Tune in to hear us chat about the legacy of slavery, erasure poems, Roy’s role as Birmingham’s poet laureate, Canal poet ambassador and Brighton Book Festival’s poet-in-residence, & more.

Watch this episode on YouTube.

“Living by Troubled Waters is the third poetry collection by Roy McFarlane – an extraordinary, uncompromising book exploring slavery, colonialism, and the continued tragedies visited upon Black bodies whilst these legacies remain unresolved. In his close examination of the horror of racialised violence, McFarlane examines how the strong currents of the past and present flow side by side.

His poems ask us to think about the Black Mediterranean of today as much as we do about the Windrush scandal and the aftershocks of trans-Atlantic slavery, where Black people are still imprisoned, enslaved and drowned as they flee persecution and poverty.”

This episode is sponsored by Fawn Press, a British independent publisher. You can get a 10% discount on all books with the code poetry10 (fawnpress.co.uk). We hope you’ll find a poetry book you like and tag us on social media if you purchase one!

CREDITS: Poetry To Your Eears is an independent podcast co-hosted and co-produced by Tom O’Dwyer and Éloïse Armary. The episode was recorded on Blue Dot Studios in July 2023. The soundtrack is ‘Dans la peau’ by Circus Marcus and the art cover is by Charlotte Gray - @grayglues.

Instagram/TikTok/Youtube: @poetrytoyourearsTwitter: @poetry2yourearsSubstack: www.poetrytoyourears.substack.comEmail: poetrytoyourearspodcast (at) gmail (dot) comAll links: www.linktr.ee/poetrytoyourears

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit poetrytoyourears.substack.com

'Not Quite an Ocean' by Elizabeth M. Castillo is a paean to the feminine, to motherhood and to the natural world. At once these poems are both unabashed in their celebration of womanhood, and are searing in their unflinching confrontation with darker undercurrents that threaten to break and destroy.

The poems in 'Not Quite an Ocean' are beacons, are rallying calls, and are ultimately a roars of strength, pride and hope that cannot be silenced or subdued: To be woman is to be everything All things bound together and, if you can manage it that little bit more.

You can purchase Not Quite An Ocean on Nine Pens’ Website.

Poetry To Your Ears is sponsored by Bent Key Publishing Fawn Press, two British independent publishers. You can get a 10% discount on all books with the code POETRYTOYOUREARS10 (www.bentkeypublishing.co.uk) and poetry10 (fawnpress.co.uk). We hope you’ll find a poetry book you like and tag us on social media if you purchase one!

CREDITS: Poetry To Your Eears is an independent podcast co-hosted and co-produced by Tom O’Dwyer and Éloïse Armary. The episode was recorded on Riverside.fm in June 2023. The soundtrack is ‘Dans la peau’ by Circus Marcus and the art cover is by Charlotte Gray - @grayglues.

Instagram/TikTok/Youtube: @poetrytoyourearsTwitter: @poetry2yourearsSubstack: www.poetrytoyourears.substack.comEmail: poetrytoyourearspodcast (at) gmail (dot) comAll links: www.linktr.ee/poetrytoyourears

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit poetrytoyourears.substack.com

In this stunning pamphlet of quietly moving and poignant poems, Kathryn Millington guides her reader through the grief that comes as a result of involuntary childlessness, an issue which can affect up to 1 in 5 women.

“You will know someone like me. We are everywhere: at your workplace, within your family, subsumed in your friendship groups. It’s such a lonely place. I want to inhabit that place and be that voice, to show that we can create.”

“Kate’s poems move me, make me laugh, make me reflect on this strange business we call life and feel more hopeful about navigating a path through it. These are tender, beautifully-crafted poems that work on the page and in the air. Read them, keep them with you.” Helen Mort

Poetry To Your Ears is sponsored by Write Bloody UK and Fawn Press, two British independent publishers. You can get a 10% discount on all books with the code POETRYTOYOUREARS (www.writebloodyuk.co.uk) and poetry10 (fawnpress.co.uk). We hope you’ll find a poetry book you like and tag us on social media if you purchase one!

CREDITS: Poetry To Your Eears is an independent podcast co-hosted and co-produced by Tom O’Dwyer and Éloïse Armary. The episode was recorded at The Brunswick in June 2023. The soundtrack is ‘Dans la peau’ by Circus Marcus and the art cover is by Charlotte Gray - @grayglues.

Instagram/TikTok/Youtube: @poetrytoyourears Twitter: @poetry2yourears Substack: www.poetrytoyourears.substack.comEmail: poetrytoyourearspodcast (at) gmail (dot) comAll links: www.linktr.ee/poetrytoyourears

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit poetrytoyourears.substack.com

“The female body is a political space.”

At Brighton Fringe’s event of Queer The Mic, we sat down in a dark den and talked to Joelle about performing Blue Now, from the film by Derek Jarman, with Russell Tovey, Travis Alabanza and Jay Bernard; her thoughts on spoken word vs poetry and its class divide, the gay scene in the 80s and now, founding SLAMbassadors and OutSpoken London as well as mentoring young poets.

Watch our dramatic set on Youtube.

Joelle Taylor is an award-winning poet, playwright and author. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year (2022), Taylor is the host and co-curator of Out-Spoken, the UK’s premier poetry and music club, currently resident at the Southbank Centre. A former UK slam champion, she founded SLAMbassadors, the UK’s youth slam championships, in 2001 and was its Artistic Director and National Coach until 2018. Taylor is the author of three plays, a forthcoming novel and four poetry collections, including C+nto & Othered Poems, which won the 2021 T. S. Eliot Prize and was longlisted for the 2021 Ondaatje Prize. Her documentary Butch was recently featured on BBC Radio 4.

CREDITS: Poetry To Your Eears is an independent podcast co-hosted and co-produced by Tom O’Dwyer and Éloïse Armary. The episode was recorded at The Brunswick in June 2023. The soundtrack is ‘Dans la peau’ by Circus Marcus and the art cover is by Charlotte Gray - @grayglues.

Instagram/TikTok/Youtube: @poetrytoyourears Twitter: @poetry2yourears Substack: www.poetrytoyourears.substack.comEmail: poetrytoyourearspodcast (at) gmail (dot) comAll links: www.linktr.ee/poetrytoyourears

Thank you for reading Poetry To Your Ears. This post is public so feel free to share it.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit poetrytoyourears.substack.com

Listen to this episode if you’re interested in learning about how poetry can help cope with grief, Reanna’s relationship with their nan, the influence that Carolyn has had in Reanna becoming a poet, sharing poems about queerness and sex to their grandmother, editing the filthy poems, the process of editing and pairing poems written by two authors, what it means to perform poems written by someone else, and more!

About Fragmented Light: Written across the span of 50 years, these poems passed between a grandmother and grandchild are twined together, becoming an enlightening conversation on family, love and loss. 

'A meditation on escaping a marriage, on escaping womanhood, on being guided through life by the sea and the forest. Salty water might not be pleasant in tea, but it makes for a place to swim." Loulou - Author of Pink Goo

'This collection weaves together the nostalgic and the immediate to create a love letter that bends time itself... For those who fleetingly inhabit our lives and for the family we can always lean on.' Kofi Achina

Follow Reanna Valentine on Instagram and Youtube @reannavalentine.

Poetry To Your Ears is sponsored by Write Bloody UK and Fawn Press, two British independent publishers. You can get a 10% discount on all books with the code POETRYTOYOUREARS (www.writebloodyuk.co.uk) and poetry10 (fawnpress.co.uk). We hope you’ll find a poetry book you like and tag us on social media if you purchase one!

CREDITS: Poetry To Your Eears is an independent podcast co-hosted and co-produced by Tom O’Dwyer and Éloïse Armary. The episode was recorded on in Blue Dot Studios in March 2023. The soundtrack is ‘Dans la peau’ by Circus Marcus and the art cover is by Charlotte Gray - @grayglues.

Instagram/TikTok/Youtube: @poetrytoyourears Twitter: @poetry2yourears Substack: www.poetrytoyourears.substack.comEmail: poetrytoyourearspodcast (at) gmail (dot) comAll links: www.linktr.ee/poetrytoyourears

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit poetrytoyourears.substack.com

In this episode, we reflect on Bristol city poets, the Bristol City of Words exhibition and talk to Michael Pederson, author of Boy Friends (Faber), Hollie McNish, Sunday Times bestseller and author of Slug, Malaika Kegode, Festival poet and Kat Lyons, current Bristol city poet. This incredible line-up should be enough to get you to listen or watch this episode, but if you need more incentive, you can hear us talk about friendship, translating dogging to French, starting Milk poetry, changing gender identity after writing a spoken word show, and some advice on starting your journey as a poet!

You can also watch this episode on Youtube.

Poetry To Your Ears is a podcast sent as a newsletter. Subscribe to receive each fortnightly episode in your inbox!

CREDITS: Poetry To Your Eears is an independent podcast co-hosted and co-produced by Tom O’Dwyer and Éloïse Armary. The episode was recorded in Bristol in April 2023. The soundtrack is ‘Dans la peau’ by Circus Marcus and the art cover is by Charlotte Gray - @grayglues.

Instagram/TikTok/Youtube: @poetrytoyourears Twitter: @poetry2yourears Substack: www.poetrytoyourears.substack.comEmail: poetrytoyourearspodcast (at) gmail (dot) comAll links: www.linktr.ee/poetrytoyourears

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit poetrytoyourears.substack.com

Listen to this episode if you’re interested in Séamus’ personal journey towards sobriety and the role that writing played in it, the British cultural relationship with alcohol, the process of becoming a spoken word poet, writing and publishing No Homeless Problem and other poems by going to various Emmaus communities, and the role poetry has in personal and social change.

You can also watch this episode on Youtube.

Follow Séamus on Facebook: No Homeless Problem and Other Poems.

Poetry To Your Ears is a podcast sent as a newsletter. Subscribe to receive each fortnightly episode in your inbox.

Poetry To Your Ears is sponsored by Bent Key Publishing and Fawn press, two British independent publishers. You can get a 10% discount on all books with the code POETRYTOYOUREARS (www.writebloodyuk.co.uk) and poetry10 (fawnpress.co.uk). We hope you’ll find a poetry book you like and tag us on social media if you purchase one!

CREDITS: Poetry To Your Eears is an independent podcast co-hosted and co-produced by Tom O’Dwyer and Éloïse Armary. The episode was recorded on in Blue Dot Studios in March 2023. The soundtrack is ‘Dans la peau’ by Circus Marcus and the art cover is by Charlotte Gray - @grayglues.

Instagram/TikTok/Youtube: @poetrytoyourears Twitter: @poetry2yourears Substack: www.poetrytoyourears.substack.comEmail: poetrytoyourearspodcast (at) gmail (dot) comAll links: www.linktr.ee/poetrytoyourears

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit poetrytoyourears.substack.com

Permit Me to Write My Own Ending is a collection spanning generations and timescapes - from gritty, defiant explorations of a London adolescence, to haunting poems detailing love and adulthood in the US. Faulkner’s language and form dissects the emotional impact of historical trauma, navigating and sharply reframing nationality and memory, interiority and history. Depictions of London during the Blitz and post-war Berlin sit alongside poems about motherhood and childhood from the perspective of one of Freud’s most famous patients. In this defiant debut collection, the act of writing boldly confronts a landscape dominated by patriarchal notions of the female, deftly redefining it with language and vivid imagery. Faulkner unapologetically writes her own ending.

Rebecca is a London-born poet based in Brooklyn. The author of Permit Me to Write My Own Ending, (Write Bloody Press, 2023) her work appears in New York Quarterly, Solstice Magazine, The Maine Review, CALYX Press, Berkeley Poetry Review, and elsewhere.Poetry To Your Ears is a video podcast. Watch the episode on Youtube.

Follow Rebecca Faulkner on Instagram @faulkner_becca or on her website www.rebeccafaulknerpoet.com.

Poetry To Your Ears is sponsored by Fawn Press and Write Bloody UK, two British independent publishers. You can get a 10% discount on all books with the code POETRYTOYOUREARS (www.writebloodyuk.co.uk) poetry10 (fawnpress.co.uk). You can buy Permit Me To Write My Own Ending here from today!

CREDITS: Poetry To Your Eears is an independent podcast co-hosted and co-produced by Tom O’Dwyer and Éloïse “Loulou” Armary. The episode was recorded on Riverside in March 2023. The soundtrack is ‘Dans la peau’ by Circus Marcus and the art cover is by Charlotte Gray - @grayglues.

Instagram/TikTok/Youtube: @poetrytoyourears Twitter: @poetry2yourears Substack: www.poetrytoyourears.substack.comEmail: poetrytoyourearspodcast (at) gmail (dot) comAll links: www.linktr.ee/poetrytoyourears

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit poetrytoyourears.substack.com

We talked about balancing the duality of Devjani’s South Asian heritage with growing up in the UK, her grandmother’s experience as an Indian immigrant, increasing the diversity of the literary canon in school, links between poetry and prose, form, voice and the use of the second person in poetry.

‘For the daughters brought here on the hips of their mothers‘ attempts to bear witness to the stories of women throughout generations who find themselves balancing on a winding timeline from the 1960s to the present day, spanning from India to Britain. Through stunning poetic craft and storytelling, Devjani documents the past and the ways in which it leaves its bruise on the present. Although fading, the evidence of injury and loss remains, and will remain, for generations to come.

Poetry To Your Ears is sponsored by Fawn Press and Write Bloody UK, two British independent publishers. You can get a 10% discount on all books with the code POETRYTOYOUREARS (www.writebloodyuk.co.uk) poetry10 (https://fawnpress.co.uk). We hope you’ll find a poetry book you like and tell us on social media if you purchase one!

CREDITS: Poetry To Your Eears is an independent podcast co-hosted and co-produced by Tom O’Dwyer and Éloïse “Loulou” Armary. The episode was recorded at the Birmingham Hippodrome in February 2023. The soundtrack is ‘Dans la peau’ by Circus Marcus and the art cover is by Charlotte Gray - @grayglues.

Instagram/TikTok/Youtube: @poetrytoyourears Twitter: @poetry2yourears Substack: www.poetrytoyourears.substack.comEmail: poetrytoyourearspodcast (at) gmail (dot) comAll links: www.linktr.ee/poetrytoyourears

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit poetrytoyourears.substack.com

Loulou & Tom went to the Verve Poetry Festival edition 2023 in Birmingham, a festival of poetry and spoken word. 

This episode is also a video on Youtube, check it out here.

We interviewed:Andrew McMillan, author of Pandemonium and co-editor of 100 Queer PoemsEric Yip, the youngest winner of the National Poetry CompetitionWayne Holloway-Smith, author of Lobsters and editor of The Poetry ReviewStuart Bartholomew, co-founder and director of the Verve Poetry Festival.

Poets featured include:Harana Poetry: Kostya Tsolakis, Leo Boix, Lisa Kiew, Lulia DavidImogen Stirling100 Queer Poets: Mary Jean Chan, Andrez McMillan, Jay Gao, Rachel Mann, Golnoosh NourWayne Holloway-SmithImtiaz Dharker, Helen Mort, Hannah Sullivan, Jo BellZaffar Kunial, Gregory Leadbetter, Jenny Mitchell

CREDITS: Poetry To Your Ears is an independent podcast produced by Tom O’Dwyer and Éloïse “Loulou” Armary. The footage is original and recorded in February 2023. The soundtrack is ‘Dans la peau’ by Circus Marcus and the art cover is by Charlotte Gray - @grayglues.

Instagram/TikTok/Youtube: @poetrytoyourears Twitter: @poetry2yourears Substack: www.poetrytoyourears.substack.comEmail: poetrytoyourearspodcast (at) gmail (dot) comAll links: www.linktr.ee/poetrytoyourears

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit poetrytoyourears.substack.com