, 'Enough Sky' impresses with its tight lyricism and careful adjectives. It is delightfully elusive and warrants repeated reading. A poem which crept up on me and won me over with its spell and its surprising phrases - 'urging tangerine starward', 'seeking gauze to pull away''. This is a poem which feels longer than it is because it packs in a lot - lush and distilled.'' - Roddy Lumsden.
Image: Moonrise over Ghost Ranch © Steve O'Bryan www.wildbasinphotography.com
Orla was one of the winners of the Young Poets Network mini writing competition with the Reading Agency, to write a poem about reading. http://www.youngpoetsnetwork.org.uk/2015/03/17/writing-about-reading-the-latest-mini-competition/
Working in collaboration with Royal Collection Trust, The Poetry Society commissioned Forward Prize winning poet Kei Miller to create a new poem.
Place Name – Oracabessa, skilfully unites the themes of Gold and Journeys and follows the form of Miller's award winning collection 'The Cartographer tries to map his way to Zion'.
The poem was premiered at an evening event in The Queen's Gallery on Thursday, 12 February 2015 to a full audience.
"Many writers write not because they're fluent or because they have any kind of ability in a language but for the exact opposite reason." Paul Muldoon talks to Maurice Riordan, Editor of The Poetry Review, about Heaney, Beckett and Joyce, and reads 'A Dent' from his new collection, One Thousand Things Worth Knowing (Faber).
US poet Kim Addonizio talks to Maurice Riordan, Editor of The Poetry Review, about riffing on the canon and traditional forms, her view that "emotional experience is the essence of any art" and how "the best humour is also dark and traffics with something else" – how she uses poetry as a process of discovery. She also reads her new poem 'White Flower, Red Flower'.
Rose was one of the winners of the Young Poets Network Edith Sitwell challenge. http://www.youngpoetsnetwork.org.uk/2014/03/24/edith-sitwell-eccentricity-and-sounds-new-writing-challenge/
Linda France, winner of the National Poetry Competition 2013, presented by the Poetry Society, talks about her why entering competitions is so worthwhile, which poems she enters and why, how the competition connects the world of poetry and why anonymity matters.
Simon Armitage talks about his writing home – his teenager's bedroom in Marsden, West Yorkshire, of taking poetry out into the world on long walks, on the radio and in the theatre – the "go anywhere artform" in Les Murray's phrase. He also talks about compiling his new Selected and reads his new poems 'Camera Obscura' and 'Paper Aeroplane'.
This poem was specially commissioned by the British Museum, London, in partnership with the Poetry Society. It was inspired by the exhibition, 'Germany Divided: Baselitz & his generation', at the British Museum, London, 2014. http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/germany_divided.aspx
This poem was specially commissioned by the British Museum, London, in partnership with the Poetry Society. It was inspired by the exhibition, 'Germany Divided: Baselitz & his generation', at the British Museum, London, 2014. http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/germany_divided.aspx
This poem was specially commissioned by the British Museum, London, in partnership with the Poetry Society. It was inspired by the exhibition, 'Germany Divided: Baselitz & his generation', at the British Museum, London, 2014. http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/germany_divided.aspx
Join poets Steve Ely and Maurice Riordan in a sparkling discussion about Ely's current and forthcoming collections, his guiding spirits Hughes, Hill and Heaney, his "alternative England" and fighting 500-year-old battles in history, politics and religion, and his interest in bloodsports as a metaphor for rebellion.
Jack Underwood talks to Maurice Riordan about the development of his work and the transition from pamphlet to a full collection, how there are just ten "really good" poems, Simon Armitage, Elizabeth Bishop, Frank O'Hara and Charles Simic, the latest generation of young poets, teaching and the inspiration of TV. He also reads his terrific poem, ‘Spring’.
Artist Adam Bridgland talks to Mike Sims about his Poetry Café exhibition,'Fables', the inspiration of song lyrics, caravans, picnics, printmaking and Pop Art.
In an absorbing exchange, acclaimed US poet Mark Doty talks to Richard Scott about some of his most famous poems, the gay experience in literature, the inspiration of Cavafy and Rilke, Doty's new Whitman project, and grieving, courage and desire.
Colette Bryce talks to Maurice Riordan, Editor of Poetry Review, about "omphalos", Seamus Heaney's idea of the place that is central to a poet's imaginative world. They discuss Bryce's work in relation to Northern Ireland, the Troubles, Sylvia Plath and Paul Muldoon. Colette reads her poem, 'Helicopters', first published in the autumn issue of Poetry Review.
Peter Manson reads from The Poems in Verse by Stéphane Mallarmé (Miami University Press), which he translated from French. The book was shortlisted for the 2013 Popescu Prize for Poetry in Translation, organised by the Poetry Society.
Colette Bryce reads her poem 'The Full Indian Rope Trick' at the Autumn 2013 Poetry Review launch party in November 2013.
Lorna Shaughnessy reads from The Disappearance of Snow by Manuel Rivas (Shearsman), which she translated from Galician. The book was shortlisted for the 2013 Popescu Prize for Poetry in Translation, organised by the Poetry Society.
Ciaran Carson reads from In the Light Of, after Illuminations by Arthur Rimbaud (The Gallery Press), which he translated from French. The book was shortlisted for the 2013 Popescu Prize for Poetry in Translation, organised by the Poetry Society.
'A Green Crab's Shell' by Mark Doty. Published in Atlantis (Cape Poetry, 1996). Recorded in the Poetry Society studio, 22 Betterton Street, London WC2H 9BX, on Tuesday 8 October.
Patrick McGuinness, poet, novelist and Guest Editor of Poetry Review, talks to Sam Willetts, contributor to the summer 2013 issue, 'Poetry &'. Recorded at St Anne's College, Oxford, June 2013. Produced by Michael Sims and Michael Umney.
Poet and artist Gerald Mangan reads a 'lost' Eliot poem in the Poetry Café, London, as part of his exhibition, 'Gerald Mangan: Caricatures'
Ann Gray reads 'Terminally Ill'. The recording was made before her joint reading with US poet Matthew Dickman at the Poetry Cafe, London, on 23 May 2013.
Ann Gray reads 'Will this be the year?'. The recording was made after Anne's joint reading with US poet Matthew Dickman at the Poetry Cafe, London, on 23 May 2013.
Matthew Dickman reads 'Long Division'. The recording was made after Matthew's joint reading with the British poet Ann Gray at the Poetry Cafe, London, on 23 May 2013.
Matthew Dickman reads 'Alley Poem'. The recording was made after Matthew's joint reading with the British poet Ann Gray at the Poetry Cafe, London, on 23 May 2013.
Anne Gray reads 'Joy', commended in the Poetry Society's National Poetry Competition. The recording was made before her joint reading with US poet Matthew Dickman at the Poetry Cafe, London, on 23 May 2013.
Publication in Poetry Review is generally a cause for celebration and fanfare. So how did Esther Morgan and Moniza Alvi. Guest Editors of the spring 2013 issue, 'The Anonymous Invitation', persuade eight established poets to publish their work without a credit? Was it liberating or unnerving for those who took part? And what does it tell us about our assumptions as readers? The fascinating conversation between Esther and Moniza was recorded at Keats House, London, on 18 April.
This poem for children, written and narrated by poet Steve Tasane, can be used in the classroom for sharing storytelling and performance poems. The Poetry Society's Poetryclass 'The art of remembering by heart' lesson plan, available on the Poetry Society website Education pages, gives suggested ways to use this poem in lessons with key stage 2 children (aged 7-9) and demonstrates fun ways that it can be used to teach learning by heart as required in the new primary National Curriculum.
A fascinating conversation between Bernardine Evaristo, Guest Editor of Poetry Review, and contributing poets Edward Doegar, Sophie Mayer, Richard Scott and Warsan Shire, about 'Offending Frequencies', the winter 2012 issue of Poetry Review. Recorded at Keats House, London, on 24 January 2013. Produced by Michael Sims and Michael Umney. Music: 'Tara' by Salam (http://www.wmrecordings.com/releases/wm016.htm)