Poetry To Your Ears

Tune in to hear us chat about the legacy of slavery, erasure poems, Roy’s role as Birmingham’s poet laureate, Canal poet ambassador and Brighton Book Festival’s poet-in-residence, & more. Watch this episode on YouTube . “Living by Troubled Waters is the third poetry collection by Roy McFarlane  – an extraordinary, uncompromising book exploring slavery, colonialism, and the continued tragedies visi...

'Not Quite an Ocean' by Elizabeth M. Castillo is a paean to the feminine, to motherhood and to the natural world. At once these poems are both unabashed in their celebration of womanhood, and are searing in their unflinching confrontation with darker undercurrents that threaten to break and destroy. The poems in 'Not Quite an Ocean' are beacons, are rallying calls, and are ultimately a roars of st...

In this stunning pamphlet of quietly moving and poignant poems, Kathryn Millington guides her reader through the grief that comes as a result of involuntary childlessness, an issue which can affect up to 1 in 5 women. “You will know someone like me. We are everywhere: at your workplace, within your family, subsumed in your friendship groups. It’s such a lonely place. I want to inhabit that place a...

“The female body is a political space.” At Brighton Fringe’s event of Queer The Mic, we sat down in a dark den and talked to Joelle about performing Blue Now, from the film by Derek Jarman, with Russell Tovey, Travis Alabanza and Jay Bernard; her thoughts on spoken word vs poetry and its class divide, the gay scene in the 80s and now, founding SLAMbassadors and OutSpoken London as well as mentorin...

Listen to this episode if you’re interested in learning about how poetry can help cope with grief, Reanna’s relationship with their nan, the influence that Carolyn has had in Reanna becoming a poet, sharing poems about queerness and sex to their grandmother, editing the filthy poems, the process of editing and pairing poems written by two authors, what it means to perform poems written by someone...

In this episode, we reflect on Bristol city poets, the Bristol City of Words exhibition and talk to Michael Pederson , author of Boy Friend s (Faber), Hollie McNish , Sunday Times bestseller and author of Slug, Malaika Kegode , Festival poet and Kat Lyons , current Bristol city poet. This incredible line-up should be enough to get you to listen or watch this episode, but if you need more incentive...

Listen to this episode if you’re interested in Séamus’ personal journey towards sobriety and the role that writing played in it, the British cultural relationship with alcohol, the process of becoming a spoken word poet, writing and publishing No Homeless Problem and other poems by going to various Emmaus communities, and the role poetry has in personal and social change. You can also watch this e...

Permit Me to Write My Own Ending is a collection spanning generations and timescapes - from gritty, defiant explorations of a London adolescence, to haunting poems detailing love and adulthood in the US. Faulkner’s language and form dissects the emotional impact of historical trauma, navigating and sharply reframing nationality and memory, interiority and history. Depictions of London during the B...

We talked about balancing the duality of Devjani’s South Asian heritage with growing up in the UK, her grandmother’s experience as an Indian immigrant, increasing the diversity of the literary canon in school, links between poetry and prose, form, voice and the use of the second person in poetry. ‘For the daughters brought here on the hips of their mothers‘ attempts to bear witness to the stories...

Loulou & Tom went to the Verve Poetry Festival edition 2023 in Birmingham, a festival of poetry and spoken word.  This episode is also a video on Youtube, check it out here . We interviewed:Andrew McMillan, author of Pandemonium and co-editor of 100 Queer PoemsEric Yip, the youngest winner of the National Poetry CompetitionWayne Holloway-Smith, author of Lobsters and editor of The Poetry ReviewStu...

We talked about writing in English compared to Portuguese, how Romina’s working-class roots inspire their poetry, growing up in-between Portugual and England and how that is expressed in Sardines, creating her poetry event Natter Bolton and the benefit of having a poetry community, and getting in touch with Rebecca, the founder of Bent Key Publishing. “In this stunning collection of poetry, Romans...

Loulou & Tom talk to Mayor & Zayden Lindsay, father and son poets from Nottingham. Mayor Lindsay is a poet originally from Jamaica, now living in Nottingham, England, where he performs about racism, knife crime, poverty and more recently, the cost of living crisis. Zayden’s poetry deals with bullying, growing up, compassion ansd race. Zayden is fifteen and started writing poetry when he was nine....

Listen to our conversation with Maggie Bowyer about their latest poetry collection Allergies , poems about grief and love. (Maggie Bowyer, 2023) We talked about Maggie’s mother’s death and their first love’s death, the process of writing about grief, why this collection is relevant for all of us after two years in a pandemic, writing from home about home as a chronically ill person, finding beauty...

Listen to our conversation with Loll Perkin, author of Fewmin (Bent Key, 2022). “One of Manchester’s most passionate poets and a massive name on the poetry scene, Loll Perkin is here and she has something to say. Combining politics and pride with a hefty dose of the forthright attitude she is known for, this is not your nana’s poetry — this is an exclusive tour through a complicated, candid and cl...

Kofi is a London-based spoken word artist and self-proclaimed storyteller. He'll speak on anything, from sunsets to fascism. Kofi performed from Brighton seafront to Islington. He managed to worm his wayinto a Hammer and Tongue slam final and got a piece published when hewas 9. In this episode, we talked about winning the Queer The Mic feature slot, writing in lockdown, Kofi’s journey from making...

First birthday and 20th episode of Poetry to your Ears! Loulou, co-host and Sprigs of Heather, a previous guest, discuss the publishing of their respective poetry books Pink Goo and Woman of Nature, on the eve of their book launch at The Queery in Brighton. Pink Goo is about a spiral down to anxiety and depression and the following journey to find peace. After trying to shed light on social injust...

Georgina Langford is a Brighton writer who focuses on the millennial experience. She is a former music journalist turned poet and author, whose debut novel is a coming-of-age story set in 2005, due to be published next year. She runs a Substack called Millenial Horror Story publishing essays steeped in mid-2000s nostalgia and subculture. She is also working on her debut poetry collection. You can...

Charlotte Shevchenko Knight is a British-Ukrainian poet with a Masters from Goldsmiths University. She was recently commended in the National Poetry Competition, and forms part of the Poetry Translation Centre’s Undertow Eight. Her work centres on womanhood, Ukrainian history, and folklore. She has written pieces for the United Nations, Magma , and bath magg , amongst others. Ways of Healing  is a...

Kimberly Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American poet and the author of  ghosts in the stalks and Here I Am Burn Me .   She is originally from Omaha, Nebraska but currently living in New York City. She is a graduate of Vassar College where she holds a degree in both English and Russian Studies. Additionally, she studied abroad at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. She is a recipient of the Be...

CW: a lot of F-bombs in this episode. Explicit This episode is a bit of a special one, it is a recording of a live poetry event in Brighton. It’s called Queer The Mic, it was in July and it was their first one! Note: This episode is sent as part of a Susbtack newsletter, come subscribe and receive all episodes in your inbox! Subscribe There is a paid subscription option that supports us in affordi...

On today’s episode, we are having a conversation with Bassie Gracie. Note: This episode is sent as part of a Susbtack newsletter, come subscribe and receive all episodes in your inbox! Subscribe There is a paid subscription option that supports us in affording transcripts in order to make our podcast more accessible. Bassie Gracie is a punk performance poet known for her musical musings, feel-good...

Pete Strong is a poet and performance artist whose work explores memory, landscape and identity. He creates theatrical performances and installations using film, movement, spoken word, audio recordings and found sound. He has previously been shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize, performed at the Hammer & Tongue Spoken Word National Final, and been a runner up in the Brighton Comedy Squawk...

Simon Maddrell is a queer Manx poet thriving with HIV based in Brighton. He is the author of "Throatboane", "Queerfella" and co-author of "All about our mothers".  He recently performed at Brighton Fringe with his show "Two Old Queens and a Clutch of Poems".  You can find Simon on Instagram @SimonMaddrell, on Twitter @QueerManxPoet or on Facebook "Simon Maddrell Spoken Words & Poetry".  You ca...

Ali Malek is our special guest today. Ali is a queer poet from Dubai, based in Brighton. ' Baby Teeth' is the second poetry book by Ali Malek, published in March 2022. Following 2020's 'Traditional Kids', Ali makes it clear that they have found their voice as a story teller through poetry. Described as a book about acknowledging, accepting and moving through mistakes, its the new handbook on begin...

Sprigs of Heather joins us on this week’s episode. Heather is a poet and writer based in Brighton. She speaks of wild and divine feminine archetypes, the primordial natural world and the bittersweetness of being human. She is published in ‘No ordinary Words: The Real Life Wisdom of Women’, a book written by 33 women and edited by Kelly Herrick. She publishes her poems on her website and on Instagr...