The Verb

Ian McMillan ho ho hosts a special Christmas edition of The Verb from the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge, recorded in front of a live audience. With stories and verse and song to bring comfort and joy, from poet Jackie Kay, singer-songwriter Amelia Coburn, international storyteller Danyah Miller and doorstep poet Rowan McCabe who's been knocking on stranger's doors and offering to write them a poem especially for The Verb. So pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable. Are you ready? Then we'll begin...

Producer: Cecile Wright

What does a good life mean in 2023 and beyond? The Verb returns to the future for a look at stories for a fast-changing planet. This week we hear from some of the most talented storytellers in the world - who have looked at (both literally and metaphorically) the retreat of the glaciers and asked themselves “what can I do now as a writer to help make a good future?'.

Ian McMillan is joined by Ben Rawlence, author of 'The Treeline: the last forest and the future of life on earth' (and co-founder of Black Mountains College), by Icelandic author Andri Snaer Magnason ('On Time and Water'), and by Lisa Merrick-Lawless co-founder of 'Purpose Disrupters' (who has 20 years experience in the language of advertising and communications).

Ian also hears from John Marshall in America, who co-founded 'Potential Energy' - a coalition of creative, analytic and media agencies who want to shift the conversation on climate change. John reveals his international research into the language that really makes us think.

We also share the best wild poems from our call-out in the summer, and road-test an 'eco' sting for radio broadcasts (inspired by 'EcoAudio' - a new certification for greener, sustainable audio productions that is now available for BBC programme-makers).

Producer: Faith Lawrence

Ian McMillan presents a special extended interview with Joyce Carol Oates, one of the most prolific and pre-eminent American writers of the 20th century. Now 85, Oates is the author of 62 novels, 47 short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, essays, and criticism. Her latest book is the unsettling short-story collection 'Zero-Sum'.

Producer: Cecile Wright

Ian McMillan presents a special extended interview with acclaimed Irish novelist, essayist, playwright, and poet Colm Tóibín, who's been described as one of Ireland's finest writers.

Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels including Brooklyn, which won the 2009 Costa novel award, and The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; as well as two short story collections. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize Tóibín was made the Laureate for Irish Fiction for 2022–2024. In 2022, he published his first collection of poems, Vinegar Hill.

Producer: Cecile Wright

Ian McMillan celebrates what Shakespeare can tell future generations - about animals, sound, performance and language. With actor Paterson Joseph, grime poet and writer Debris Stevenson, Verb regular Kate Fox and Prof Todd Borlick from the University of Huddersfield.

Ian McMillan presents some of the most exciting international poetry and poets - recorded in Leeds at the Contains Strong Language festival 2023. He's joined by Andre Bagoo from Trinidad, Ramya Jirasinghe from Sri Lanka, and by poets from the 'Language is a Queer Thing' project - an international poetry development programme from The Queer Muslim Project and the British Council - including Jay Mitra, Gayathiri Kamalakanthan, Mukahang Limbu, Rachit Sharma, Anureet Watta, and Hafsa Bukhary.

Ian McMillan discusses the act of looking, what it means to write about art and to translate what you see into language, and the relationship between art and life; with American poet Terrance Hayes, Christine Coulson, whose novel One Woman Show is told through museum wall labels, author and art critic Laura Cumming, and Jason Allen-Paisant whose Forward Prize winning collection, Self-Portrait As Othello, explores self-examination through the depiction of the other.

Ian McMillan presents The Verb recorded in front of a live audience at the Contains Strong Language Festival in Leeds with Ian Duhig, Jacob Polley, South African writer and performance poet, Lebogang Mashile, and Kenyan poet, writer and filmmaker Ngwatilo Mawiyoo.

Ian McMillan hosts a special performance edition of The Verb recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC’s Contains Strong Language Festival in Leeds. Featuring poetry from Hannah Silva, Khadijah Ibrahiim, Malika Booker, Cecilia Knapp, Toria Garbutt and Testament.

Live from the ‘Contains Strong Language’ Festival in Leeds, Ian McMillan introduces public poets from around the world, including Simon Armitage, Hanan Issa (the National Poet of Wales), Chris Tse (Poet Laureate of New Zealand) and Titilope Sonuga - Nigerian-Canadian poet and former Laureate of Edmonton. Ian will also hear from the winner of the 2023 Laurel Prize - the international award for nature poetry, set up to recognise and encourage the resurgence of environmental writing – one of Simon Armitage’s public projects as Poet Laureate.