The Verb

Ian McMillan explores African writing with Maaza Mengiste, Ekow Eshun, Jennifer Makumbi and Ellah Wakatama. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

This week, the late-night language lock-in is feeling uncertain with Shaun Usher, Jo Neary and Jude Rogers.

When the world changes suddenly - how do we know what to abandon and what to keep? William Gibson, Don Paterson, Caro C, and Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún explore the writing of obsolescence with Ian McMillan. The iconic 1960s television series 'The Twilight Zone' is replete with sudden ruptures to daily life -Don Paterson explains how he used the series to write poems that explore our relationship with obsolesc...

Ian McMillan asks where poetry and philosophy meet - with guests Raymond Antrobus and Helen Mort.

Ian McMillan explores the language of leaving, resettling and exile with songwriter Ana Silvera and poets John McAuliffe, Igor Klikovac, Mina Gorji, and André Naffis-Sahely.

Welcome to Hotel Verb. Checking in with Ian McMillan this week are novelist Eimear McBride. Eimear won the Goldsmiths Prize and the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction for her debut novel 'A Girl is A Half-Formed Thing'. Since then, she's spent a lot of time in hotels, inspiring her new novel 'Strange Hotel' (Faber), in which the hotel becomes a metaphor for middle age. Joining Eimear is Andy Mille...

Poets Layli Long Soldier who is Oglala Lakota, and Natalie Diaz who is Mojave, join Ian McMillan for a programme in which they explore the power of pleasure, the effect of recurring images - and the way language can fall short in conveying apology. Professor Sarah Rivett explores the profound impact that Algonquin languages have had on the European mindset, and on the culture of the USA.

How can writers make 'goodness' compelling, as a theme or character trait ? Why is virtue-signalling seen as a negative thing? Is poetry the best form for exploring goodness? And do we need more writing about goodness, and more imaginative imagery for it'? Ian McMillan is joined by guests Toby Litt, Will Harris, Kate Fox and Kelcey Wilson-Lee. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence

Puns have a long history in human writing. Most of us recognise them as those little gems of comedy genius that make you laugh, or groan, but they're useful for being more than just funny, they're also fundamental to what makes poetry work and they provide the engine of change in language by allowing ideas to slip from one meaning to another. Artist and composer Hannah Catherine Jones, comedy writ...

A must for those who submit poetry and fiction to presses and magazines - the Verb takes a deep dive into the language of the poetry publishing world. It's a vibrant landscape, with publishers like Carcanet celebrating 50 years in business, and a whole host of smaller presses and magazine publishers thriving both online and in print. Many of the people behind the scenes are poets and writers thems...

The Christmas Verb rejoices in the pleasure of nonsense language, nonsense stories, ridiculous rhymes and things that makes no sense at all. Presenter Ian McMillan is joined by one of the greatest children’s book partnerships of all time, Julia Donaldson and Axel Schleffer, whose made-up monster the ‘Gruffalo’ is now part of childhoods all over the world – he’s also joined by the former Children’s...

This week the cabaret of the word heads to the playing field to examine the language of sports writing. Playing for Ian McMillan's team are the T.S.Eliot nominated poet Zaffar Kunial who has just published a pamphlet of poems on cricket, Frank Skinner, whose 'Fantasy Football League' set the tone for sports coverage in the 90's, and we'll hear another short form audio piece recorded as part of the...

This week The Verb goes to the Circus where it uncovers the darker side of the Victorian fair and the extraordinary language used to tell the stories of the living exhibits of the Freak Show with ringmaster extraordinaire Norman Barrett, historian John Woolf, writer Rosie Garland and poet Keith Hutson. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

Ian McMillan explores German poetry after the fall of the Berlin Wall – with two of Germany’s most celebrated and groundbreaking poets Durs Grünbein and Nora Gomringer. He is also joined by Professor Karen Leeder who’s explored the ways in which contemporary German literature is ‘haunted’ by the GDR, and by Ira Lightman who reads a new poem haunted by Rainer Maria Rilke – the German language poet...

Part of the BBC's year-long celebration of books, The Verb looks at the way the language of novels inspires writers. Joining Ian McMillan to champion the books that have inspired them are Tim Minchin, Kit De Waal, Elif Shafak and Geoff Dyer. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence

This week The Verb examines the idea of 'Alone', whether it means revelling in solitude or drowning in loneliness. Joining Ian are debut novelist Okechukwu Nzelu, whose 'The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney' examines finding yourself and where you belong, and Will Taylor who will be presenting an excerpt of his audio drama 'Black Boys Cry', produced as part of the BBC's New Creatives scheme. DJ Tayl...

Ian McMillan with writing inspired by molluscs (snails, slugs, and cockles) - he's joined by the novelist Jill Dawson on Patricia Highsmith's pet snails, poets Isabel Galleymore and Kate Fox, and Richard Gameson on the mystery of snail battles in the margins of medieval manuscripts.

This week, Ian McMillan and the guests shoot for the moon. Ian is joined by Ocean Vuong, winner of the 2017 TS Eliot prize for 'Night Sky with Exit Wounds', who has just published his first novel 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' (Cape). Ocean celebrates his favourite recent moon writing by Mojave American poet Natalie Diaz. We also her from Mary Jean Chan, who has just published her debut collect...

The 'feel' of another language and the impact of its sound is hard to convey in translation. Are there ways to be more faithful to the visceral experience of a prose piece or a poem? Or should we be questioning the idea that a translator can or should be faithful? Rowan Williams discusses the 'verbal spring' of the iconic Welsh bard Taliesin and the work attributed to him, novelist Adam Thirlwell...

What kind of writing and behaviour gets called 'vulgar' and how does 'vulgar' relate to the word 'common'? The Verb explores the power of both words: their power to hurt and shame, the way they help, hinder and enlighten us - and asks whether we can do without them. Poets Philip Gross, Jacqueline Saphra, Heather Phillipson (the next artist to be curating the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square) and...

This week The Verb is live at The Aldeburgh Festival in Snape Maltings. Joining Ian and a studio audience are Lavinia Greenlaw, Fiona Sampson and Mark Padmore. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence

This week The Verb comes from The Hay Festival, recorded in front of an audience at the BBC Tent. Ian's guests are the writer John Lanchester on his new dystopian novel 'The Wall' (Faber), poet Hannah Sullivan who recently won the TS Eliot Prize for her debut collection 'Three Poems' (Faber), comedian and 'Mash Report' star Rachel Parris on the art of the musical parody and Nina Stibbe whose novel...

The Verb does a deep dive into the word 'America' - why does it have such a hold on the imagination? Ian's guests are Tracy K Smith, the US Poet Laureate, nominated for the TS Eliot prize for her collection 'Wade in the Water', and Terrance Hayes, author of 'American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin', which was also shortlisted for the TS Eliot. Joining them is the critic Sarah Churchwell,...

This week The Verb is messing about on the river of language, part of BBC Radio 3's season of programmes on Rivers. Ian McMillan is joined by the Booker Prize-winning novelist Alan Hollinghurst, music journalist and broadcaster Jude Rogers and the poets Chris Wallace-Crabbe and MacGillivray. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence

Ian's guests on the 'late-night language lock-in' are the novelist Mark Haddon on his new novel The Porpoise' and poet Rachael Allen, whose debut collection 'Kingdomland' has just been published by Faber. We're also joined by Verb Regular Kate Fox and Allison Davies, who has written the next in our series of Verb dramas. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence