Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre Podcasts

Mariah Whelan talks to Niall Munro

Oxford Poets 12: Peter Bearder talks to Niall Munro

James was born in Connecticut and grew up in Toronto. His poems have appeared in many magazines and journals, including ‘The New Yorker’, ‘Poetry’, ‘The New York Review of Books’, the ‘London Review of Books’, and ‘The Walrus’. He has been awarded numerous scholarships and fellowships, such as the Amy Lowell Travelling Poetry Scholarship, a Hodder Fellowship, a Stegner Fellowship, a Discovery/‘The Nation Prize’, a Fulbright Scholarship to Northern Ireland, and a visiting fellowship at Exeter College, Oxford. He lives in Baltimore and teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. James’s first book of poetry ‘Charms Against Lightning’, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2012, and his chapbook, ‘Hundred Acre Wood’, came out in 2018 with Anstruther Press. His second full collection, ‘The Suicide’s Son’, was published in spring of 2019 by Véhicule Press in Montreal. In this podcast, Niall and James discuss knowledge and childhood, living in Canada and the United States, drone warfare, and the experience of being a new parent. In particular, we talk about three of James’s poems: ‘Ode to an Encyclopedia’, ‘Drone’, and ‘Goodnight Moon’, all of which you can read below.

Oxford Poets 11: James Arthur

When Richard Harrison was in Oxford en route to Italy to launch a new Italian translation of his poetry, he gave an inspiring reading at the Society Cafe, and beforehand sat down with the Director of the Poetry Centre, Niall Munro, to discuss his work. In this interview Niall and Richard talk about the structure of Richard’s award-winning book ‘On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood’ and the editing process; his relationship with his father who died from dementia; writing about grief; and the capabilities of poetry. You can also read a slightly different version of the interview on the Poetry Centre blog. Richard Harrison is a multiple-award-winning poet, essayist, and editor. His most recent book, ‘On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood’, was awarded the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. The book was also shortlisted for the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and won the Stephan G. Stephansson Alberta Poetry Prize. His six books of poetry include ‘Big Breath of a Wish’, poems about his daughter’s acquisition of language, and ‘Hero of the Play’, poems in the language of hockey, launched at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Oxford Poets 10: Richard Harrison

In this first episode in a new podcast series, Shara Lessley discusses her poem ‘The Clinic Bomber’s Mother’. The poem comes from Shara’s new book, ‘The Explosive Expert’s Wife’, published by the University of Wisconsin Press. In this discussion, Shara first reads her poem and then talks about a number of issues related to it and the book as a whole, such as motherhood, perceptions of the Middle East by Americans and violence in the Middle East and in America, especially domestic terrorism. Shara Lessley is a writer and teacher. The author of ‘Two-Headed Nightingale’ and ‘The Explosive Expert’s Wife’, and co-editor of ‘The Poem’s Country: Place and Poetic Practice’ (with Bruce Snider), she is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University. Shara’s poems and essays have appeared in ‘Ploughshares’, ‘The Kenyon Review’, ‘Threepenny Review’, ‘The Southern Review’, ‘The Gettysburg Review’, ‘Missouri Review’, and ‘New England Review’, among others. A recipient of scholarships from ArtsBridge and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Shara holds Bachelor’s degrees in Dance and English from University of California, Irvine, and an MFA in Poetry from University of Maryland. She was recently awarded Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Oxford. Find out more about Shara’s work on her website, and follow her on Twitter.

Oxford Poets 9: Shara Lessley

This latest podcast features a dialogue between Terri Mullholland and Siân Thomas, inspired by Siân’s poem, ‘The Abandoned House’. Amongst other venues, Terri and Siân presented their dialogue at the Shifting Territories conference in May 2013. Together with their discussion, they also showed a number of photographs of the particular house in Sussex, which were taken by the photographer Caroline Pooley. These are also presented here. In this recording, Siân reads her poem, and then talks about how she discovered the house. The discussion touches upon various issues related to the poem and to Terri’s own research, including: how a critical-creative dialogue works, the idea of the ruin in literature, the association of memory with place, the presentation of decay in poetry, and the effect of development on the Weald in East Sussex. ‘The Abandoned House’ originally appeared in issue #7, ‘Time and Memory’ of SWAMP: An Online Magazine for Postgraduate Creative Writing.

Oxford Poets 8: The Abandoned House

It was recorded at the Shifting Territories conference on 22 May 2013 at the Institute of English Studies in London. A conference designed to bring together postgraduate students and Early Career Researchers, as well as poets and academics, Shifting Territories considered the recent wave of new nature writing and poetry which has gone beyond traditional representations of landscape to venture into borderlands, edgelands and urban environments. Jo Shapcott provided the keynote poetry reading which opened the conference, offering a generous selection of her own work which related to place, space, and identity. The conference also featured a keynote reading by David Morley, a paper by Eóin Flannery addressing ecocriticism and contemporary Irish poetry, and a workshop by Steven Matthews about the particular challenges of writing about modern and contemporary poetry.

Oxford Poets 7: Shifting Territories

Claire Trévien was born in 1985 in Brittany. She is a poet and critic, who completed a PhD on French Revolutionary prints in 2012. Her début collection ‘The Shipwrecked House’ (Penned in the Margins, 2013) was longlisted for a Guardian First Book Award. Her writing has been published in a wide variety of literary magazines including ‘Under The Radar’, ‘Poetry Salzburg Review’, ‘Ink Sweat & Tears’, ‘The Warwick Review’, ‘Nth Position’, and ‘Fuselit’. She has published an e-chapbook of poetry with ‘Silkworms Ink’, ‘Patterns of Decay’, and a pamphlet, ‘Low-Tide Lottery’ with Salt Publishing. She is the editor of Sabotage Reviews, co-editor of Verse Kraken (http://versekraken.com), and co-organizer of Penning Perfumes. You can read more about it at the Penned in the Margins site, and follow Claire Trévien’s work on her website and on Twitter.

Oxford Poets 6: Whales

In this episode Alan Buckley talks about the nature of poetic influence, the role that breath and the body play in producing poetry, and the responsibilities which a poet has towards the subject of his elegy. You can read the poem on the Podcasts section of the Poetry Centre website.

Oxford Poets #4: Voicemail

In this episode, Gill talks about how she writes poetry and what she considers the role of the poet to be within society. You can read the poem on the Podcasts section of the Poetry Centre website.

Oxford Poets #3: The Power of Ice

This episode features the keynote panel discussion from the Sisters in Verse symposium at Oxford University in association with the Poetry Centre, which took place on 9 March 2012. This event is one in a series organized by the Postgraduate Contemporary Women's Writing Network (http://pgcwwn.wordpress.com/). The discussion was chaired by Alex Pryce and the panelists were Kate Clanchy, Jane Yeh, and Sophie Mayer. You can read more about the the writers and see photos from the event on the Podcasts section of our website.

Oxford Poets #2: Sisters in Verse

In this first episode, Claire Cox reads and discusses her prize-winning poem 'Tolstoy at Astapovo Station'. You can read Claire's poem here:

Oxford Poets #1: Tolstoy at Astapovo Station

This podcast series from the Poetry Centre focusses upon the work of one poet, or features discussions about poetry with poets and academics. Our theme music, Leaving for the North is composed especially for the series by Aneurin Rees. It is played by Aneurin Rees on guitar and Rosalie Tribe on violin.

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Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre Podcasts

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