Arji's Poetry Pickle Jar

So excited to be back in series 4. To open this series we have the brilliant Joe Carrick-Varty. He's a British-Irish poet, writer and founding editor of bath magg. He is the author of More Sky (Carcanet Press, 2023), 54 Questions for the Man Who Sold a Shotgun to My Father (Out-Spoken Press, 2020) and Somewhere Far (The Poetry Business, 2019).  Today he talks about an awesome poem by Max Ritvo. Th...

Emma Jeremy is the author of Safety Behaviour (Smith|Doorstop, 2019) and a former winner of the New Poets Prize. Her poems have featured in publications such as Poetry London, Poetry Review and Magma. sad thing angry is her debut collection. Today she brings in a firecracker of a poem by Katie O'Pray called 'in the dream'.

Such a pleasure to invite educator, novelist and poet Dean Atta into the studio. He's had his second collection out with Nine Arches called There is (still) love here, he is a hugely successful Young Adults novelist with books including The Black Flamingo and Only on the Weekends. He is also a fantastic educator teaching young people across the country.  This is a wonderful resource for schoo...

Today we are joined by poet and writer Meryl Pugh. She is the author of three pamphlets; The Bridle (Salt Publishing, 2011), Relinquish (Arrowhead, 2007) and Wife of Osiris (Verve Poetry Press, forthcoming).  Her first collection, Natural Phenomena (2018), was a Poetry Book Society Spring Guest Choice and longlisted for the inaugural Laurel Prize. Her latest book Feral Borough was released with Pe...

In this episode we are joined by the brilliant Will Harris. Will's debut poetry book RENDANG (2020) was a Poetry Book Society Choice, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. His second book of poems, Brother Poem, is published by Granta in the UK and by Wesleyan in the US in March 2023. It was the PBS Spring Selection. Today he brings in a poem by...

Welcome to another series of Arji's Poetry Pickle Jar. Today we are joined by a wonderful woman and poet named Liz Berry. Her first book of poems, Black Country (Chatto 2014) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, received a Somerset Maugham Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award and Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Liz's pamphlet The Republic of Motherhood (Chatto, 2018) was...

As part of the research for my new book I interviewed a number of people affected by radicalisation, extremism and violence. These interviews were so interesting and fruitful. I'm very proud of my book and all journey of how it came into being. So I decided to put together a podcast episode to help unpack some of the poems and the process.  Please purchase the books here - https://tinylink.ne...

A special today recorded live at Wayne Holloway-Smith's house. Three wonderful poets share new work many of which have never been heard before! Presenting the brilliant Will Harris, known for his brilliant book Rendang. Also, the great Richard Scott who's published with Faber his book Soho was a game changer. And finally, Lucy Mercer whose debut book Emblem is something to behold. All of these gre...

The final episode of this series features the wonderful Clare Pollard. She's a poet with more than 6 books under her belt, she's a novelist, she's a critic, she has judged more competitions that I could count and she is an immensely lovely person. Such a pleasure to share this with you all. Today Clare brings in the powerhouse Anne Sexton with a poem called The Truth the Dead Know. You can read th...

Another instalment this time with a poet so bloody brilliant it feels almost pointless to give her an introduction. She  was named as one of Mslexia’s ‘top ten’ women poets of the decade, as well as being chosen as one of the Poetry Book Society’s Next Generation poets. Her book ‘Burying the Wren’ was published in 2012; it was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and shortlisted for the TS E...

This week we are joined by award-winning poet John McCullough whose poems have appeared in magazines including Poetry Review, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Poetry London and Best British Poetry. His first collection The Frost Fairs (Salt, 2011) won the Polari First Book Prize and was Book of the Year for The Independent and The Poetry School. Hi...

Managed to take a trip across the sea to New Zealand where I'm joined by the delightful Paula Harris. Her poetry has been published in various journals, including Passages North , Barren, New Ohio Review, SWWIM, Glass, Diode, The Spinoff, Poetry New Zealand Yearbook and Aotearotica . Her essays have been published in The Sun , Passages North , Hobart , The Spinoff and Headlands: New Stories of Anx...

So excited to do this episode. Fran Lock is the author of several poetry collections, including  Contains Mild Peril  (2019),  Raptures and Captures (2019), Ruses and Fuses (2018), Muses and Bruises (2017), Dogtooth (2017), The Mystic and the Pig Thief (2014), and Flatrock (2011). Today she brings in a hefty poem called 'Through A Screen Darkly' by Golnoosh Nour from her debut colle...

Excited to bring you yet another instalment of the Pickle Jar. A place where we invite the best poets to talk about their favourite poems. This week we are joined by Flipped Eye favourite Maia Elsner who brings in a little known poem called Five Men by Polish writer, Zbigniew Herbert. We talk politics in poetry, we discuss violence and how to portray it and we also share our thoughts on what...

It's a pleasure to be joined by the brilliant Daniel Sluman. Daniel’s writing first began to be published whilst studying at University, and in 2012 his debut poetry collection Absence has a weight of its own was published to critical acclaim by Nine Arches Press. He was named one of Huffington Post’s Top 5 British Poets to Watch in 2015, the same year his second book the terrible was released. Hi...

This week we are joined by the brilliant Kim Moore. Her first full length collection The Art of Fallin g (Seren) won the Geoffrey Faber memorial prize in 2017. She won a New Writing North Award in 2014, an Eric Gregory Award in 2011 and the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2012. Her latest book was recently released under Seren. Today she shares a great poem by Vicki Feaver called 1974. We talk sexism, s...

This week we are joined by the super woman Chrissy Williams. She is the author of Bear (Bloodaxe Books, 2017) and more recently Low. She's had an array of cross-art, creative excavations which have resulted in visual art, poetry pamphlets, and everything in between. She also curates and edits the online journal Perverse . She introduces me to a poet I hadn't heard of before called Oli Hazzard

So proud to be back, not least because now I have a child and am doing some extreme juggling. To open this series I've got the amazing Jack Underwood. His double pamphlet Solo for Mascha Voice/Tenuous Rooms was published by Test Centre in 2018. Happiness was published by Faber & Faber in 2015. He is senior lecturer in creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. He comes into the stud...

The final episode of the second season and it is a special one. We are joined by the wonderful Ella Frears. She is a poet and artist based in London. Her debut collection, Shine, Darling, (Offord Road Books, 2020) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry. She has had poetry published in t...

this week we are off across the waters again joined by Poet, essayist, and translator Indran Amirthanayagam. He is a Sri Lankan born poet raised in Colombo London, and Honolulu. He’s the author of numerous poetry collections, including The Elephants of Reckoning (1993), Ceylon, R.I.P. (2001), The Splintered Face (2008), Uncivil War (2013), and Coconuts...

Another brand-spankingly new episode of the Pickle Jar. This week we speak to Charlotte Ansell. Charlotte performs her poems regularly and her work has appeared in Poetry Review, Mslexia, Butcher’s Dog, Prole, Algebra of Owls and various anthologies; most recently ‘These are the hands’ – an anthology of poems by NHS workers. She has won various  competitions (Red Shed, BBC Write Science compe...

Deborah Alma is a UK poet, with an MA with distinction, in Creative Writing from Keele University. She is editor of Emergency Poet-an anti-stress poetry anthology , The Everyday Poet- Poems to live by (both Michael O’Mara), and #Me Too – rallying against sexual harassment- a women’s poetry anthology (Fair Acre Press, March 2018). Her True Tales of the Countryside was published by The Emma Press in...

This week we are joined by poet and performer Amy Acre. She has two pamphlets both of which were Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choices, she also won the Verve poetry Prize with a memorable poem called every girl knows, but bigger than that, she is the editor of one of the biggest and wildest small presses in the country, BAD BETTY PRESS.  Today we talk about this exert from Dionne Brand’s...

Another week Arji’s pickling the poems you'll love. This week’s guest is a poet, producer and workshop leader. His poems have appeared in Ambit Magazine, Oxford Poetry and Ink, Sweat and Tears. He is the director and co-founder of TOAST Poetry, an organisation dedicated to the professional development of poets. Lewis Buxton has his new book Boy in Various Poses out with Nine Arches...

This week we travelling to the states to hit you up with Carlos Andrés Gómez. He's a Colombian American poet, speaker, actor, author of  Fractures ,  Hijito , and the memoir  Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood . This man has too many awards to fit into this bio, he's star on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and TV One’s Verses and Flows and today he is bringing in a poem by Rachel Eli...