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 So...
Dec 09, 2022•6 min
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 commi...
Sep 15, 2022•52 sec
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 Poetry Review, Winter 2021. The Obsidian Foundation is a 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 mo...
Aug 19, 2022•36 min
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 pani...
Feb 16, 2022•30 min
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 interv...
Dec 10, 2021•6 min
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
Sep 14, 2021•41 min
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 li...
Sep 08, 2021•35 min
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, br...
Jul 21, 2021•34 min
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.
Jul 02, 2021•35 min
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 Eu...
Apr 09, 2021•46 min
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
Mar 26, 2021•2 min
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,...
Mar 02, 2021•40 min
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', a...
Feb 12, 2021•41 min
'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.
Dec 18, 2020•3 min
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 c...
Aug 28, 2020•33 min
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 Gravi...
Aug 13, 2020•23 min
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 y...
Jun 03, 2020•25 min
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 ...
Feb 24, 2020•32 min
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...
Dec 11, 2019•3 min
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 offe...
Dec 04, 2019•30 min
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...
Oct 17, 2019•45 min
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 Under...
Oct 03, 2019•6 min
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 e...
Sep 11, 2019•41 min
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. Kami...
Aug 16, 2019•36 min
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...
Jul 25, 2019•1 hr 43 min
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 201...
Jul 16, 2019•1 hr 1 min
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 201...
Jul 16, 2019•50 min
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.
Jul 05, 2019•54 min
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...
Jun 28, 2019•2 hr 5 min
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’.
Jun 06, 2019•29 min
