Pocketry Presents A Poetry Podcast: Recent Episodes
Pocketry
The poetry podcast that finds out what goes on in poets' minds and how they deal with writer's block. Host Indrani Perera brings you interviews with established poets and explains the techniques used in writing poetry. This is the must-listen podcast for all those interesting in improving their craft or anyone wanting to learn more about poetry.
Poet Peter Bakowski brings the novelist's gaze to the art of writing poetry about fictional characters. In this wide-ranging conversation, Peter talks about his incredible forty year career as a poet including the experience of having his poetry widely translated and organising poetry tours. He talks about poetry as sculpture, finding the right way into the subject matter, engaging the reader and the importance of the 3 Ps.
Listen to Magdalena Ball read her poem, Eastern Whip Bird, and then learn all about the poetic techniques of alliteration and caesura as well as the use of punctuation in a poem. You can find Magdalena at www.magdalenaball.com.
Content warning: death
Australian poet Andy Jackson joins us on the Pocketry Presents podcast to talk about his creative process and experience of editing literary journals. Join us to hear about expressing the social element of poetry, the challenges and rewards of being commissioned as well as visible differences, otherness and marginality.
Pocketry Presents is back in 2022 with more poets and poetry goodness for your listening pleasure!
Season Two features more of what you've come to expect including interviews with established poets about their creative process, emerging poets reading their work, analysis of featured poems and new books to inspire and illuminate.
Brought to you by Pocketry, champion of unheard voices and home to the pocket-sized print journal, The Pocketry Almanack.
Thank you to all the poets who appeared in the very first season of Pocketry Presents. It's been a whirlwind five months of poetry, stories, words, interviews and poetic techniques. And a big thank you to all you lovely listeners for tuning in - it's been wonderful to share poetry with you!
Content warning: drug reference, toxic relationships, torture, war
Pocketry Presents is back with a special episode featuring the poets and artists published in Issue 4 of the Pocketry Almanack! Tune in to hear poetry in English as well as Burmese. Learn how we've managed to cram in even more art with stunning pieces from artists Meg Doller and Shirley Kanyon as well as art from one of the poets for this issue. You'll also hear some intriguing words that were bartered for a copies of the Almanack.
Poets featured in this episode: Kris Deminick, Caleb Green, Thinn Thinn Khine, Anna Kochetkova, and Nidhi Rao.
Pocketry interrupts the scheduled episodes for this season to bring you a special announcement for emerging and aspiring poets wanting to get their poetry published.
In this masterclass on the art of spoken word performance, Thabani Tshuma talks about terror and excitement, empowerment and nerves, feelings and nuances, dangerous spaces and diary dumps, duty of care to an audience, curating a feature set, stage presence and theatricality, writing for page vs stage, poems as mini plays, memorising and rehearsing, forgetting lines and improvising, the open mic testing ground, audience as editing partner, trust, getting featured and remembering your why.
Zimbabwean spoken word artist and poet, Thabani Tshuma on learning to use the medium, writing when there's time, non-linear writing and starting in the middle, figuring out where in the poem you are and what it needs, performance as an editing tool, poetry as an oral art form, editing as part of the creative process, not writing enough vs always writing, watching tv and talking to friends as part of the process, capitalist grind culture, the need for introspection, the intersection of art and commerce, funding and quantifying the arts, the worth of a poem and a tip for writing.
Listen to Es Foong read the poem Heavy Into Silence, from her chapbook, Margin Doodles Volume 1, and then learn all about rhyme and how to craft a title for your poem. You can find Es and Waffle Irongirl, her digital and performance persona, at www.waffleirongirl.com.
Content warning: cancer, death, grief
Dominique Hecq returns to Pocketry Presents to share her experience of entering competitions and winning awards. She talks about writing in French and English, responsibility to the people you're writing about, the liberating effect of time, testing other audiences, the gamble and thrill of entering competitions, judges and the judging process, choosing competitions, feedback and review, rejection, vanity vs validation plus great tips for entering competitions.
Content Warning: grief, death, SIDs
Belgian-born poet and scholar, Dominique Hecq talks about silence and sunshine, prose vs poetry, the materiality of language, writing through the night, sequences and triptychs, getting stuck, rhythm vs images, sounds and movement, hearing what the poem wants, first drafts and mess, crossing borders of art and language, loss and grief, languages and translation, appropriation, imagination and creativity as well as tips for revising poetry and generating ideas. Dominique's recent collection, Tracks, can be purchased from Recent Work Press www.recentworkpress.com/product/tracks/.
Warning: this episode contains mature themes and parental guidance may be required
In this episode, we hear Kevin Brophy read his poem What We Know from the collection, This Is What Gives Us Time. We look at how the poem is structured and learn about the technique of anaphora used in the poem. Kevin's latest book, In This Part of the World, was published by Melbourne Poet's Union in 2020 and can be purchased from Brunswick Bound Bookshop.
Content Warning: addiction, recovery and self-harm
In this honest and far ranging episode of Pocketry Presents, Scott-Patrick Mitchell takes great care in dealing with the issues surrounding the publication of their debut collection, Clean, forthcoming with Upswell Publishing in 2022. They talk about the Port Augusta train station and the Indian Pacific, the stars and writing your own creation myths, the magic of writing, coming up with your own language for poetry, homophobia and the publishing world, stage jam and sonically burlesque fringe shows, duty of care, gender identity and expression, grief and letting go, the ebb and flow of success and failure, the dangers of comparison and reading as a tool to develop care and compassion.
Poet and spoken word artist, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, talks about page poetry and spoken word, memorisation and fragments, writing routines and the critical voice, movement as an editing tool, art as inspiration, writing for journal themes, LQBTA+ identity activism and archive, ecological disaster and climate change, always learning, honouring a poem's ecology, recognising the ummms and errs of your writing and a strategy to overcome writer's block. Scott-Patrick's debut collection of poetry, Clean, is forthcoming in 2022 with Upswell publishing.
Editor of The Pocketry Almanack, Indrani Perera, gives indispensable advice and practical tips for emerging poets wanting to get published in literary journals. You’ll discover the biggest mistake made by emerging poets when sending in their work for publication and learn what you can do to make sure your work is read by the editors of literary journals. Visit www.indraniperera.com/subscribe.html to sign up for Indrani Perera's The Poet's Express e-mail newsletter.
Queen of improvisation, Melizarani T Selva is back to discuss audience reactions and investment, writing pantoums, earning a feature set, the open mic animal, curating a tight set, comedy, Draupadi and the Mahabharata, adding movement, making mistakes and forgetting lines, improvisation and the ephemeral nature of performance, sharing before performing, tailoring a set and the greatest disservice you can do to a performer. You can follow her on socials @melizaranitselva.
Spoken word artist and poet, Melizarani T Selva on ending poems, secret newsletters, collectors' notebooks, a perpetual state of writing, why she'll never admit to writer's block, validity of bullet points, metaphor generators, permission to write, advice for BIPOC writers and the hamster wheel of grief. Buy her book, Taboo, from Lit Books in Malaysia - www.litbooks.com.my/product/taboo/ - or subscribe to her email newsletter - www.melizarani.substack.com.
We hear Angela Costi read her poem Coburg and learn about stanzas and end stopped lines. You can read the poem in Angela's latest collection of poetry, An Embroidery of Old Maps and New published by Spinifex Press and you can find her on Facebook at AngelaCostiPoetics.
Master of form, Dr Mark Tredinnick, joins us again to talk about entering poetry competitions. With a guest appearance from Dante the dog, this wide ranging conversation covers the joy and mystery of trees and children, commissions vs writing prompts, the high octane combination of faith and scepticism, the impact of wining money on a poetry practice, choosing which poems and competitions to enter, technical vs sentimental judgements, what not to include and the duty of judges.
Award winning poet and essayist, Dr Mark Tredinnick, talks about the insistence of the muse, Seamus Heaney and the attic life, the instrumentation and musicality of typing, the constraints of form, inspiration as a fetish, the intrusions of ordinary life, interrogating the adequacy of phrasing and the many ways to overcome writers' block. You can find Mark at www.marktredinnick.com.
We hear David Munro read his poem Night Sky and learn about the poetic techniques of line breaks and enjambment. You can find Night Sky, the poem in this episode, in David's first poetry collection, Wearing My Father’s Hat which is published by Melbourne Poet’s Union.
Emilie Collyer joins us once again to share her experience and insights into getting her poetry published in literary journals. In this interview Emilie talks about the use of different forms, crafting poems and your poetic voice, different types of validation for writers and poetry as a conversation with other poets. You can find Emilie at www.betweenthecracks.net.
Australian poet and playwright, Emilie Collyer talks about her creative process. We chat about how she writes her poetry as well as the limits of words, Greek mythology and inherited lineages, truthful energies, the benefits of reading your work out loud and re-drafting vs careful planning. You can find Emilie at www.betweenthecracks.net.
Are you keen to hear the poems from the latest issue of the Pocketry Almanack? Then tune in and get comfy as we hear the poets reading their poems from Issue 3 published in April 2021. We hear from our featured artist Shirley Kanyon and also hear some intriguing words and interesting anecdotes.
Poets featured in this episode: Andrew Brion, Amanda Collins, Anne Collopy, Kelle Cunningham and Rowan White.
Welcome to the first season of Pocketry Presents, the brand new poetry podcast that finds out what goes on in poet's minds and just how they deal with writer's block. Featured poets in this season include Emilie Collyer, Angela Costi, Kevin Brophy, Dominique Hecq, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, David Munro, Dr Mark Tredinnick, Thabani Tshuma and Melizarani T Selva.
Pocketry Presents is also excited to bring you the fresh, new, previously unpublished voices of emerging and aspiring poets published in issues three and four of the Pocketry Almanack.
Brought to you by Pocketry, champion of unheard voices and home to the pocket-sized print journal, The Pocketry Almanack.