Lunar Poetry Podcasts

This episode is in two parts:

Part one - David Turner talks to Mary Jean Chan about her debut pamphlet, 'a hurry of english' (Ignition Press), finding queer and gender-bending identities in classic English literature and how it feels to be demanding space as a published queer writer. Mary Jean also reads three poems:

(00:04:00) - Rules for a Chinese Child Buying Stationery in a London Bookshop

(00:28:11) - Dragon Hill Spa

(1:00:30) - Tea Ceremony

http://www.maryjeanchan.com/

https://www.brookes.ac.uk/poetry-centre/ignition-press/

Part two (1:02:06) - David Turner is at Verve Poetry Festival in Birmingham interviewing Sandeep K Parmar in front of a lovely crowd of festival goers. The pair discuss whether poems are always retrospective or if they can ever exist in the moment, what role live literature events play in the development of Sandeep's writing and how Sandeep balances the dual roles of writing and literary criticism. Sandeep also reads two poems:

(1:05:20) - Invocation

(1:15:49) - Against Chaos

https://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/sandeep-parmar

A full transcript of this conversation can be downloaded here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/ep112-mary-jean-chan-sandeep-k-parmar.pdf

Assistant producer on this episode - Tiegan Hall-Turner.

This episode is in two parts:

David Turner talks to poet and playwright Jackie Hagan talk about Jackie’s new play, ‘This Is Not A Safe Space’, which she’s just started touring. The play, presented by Unlimited and Big Feast, is based on interviews with over 80 people and in it, Jackie examines the impact of benefit cuts on disabled people and others on the margins of society. Perhaps predictably, considering the theme of this work, we discuss class - a lot. More specifically, when the idea of class entered Jackie’s consciousness and the effect it had on her gall bladder and mental health.

Dates for 'This Is Not A Safe Space':

23 and 24 March 2018 at the Attenborough Centre in Leicester as part of De-Stress Fest

25 March 2018 the Alhambra Theatre in Morecambe

29 March 2018 at the Creation Space in Basingstoke

30 March 2018 at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield

17-21 April 2018 Camden People’s Theatre in London

Part two [00:58:33]:

David Turner is in front of a live audience at the Verve Poetry Festival in Birmingham talking to Nuar Alsadir about writing for an imagined reader and treating our notebook and pen as tools of the trade.

LPP:

https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.com/

https://twitter.com/Silent_Tongue

https://www.facebook.com/LunarPoetryPodcasts/?ref=bookmarks

Jackie:

https://twitter.com/JackieHagan

https://www.jackiehagan.org/

Nuar:

https://twitter.com/FrthPrsnSnglr

https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/86418

A full transcript of this conversation can be downloaded here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/ep111-jackie-hagan-nuar-alsadir.pdf

David Turner is in south east London talking to poet Caroline Bird about her fifth collection, 'In These Days of Prohibition' (Carcanet Press, 2017). The pair discuss how Caroline chose, in this collection, to confront feelings of shame and guilt and examine why we might deny these feelings. As it frequently does, the topic of honesty in poetry rears its head. Caroline reads three poems:

(00:04:37) - Eye Contact

(00:33:11) - To Be Explicit

(01:00:53) - Megan Married Herself

http://www.carolinebird.co.uk/

https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.com/

https://www.facebook.com/LunarPoetryPodcasts/?ref=bookmarks

https://twitter.com/Silent_Tongue

Transcript available to download here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/ep110-caroline-bird-transcript.pdf

David Turner is in Bristol chatting to documentary-maker, performance poet and director, Byron Vincent. Byron talks about the role that slam poetry played in his development as a writer and how it allowed him time on stage to shape his writing style. The pair also discuss writing as a mental health service user. Byron reads two poems:

(00:40:35) - 'Wot'

(00:42:50) - 'Citroën DS'

https://twitter.com/Silent_Tongue

https://www.facebook.com/LunarPoetryPodcasts/

http://www.byronvincent.com/

https://twitter.com/IAmByronVincent

A full transcript is available to download here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/ep109-byron-vincent-lpp-transcript.pdf

David Turner is at Bristol Central Library talking to Belfast-born poet Susannah Dickey about her debut pamphlet, 'I had some very slight concerns' (The Lifeboat) and beginning her creative writing MA at Goldsmith's University. The conversation covers prose poetry, naming titles and spending too much time on mumsnet. Susannah reads three poems including two from issue #230 of Ambit Magazine:

00:03:56 - 'We are not nearly as sad as we think we ought to be'

00:21:49 - 'I have a reason for asking but I'd rather not share'

00:39:04 - ' 'Plywood is the liberation of wood.' Frank Lloyd Wright, in conjunction with the United States Plywood Corporation.

Episode transcript can be downloaded here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/ep108-susannah-dickey-lpp-transcripts.pdf

You can find Susie on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/susannahdickey?lang=en

You can buy Susie's pamphlet here: http://lifeboatbelfast.tictail.com/

To celebrate National Poetry Day 2017 here in the UK we gathered some poets together to share their work with us. This episode contains some strong language and as it's in the poems I've decided not to bleep the words. Poets and Readings are as follows:

David Turner - "Milk" by Susannah Dickey (00:02:00)

Rishi Dastidar - "Contour" (00:06:10)

Mary-Jean Chan - "Conversation with fantasy mother" (00:07:07)

"They would have all that" (00:08:02)

Holly Corfield-Carr - "Z" (00:10:16)

Lizzy Turner - "Putting the art back in K-mart" by Scott Laudati (00:14:11)

Thomas Darby - "Alfresco in waves" (00:1702)

Khairani Barokka - "Meteorology" (00:18:40)

"Pineapple" (00:21:19)

David Turner - "over skype" by Sean Wai Keung (00:24:14)

A transcript can be downloaded here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/ep-107-national-poetry-day-2017-lpp-transcript.pdf

This is a revisit of episodes 77 and 78 as i don't think I did a good enough job of editing the discussion the first time around. Host Jacob Sam-La Rose is joined by Miriam Nash and Keith Jarrett, they talk about the work they do within schools with poetry education, how they got into educational work in the first place and what they wish they’d known when they first started out. There are lots of great tips here for those already working as educational facilitators or those thinking about moving into this area of work as well as teachers looking to introduce poetry into their lessons.

http://www.jsamlarose.com/

http://zoneonetosix.blogspot.co.uk/

https://miriamnash.com/

Transcript available to download here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/ep106-poetry-in-schools.pdf

Khairani Barokka is joined by poets Raymond Antrobus, Sandra Alland and Giles L. Turnbull for a discussion about access to publishing in the UK. Link to transcript below. The quartet discuss the variety of barriers they have faced or addressed during their careers. Taking the recently published anthology, Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back, as their starting point, they move on to cover magazine submissions, live reading, poetry competitions, and the often 'tokenistic' approach to diversity within poetry publishing.

More info about the host and guests:

Khairani: http://khairanibarokka.com

Sandra: www.blissfultimes.ca

Raymond: http://www.raymondantrobus.com/

Giles: http://gilesturnbullpoet.com

A transcript of this conversation can be downloaded here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/episode-105-access-to-publishing-lpp-transcripts.pdf

Accompanying blogpost with further details about guests etc: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.com/2017/08/20/episode-105-access-to-publishing/

This episode is in two parts:

Part 1 - David turner is in Wrexham, north Wales talking to Young People's Laureate of Wales, Sophie McKeand. The pair discuss her role as YPLoW with Literature Wales, her educational work and why politics features so heavily in her writing. Sophie reads three poems from her debut collection, Rebel Sun:

'Paper News' - (00:02:19)

'Rebel Sun' - (00:17:27)

'From The Ashes (00:30:45)

Part 2 (00:31:52) - David Turner briefly chats to Tim Humphrey-Jones and Natasha Borton about their regular spoken word night, Voice Box Spoken Word which takes place at Undegun Arts space in Wrexham. A selection of performers from the night follow this chat including the feature act for the evening, Tukaiisloveletter;

Pat Edwards, 'Facelift' -(00:39:46)

Graham Weaver, 'Runaways' - (00:41:10); 'Wrexham Baths' - (00:42:12)

Lucid, 'BEATBOXING' - (00:42:52)

Evrah Rose, 'Slithering' - (00:47:40)

Natasha Borton, 'Dminor7th' - (00:49:45)

Tukaiisloveletter, Feature Act - (00:53:53)

A transcript of this episode is available to download here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/interview-with-sophie-mckeand-and-voicebox-wrexham-lpp-transcript-ep104.pdf

David Turner is in Kennington, south London, talking to Rishi Dastidar about his latest collection, Ticker Tape (Nine Arches Press), editing for The Rialto magazine and poetry blog And Other Poems and how this editing experience has informed his own writing.

A transcript of this conversation is available to download here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/interview-rishi-dastidar-lpp-transcript-ep-103.pdf

www.lunarpoetrypodcasts.com

https://twitter.com/betarish?lang=en-gb

http://ninearchespress.com/publications/poetry-collections/ticker-tape.html

https://andotherpoems.com/