unfinishing

Episode Six of Unfinished/Unpublished was created specially for Star and Shadow Radio's 24-hour continuous winter solstice broadcast. This episode contains clips of the bests bits from the programme (so far...)

First broadcast 21 December 2020.

In Episode 5 my guest is David Spittle, who is a poet, filmmaker, and essayist. He was recently commissioned to direct and edit a documentary on Austrian Poetry, called Where is Everyone Austria, which is now available on Youtube. David’s first short film, Light Noise, was funded and broadcast by the BBC and is available to watch on iPlayer.

His first full collection of poetry is entitled All Particles and Waves and was published by Black Herald Press earlier this year. This followed his poetry pamphlet, entitled B O X, which was released in 2018.

He has also written three operas and, in 2014, was commissioned by Bergen National Opera to write a song-cycle which has since been performed internationally.

You can find out more about his work at: www.dspittle.com.

First broadcast 17 December 2020.

In Episode 4 my guest is Rachael Shaw, who is a writer.

Rachael very generously tells me about the blog she started after being diagnosed with breast cancer in her mid thirties. She turned to writing as a form of therapy, and as a way of helping others who might be going through similar experiences. Rachael is now spurred on to write much more – including regular chats with a critique partner – and (impressively) manages to write every single day.

First broadcast 5 November 2020.

In Episode 3 my guest is the writer Mary McGrath. Mary reads her short story, entitled “Sup”, which judges Prue Leith and Stephen Fry shortlisted for this year’s Mogford Prize for food and drink literature. Mary also gives her tips on how to persevere with writing despite setbacks, discusses the benefits of writing for or towards an audience, and tells us the three things she wants readers to take from her work.

First broadcast 22 October 2020.

In Episode 2 my guest is the artist Gillie Kleiman. The starting point of her work is an interest in dance and in choreography, but her art manifests in a variety of forms. That includes her unfinished project Grief Dances. It’s based on dances Gillie experienced while grieving. Because Grief Dances is unfinished, it doesn’t yet have a set form. One exciting possibility is that audiences could read descriptions of the dances whilst in a theatre auditorium, the stage left empty aside from what viewers imagine to be there. Gillie also has fascinating things to say about what a post-work future might look like, where we work less and do other things more. And that includes recognising the value in activities like vegetable growing and dog walking.

First broadcast 8 October 2020.

In Episode 1, my guest is musician Sophie Cooper, who was nominated in 2020 for an Ivor Novello Composer Award. Sophie tells me about her unfinished art installation. It’s called “Prog Land” and it’s a model of a theme park based on prog rock album covers. We also talk about how Sophie overcame a disastrous A-level music course, about her terrific work for the DIY music scene, about how babies can learn music, and about how she made a robot and a dinosaur destroy Hawaii. You can find out more about Sophie’s work on her website: www.sophiecoopermusic.com.