The Poetry Society

Will Harris, Poetry Review contributor and the most recent winner of the Arts Foundation poetry fellowship, started writing poetry when it wasn't cool. Here, he talks to Review Editor Emily Berry about discovering dreams as inspiration, Emily Bronte, the meanings – problematic and otherwise – of 'white', video games and putting together his first full collection. He also reads from his wonderful sequence 'The White Jumper' (which he has also written about in the Review section of poetrysociety.org.uk).

Recorded in his Cornwall home in the 1970s, W.S. Graham, "solitary pioneer at the edge of language", reads his celebrated poem 'The Constructed Space'. Graham's centenary was celebrated in 2018. Join us at bit.ly/wsgevent to hear more. Author photo © Estate of Michael Seward Snow, 2019. All rights reserved.

Recorded in his Cornwall home in the 1970s, W.S. Graham, "solitary pioneer at the edge of language", reads his poem 'I Leave This At Your Ear'. Graham's centenary was celebrated in 2018. Join us at bit.ly/wsgevent to hear more. Author photo © Estate of Michael Seward Snow, 2019. All rights reserved.

Acclaimed children's poet Joseph Coelho performs his new poem 'Look Into My Lights', with images dreamt up by London schoolchildren. This poem was commissioned by The Poetry Society for the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree 2018 and you can read the text online at: poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/look-into-my-lights The poem is displayed on a vibrant banner designed by James Brown around the tree until early January 2019. Since 2009, The Poetry Society has worked with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London to create a poetry project inspired by the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree, which is now established as a central part of the tradition. Poetry from workshops in Westminster primary schools is presented each year to one of the UK’s best children’s poets. Their task is to produce a new poem celebrating the gift of the tree from the Mayor of Oslo. The poem is read out at the official lighting up ceremony and displayed around the base of the tree. Find out more about The Poetry Society's Look North More Ofte

sam sax, American poet and queer Jewish icon, chats to Joelle Taylor about starting out performing in loud bars, reads his poem 'Haematology', and shares a brand new poem about the devastating California wildfires. Plus, the tough poetry questions are put to sam sax from some of the 2018 participants of SLAMbassadors, The Poetry Society's youth SLAM poetry showcase. We'll also hear poems from SLAMbassadors Noah Jacob and Beth-Ellen Hollis. This podcast was recorded in partnership with Out-Spoken. www.poetrysociety.org.uk http://www.outspokenldn.com

Listen in on influential US poet Chelsey Minnis, author of Poemland, Zirconia, Foxina, Bad Bad and the just-published Baby, I Don’t Care, in a highly entertaining interview with Poetry Review editor Emily Berry. Their conversation ranges across Chelsey’s obsession with Turner Classic Movies TV channel, the usefulness of screenplay structures, being influenced and being an influencer, reading and rereading Plath, Whitman, Chekhov’s plays and Patricia Highsmith’s novels, and the relationships between poetry, play and money.

“I have so many anecdotes and stories [about] how d/Deaf people are excluded from cultural events and how much harder they/we/I have had to work to access culture. I am trying to write into those disconnections and create new bridges.” Raymond Antrobus, Review contributor and winner of the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize, talks to Emily Berry about his forthcoming debut collection The Perseverance, his work as a poet-teacher in d/Deaf and hearing schools, literacy, elegy and the influence of cinema on his work. Poems in The Perseverance challenge and rework the canon as part of a process he describes as “developing a language to explain myself”, of “writing through trauma and coming to different conclusions that I can apply to new bodies of work”. He gives powerful readings of his poems ‘Sound Machine’ and ‘After Reading Ted Hughes’s “Deaf School” by the Mississippi River’.

Congratulations to Will Harris, who reads here his poem 'SAY'. First published in The Poetry Review, Winter 2017, it has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem .

“I think shame is very unhelpful, that taboos can be very unhelpful – maybe we should try and be as brave as our poems.” Fiona Benson, author of the prize-winning collection Bright Travellers, talks to Review Editor Emily Berry, about her new collection Vertigo & Ghost, forthcoming from Cape in 2019. They consider questions of shame, permission and catharsis, the challenges of working with difficult material and ‘breaking through’ – the ways in which writing works to bring the inside outside, and the influence of writers such as Sylvia Plath, Sharon Olds and Lucille Clifton. Benson also reflects on the sublime and its possibilities in contemporary poetry, with reference to Whitman, Rilke and Ginsberg. She reads her astonishing poems ‘Fly’ and ‘[Zeus] Anatomical Dolls’, both first published in The Poetry Review. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

Note: This podcast contains some strong language from the start. In this collaboration between The Poetry Society, Poet in the City and Out-Spoken, Joelle Taylor brings together of the biggest names on the British and American spoken word scenes about the intersection between their poetic craft, politics and activism. This podcast was recorded backstage at King's Place, London on 24 January 2018, before Danez Smith's sell-out performance of poems from their most recent collection 'Don't Call Us Dead'. Featuring: American writer and performer Danez Smith, whose work explores systematic racism, police brutality, and the stigmas around being HIV positive; Anthony Anaxagorou, poet and founder of Out-Spoken Press, which publishes new, establishment-shaking poetry giving a platform to oppressed and under-represented voices; Jay Bernard, poet and filmmaker who has helped create spaces and platforms for QITPOC artists in the UK; Writer and activist Imani Robinson, who works with movements seeking to address a

In this bonus festive mini-podcast, poet, comedian, and hair-laden storyteller Rob Auton reads 'Letter From Father Christmas'. This reading is taken from a longer discussion with Joelle Taylor. You can find the full interview on The Poetry Society's Soundcloud, or by subscribing to The Poetry Society's podcast via your podcast app of choice. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk You can catch Rob Auton at his regular spoken word night Bang Said The Gun, and, in 2018, on The Hair Tour. For dates and tickets, visit www.robauton.co.uk.

In our most festive podcast yet, Julian Stannard reads his poems ‘Boxing Day’, ‘Buddhism’ and ‘Pigs in Suffolk’, and talks about the strange theatre of the dining room: Italy, his mother, Christmas and trifle; bleak poems that end up being humorous; poets Giorgio Caproni, Ezra Pound, Christopher Reid and Selima Hill; of a sense of the absurd as a coping mechanism; and of Donald Davies’s idea of fending off at least some of the stuff trying to get into a poem. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

“Poetry is an inner armour available to anyone,” says the celebrated Jamaican poet Ishion Hutchinson in this latest in The Poetry Review podcast series. In conversation with Review Editor Emily Berry, Hutchinson talks about his influences (citing Donne, Eliot and George Seferis) and his poetics; about homesickness, travel and "returning responsibly". Hutchinson also reads his poems, ‘West Ride Out’ and ‘Travel Axe’, both first published in The Poetry Review. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

SLAMbassadors Artistic Director Joelle Taylor speaks to poet, comedian and all-around stagesmith Rob Auton about becoming one of the spoken word scene's most recognisable (and hairiest) faces, as one of the masterminds behind legendary live poetry night Bang Said The Gun. Plus, they discuss the complicated relationship between poet and audience, Rob's upcoming tour entitled 'The Hair Show', what it means to be known as both a poet and a comic, and much more. Rob reads his poems 'Poem about a kettle written while listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen', 'A Letter From Father Christmas', and 'My Favourite Bakery', which is probably the best poem about bread you'll hear all week. You can catch Rob Auton at Bang Said The Gun, which has shows upcoming at the Soho Theatre in November and December 2017, and on The Hair Tour, in 2018. For dates and tickets, visit www.robauton.co.uk. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk