Arji's Poetry Pickle Jar

Welcome to another series of Arji's Poetry Pickle Jar. Today we are joined by a wonderful woman and poet named Liz Berry. Her first book of poems, Black Country (Chatto 2014) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, received a Somerset Maugham Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award and Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Liz's pamphlet The Republic of Motherhood (Chatto, 2018) was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice and the title poem won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. Her new book The Home Child is just out and is GREAT.

Today she discusses one hell of a poem by James Wright. Here's the poem if you fancy a look - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46481/a-blessing

As part of the research for my new book I interviewed a number of people affected by radicalisation, extremism and violence. These interviews were so interesting and fruitful. I'm very proud of my book and all journey of how it came into being. So I decided to put together a podcast episode to help unpack some of the poems and the process. 

Please purchase the books here - https://tinylink.net/W8XYc

Please Note - In this episode I refer to an 'ethnological approach' - that should be 'ethnographic approach'. I'm always learning these terms and trying to grow.

Special thanks to Nicola Benyahia, Ivan Humble and Hilary Pilkington for all their love, support and kindness.

A special today recorded live at Wayne Holloway-Smith's house. Three wonderful poets share new work many of which have never been heard before! Presenting the brilliant Will Harris, known for his brilliant book Rendang. Also, the great Richard Scott who's published with Faber his book Soho was a game changer. And finally, Lucy Mercer whose debut book Emblem is something to behold. All of these great poets here to entertain you for 15 brilliant minutes.

Will Harris - https://willjharris.com/poems

Richard Scott - http://richardscott.info/poetry.html

Lucy Mercer - https://lucy-mercer.com/writing

The final episode of this series features the wonderful Clare Pollard. She's a poet with more than 6 books under her belt, she's a novelist, she's a critic, she has judged more competitions that I could count and she is an immensely lovely person. Such a pleasure to share this with you all.

Today Clare brings in the powerhouse Anne Sexton with a poem called The Truth the Dead Know. You can read the poem here.

Another instalment this time with a poet so bloody brilliant it feels almost pointless to give her an introduction. She  was named as one of Mslexia’s ‘top ten’ women poets of the decade, as well as being chosen as one of the Poetry Book Society’s Next Generation poets. Her book ‘Burying the Wren’ was published in 2012; it was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and a Times Literary Supplement book of the year.

She has such a wealth of knowledge, I can honestly say I learnt a lot in this session!

Today we talk about Wild Iris by Louise Gluck. 

Enjoy.

This week we are joined by award-winning poet John McCullough whose poems have appeared in magazines including Poetry Review, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Poetry London and Best British Poetry. His first collection The Frost Fairs (Salt, 2011) won the Polari First Book Prize and was Book of the Year for The Independent and The Poetry School. His last collection Reckless Paper Birds was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award. Finally he has his new collection called Panic Response out with Penned in the Margins.

Today he gives us a poem by the brilliant Caroline Bird. We talk space, pauses and line-breaks in this fearless breakdown of an absolute belter.

So excited to do this episode. Fran Lock is the author of several poetry collections, including Contains Mild Peril (2019), Raptures and Captures (2019), Ruses and Fuses (2018), Muses and Bruises (2017), Dogtooth (2017), The Mystic and the Pig Thief (2014), and Flatrock (2011).

Today she brings in a hefty poem called 'Through A Screen Darkly' by Golnoosh Nour from her debut collection Rocksong. It's a good poem, good enough for me to buy the whole book

Excited to bring you yet another instalment of the Pickle Jar. A place where we invite the best poets to talk about their favourite poems. This week we are joined by Flipped Eye favourite Maia Elsner who brings in a little known poem called Five Men by Polish writer, Zbigniew Herbert. We talk politics in poetry, we discuss violence and how to portray it and we also share our thoughts on what makes this poem so special.

Come get it.