The Poetry Society

These are our words: Jen Campbell reviews the anthology Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back, edited by Sandra Alland, Khairani Barokka, Daniel Sluman and published by Nine Arches, which examines the poetics of D/deaf and disabled cultures. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

‘You listen for the poem to say itself’ Emily Berry talks to Gillian Allnutt about meditation, fragmentation and the ‘hinterland’ of the poem. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

The prize-wining American poet Jane Yeh, author of Marabou and The Ninjas (both Carcanet) talks to Sarah Howe, co-editor of the winter issue of The Poetry Review. They discuss Yeh’s use of dramatic monologue and the often fantastical personas she adopts (ninjas, rabbits, androids) to hilarious effect. “I think of Oscar Wilde’s phrase, ‘the truth of masks’ – how when you wear a mask it reveals your identity in a way,” Yeh explains. They also discuss contemporary art, installations and film and influences such as Amy Woolard, Stephen Burt, Lucie Brock-Broido and the work of fellow-writers Safiya Sinclair, Ocean Vuong and Timothy Donnelly. Yeh reads her poems ‘Rabbit Empire’ and ‘A Short History of Patience’, first published in The Poetry Review. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

Jacob Polley reads his poem 'Applejack' from his latest Jackself, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize 2016. The poem was first published in The Poetry Review, 106:3, autumn 2016, co-edited by Kayo Chingonyi and Maurice Riordan. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

Jacob Polley, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize 2016, talks to Kayo Chingonyi, co-editor of the autumn issue of The Poetry Review, about his Eliot prize-winning collection, Jackself. “The self is at the root of all my work, but maybe my work springs from the tension between self-expression and concealment, of running the self through a magic lantern and seeing what comes out the other side,” Polley says. They discuss Polley’s recent collaborations with musician John Alder, the influence of Cumbria or the ‘Debatable Lands’ in which he grew up, acceptance and rejection, and of working with his editor Don Paterson. Jacob also reads the poem ‘Snow Dad’, first published in The Poetry Review. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

Writing in The Poetry Review, Paul Batchelor described the publication of The Poems of Basil Bunting (Faber), edited by Don Share, as “a major event”. “It is to be hoped,” he continued, “that this excellent edition will mark a turning point in Bunting’s fortunes among English readers, for he has yet to receive his due.” To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk Don Share and Paul Batchelor joined Matthew Sperling at University College London recently to reflect on Bunting’s “due”: his place among the greatest of British poets, the triumph that is his masterpiece Briggflatts, and the contemporary relevance of his internationalist, non-isolationist and intellectually curious outlook. You can listen in on the exchange of views in this recording of their discussion.

SLAMbassadors Artistic Director Joelle Taylor speaks to poet Sabrina Mahfouz in this Poetry Society podcast, to discuss How You Might Know Me, Sabrina's new poetic exploration of women who work in the sex industry. They also speak on the surprising ways that fashion, immigrant and queer cultures intersect, the battle for cultural recognition fought by today's spoken word artists, and more. Sabrina reads her poem 'Why I Can't Marry You', taken from her new book. How You Might Know Me launches on 26 October with Out-Spoken Press. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

Joelle Taylor chats to spoken word artist Salena Godden about the UK's spoken word poetry scene, past present and future, as well as her experience with the recent BBC iPlayer documentary 'We Belong Here'. Salena also reads and discusses her poem 'Titanic', tells us the best and worst gig she's ever been to, and more. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

Jen Hadfield was commissioned by The Poetry Society and the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, to write her poem, ‘The Lantern Fly’, inspired by an exhibition of paintings by the German artist and entomologist Maria Merian. She talks to Judith Palmer about the “jewelline, sparkling” natural world of her home on Shetland, and how Merian’s pioneering spirit and paintings inspired a poem in which death is represented by the lantern fly, “unable to find the person that it’s meant to be ministering to”. She also reads her poem 'Lichen'. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

Listen to Jen Hadfied's entrancing reading of her new poem, 'The Lantern Fly', commissioned by The Poetry Society and the Royal Collection Trust, and inspired by Maria Sibylla Merian's painting of a lantern fly. The exhibition of Merian's paintings, Maria Merian's Butterflies, was first shown at The Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, and continues at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, until 9 October 2016. This recording was made on 26 May 2016 at The Poetry Society premises. To connect with more poetry, visit poetrysociety.org.uk

Emily Berry, who will jointly edit the summer 2016 issue of The Poetry Review, talks to Maurice Riordan about taste, humour and subverting conventional power relationships. They discuss her Forward Prize-winning debut collection, Dear Boy, and shift in tone and subject matter of her upcoming collection Stranger, Baby. Emily also reads her poem ‘Aqua’.

Frank Ormsby was Editor of The Honest Ulsterman during one of the most illustrious phases of Irish poetry. He talks about the involvement of poets such as Heaney, Longley, Carson and Muldoon, and his own long career as a writer. His poems – modest, humorous, deeply felt and generally slow to appear – have latterly been written in a “mad excitement” he remains suspicious of – “the belated release of something”. Ormsby also talks movingly about suffering from Parkinson’s disease and its effect on his writing. He reads his poem ‘Grandfather’s Week’, published in The Poetry Review, 105:4. His latest book is Goat's Milk, New & Selected Poems, published by Bloodaxe in 2015.

Iain Galbraith reads ‘December 1914’ from his Popescu Prize winning translation of Jan Wagner’s collection Self-Portrait with a Swarm of Bees, published by Arc Publications. The Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize is awarded biennially by The Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. The judges this year are Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard. The prize is supported in 2015 by the British Council. For more information on the 2015 Popescu Prize and selected poems please visit our website: http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/popescu-prize/2015-2/

Ian Galbraith reads ‘December 1914’ in the original German and from his Popescu Prize winning translation of Jan Wagner’s collection Self-Portrait with a Swarm of Bees, published by Arc Publications. The Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize is awarded biennially by The Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. The judges this year are Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard. The prize is supported in 2015 by the British Council. For more information on the 2015 Popescu Prize and selected poems please visit our website: http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/popescu-prize/2015-2/

Anne Stokes reads ‘Earth’ from her Popescu Prize shortlisted translation of Sarah Kirsch’s collection Ice Roses: Selected Poems, published by Carcanet. The Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize has been awarded biennially by The Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. The judges this year are Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard. The prize is supported in 2015 by the British Council. For more information on the 2015 Popescu Prize and selected poems please visit our website: http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/popescu-prize/2015-2/

David Constantine reads ‘When I Left You, Afterwards…’ from his Popescu Prize shortlisted translation of Bertolt Brecht’s collection Love Poems, published by Liveright. The Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize has been awarded biennially by The Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. The judges this year are Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard. The prize is supported in 2015 by the British Council. For more information on the 2015 Popescu Prize and selected poems please visit our website: http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/popescu-prize/2015-2/

Tom Kuhn reads ‘Discovery about a Young Woman’ from his Popescu Prize shortlisted translation of Bertolt Brecht’s collection Love Poems, published by Liveright. The Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize has been awarded biennially by The Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. The judges this year are Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard. The prize is supported in 2015 by the British Council. For more information on the 2015 Popescu Prize and selected poems please visit our website: http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/popescu-prize/2015-2/ For more on Tom's research and translation project go to http://brecht.mml.ox.ac.uk/ or follow @writingbrecht on Twitter.

Susan Wicks reads ‘The Poem for Jacques’ from her Popescu Prize shortlisted translation of Valérie Rouzeau’s collection Talking Vrouz, published by Arc Publications. The Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize has been awarded biennially by The Poetry Society for a volume of poetry translated from a European language into English. The judges this year are Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard. The prize is supported in 2015 by the British Council. For more information on the 2015 Popescu Prize and selected poems please visit our website: http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/popescu-prize/2015-2/

Helen Mort talks to Maurice Riordan about writing and the problem of observation; Jeremy Deller’s Battle of Orgreave and her poem ‘Scab’; writing on the run; neuroscience, Norman MacCaig, John Burnside and Paul Muldoon, and how writing her first novel is both similar to and different from writing poems. Helen is a five times winner of Foyle Young Poets of the Year. Her first collection, Division Street (Chatto & Windus) was shortlisted for the Costa Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize and, in 2014, won the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize. She also reads her poem ‘Ablation’.

‘Awater’, written by Martinus Nijhoff in 1934, is considered the great Dutch modernist poem. Hailed by Brodsky as “the future of poetry”, it is still barely known outside the Netherlands. In it, the poet-narrator trails his mysterious neighbour – Awater – through the city night before abandoning the trail in a train station. Is the poem about the imagination, the unconscious mind, about bereavement, about the existential hollow in the wake of the First World War, about T.S. Eliot, about religion and the old world, about the future? With the help of David Colmer, Professor Wiljan van den Akker, poets Onno Kosters and Astrid Alben, and artist-writer Bette Adriaanse, Jane Draycott looks for answers to these questions. This audio piece is supported by the Dutch Foundation for Literature.