Inky Voices

Piers Harrison-Reid is a frontline A&E nurse and an established voice in the British Performance Poetry scene. He is perhaps best known for his piece celebrating the 70th year of the NHS - 'Love is for the Brave' which went viral after its release in 2018. Piers is a veteran of the festival scene and is currently working on a project to give voice to the diverse array of workers at all levels in the NHS.

Alan Summers is a poet and authority on Japanese short-form poetry. He is a former General Secretary of the British Haiku Society and is the current President of the  United Haiku & Tanka Society'. His work has led him to receive an award from the Japan Times and he is a Pushcart Prize nominee.

Along with his partner Karen Hoy, Alan offers online courses in various kinds of short-form poetry through 'Call of the Page' and is an advocate for poetry as a vehicle through which critically-ill and house-bound individuals, as well as able-bodied writers, can find a vehicle for personal expression and freedom.

Martin Figura is a Norfolk-based poet and performer. He has written a number of stage shows which have grown out of the three collections of work currently in publication - 'Whistle', 'Dr Zeeman's Catastrophe Machine' and his most recent work 'Shed'.

Martin is also an experienced photographer and perhaps it is his own appreciation of visual aesthetics which has led him to explore the potential for combining poetry, prose and visual elements on the stage.

Susan Browne is a poet and musician based in Oakland California. She has had a string of poems published in respected journals and collections and has studied and collaborated with some of the best contemporary poets in the States, including previous 'Inky Voices' interviewee Kim Addonizio. 

Susan has taught Creative Writing at Diablo Valley College for a number of years and has tutored rising poets online and through a number of workshops and seminars.

Her first collection ('Buddha's Dogs') was published in 2004, followed by 'Zephyr' in 2010. Her most recent collection - 'Just Living' (2019) won the Catamaran Poetry Prize last year and has been described by Zack Rogow as a collection of works 'that fuse outrageous humour with a stiletto-sharp pathos'. 

Luke Kennard is a Midlands-based poet, novelist and Professor of Creative Writing at Birmingham University. He was the youngest poet ever to be nominated for the Forward Poetry Prize and has several critically-acclaimed collections to his name. Luke is perhaps best known for his authoritative treatment of the prose poem as an experimental form; his work is infused with surreal and absurdist imagery which is at once self-ironising but also achieves a sense of the numinous.

Helen Ivory is a Norfolk based poet and visual artist with a number of acclaimed collections published by Bloodaxe Books, including her most recent anthology 'The Anatomical Venus (2019). She is also the editor of the webzine 'Ink, Sweat, Tears' and is a tutor and course director for the UEA/National Centre for Writing online creative writing programme.

James Wijesinghe is a rising poet in the UK Spoken Word scene. We met as contestants on the wonderful Punnit Gameshow and have stayed in touch since by social media.

Like me, James has a passion for wordplay and creative, out-of-the-box thinking. He was the editor of Exeter's 'Enigma' poetry journal and has won an award in New Zealand for his exploration of Dada cut-ups. James has performed at festivals, theatres and other public events and also regularly uses Instagram as a platform for his material.

Kim Addonizio is one of the most respected contemporary poets in the United States today. With 6 collections of poetry and a plethora of other fiction and non-fiction texts published to date, Kim has that rare ability to be able to evolve and experiment while, at the same time, remaining congruent to her own voice and underlying themes. Kim doesn't identify as a poet of the 'stage' or the 'page', expressing a view that is increasingly my own; she thinks of herself as simply a 'poet' whose curiosity guides her along with her passion for wordplay.

In this episode, I reflect on my personal journey as a poet over the last few months. The last time I did this was back at the end of November last year and a lot has happened over the last 10 weeks!

John Osborne is a seasoned Spoken word poet who has headlined many of the major festivals and poetry events over the years. A key member of Aisle 16, John's approachability and wit gave him a unique voice which warmed audiences across the country and he continues to enjoy a diverse and loyal fan base.

John's also an accomplished scriptwriter ('After Hours' in collaboration with Molly Naylor), non-fiction writer and he has a series of stage shows to his name alongside a growing body of poems.