In this episode we talk to Nerys Williams about her explosive third collection ‘Republic’. ‘Republic’ opens a window on life in rural west Wales during the 1980s and 90s when arts and culture boomed. English and Welsh-language post-punk bands, politics, feminism and family life are thrown together on the page as the poet questions what constitutes a republic?  

Nerys Williams’s first collection ‘Sound Archive’ (Seren) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and won the Irish Strong First Collection Prize. In 2017 she was a Government of Wales-Literature Wales poet in residence at Passa Porta, Brussels as part of the Literature of Loss programme. That same year her second collection ‘Cabaret’ was published by New Dublin Press. Nerys is an Associate Professor in poetry and poetics University College Dublin, a Fulbright alumnus and is originally from Carmarthenshire. She lives in Kells, Co. Meath, Ireland.

‘Republic’ is available in bookshops nationwide or from the Seren website https://www.serenbooks.com/book/republic/ 

Find out more about the ‘Republic’ playlist on the Seren website https://www.serenbooks.com/2023/02/guest-post-listening-to-republic-nerys-williams/ or listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/playlist/010HvnjFmyrCIqIhCofOUF. 

The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Sarah Johnson  

The interview recordings are by Sarah Johnson.

Production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories https://alternativestories.com/

You can find out more about Nerys Williams by visiting her website http://www.neryswilliams.com/about-us/ or following her on X: @achifsain 

Other books by Nerys Williams

‘Sound Archive’ https://www.serenbooks.com/book/sound-archive/ 

Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories 

Contact them by email at office@alterantivestories.com  

We hope you enjoyed the last episode of Season 2. If you’ve enjoyed listening along, don’t forget to also revisit Season 1 wherever you get your podcasts. 

The Seren Poetry Podcast will return! Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

Our full podcast featuring Nerys Williams and her collection Republic will be out on Thursday 21st December  You can already listen to our interviews with Rhiannon Hooson, Rachael Clyne, Glyn Edwards , Judy Brown and Vanessa Lampert  in our podcast feed.  

Subscribe now  by searching "The Seren Poetry Podcast" in your favourite podcast app to be alerted when new editions are released. 

You can listen to the complete series one of the Seren Poetry Podcast now on all podcast platforms and find out more about Seren by visiting our website at   https://www.serenbooks.com/

In this episode, we talk to Vanessa Lampert about her debut collection Say It With Me which explores themes of family, the everyday and loss. She discusses how writing can be an act of remembrance when living with grief, and how certain animals can be symbols of hope. 

Vanessa Lampert is an acupuncturist and poet from Oxfordshire. She has an MA in Writing Poetry from Newcastle University and Poetry School London. Since graduating in 2019 she has won the Café Writers prize, the Edward Thomas prize, the Sentinel prize and the Ver Poetry prize twice and come second in the Fish, Yeovil, Oxford Brookes, Ware and Kent & Sussex prizes. She has been placed in many other competitions including commendations in the Bridport, Troubadour, Alpine Fellowship and Daily Telegraph prizes. She was commended in the National Poetry Competition 2020 and listed in 2021. 

‘Say it With Me’ is available in bookshops nationwide or from the Seren website https://www.serenbooks.com/book/say-it-with-me/

The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Sarah Johnson  

The interview recordings are by Sarah Johnson.

Production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

You can find out more about Vanessa Lampert by visiting her website https://vanessalampert.me or by following her on social media:  

X: @nessalampert

Instagram: @vanessa_lampert_2018 

Other books by Vanessa Lampert:

‘On Long Loan’ (Live Cannon) https://www.livecanon.co.uk/store/product/on-long-loan-vanessa-lampert 

Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories 

Contact them by email at office@alterantivestories.com  

Please join us next week for a conversation with poet Nerys Williams about her collection ‘Republic’. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

Our fifth podcast of season three which will feature a full-length interview with Judy Brown will be out on Thursday 14th December and we'll bring you one further interview with a Seren poet in the series.  You can already listen to our interviews with Rhiannon Hooson, Rachael Clyne, Glyn Edwards  and Judy Brown in our podcast feed.  

Subscribe now  by searching "The Seren Poetry Podcast" in your favourite podcast app to be alerted when new editions are released. 

You can listen to the complete series one of the Seren Poetry Podcast now on all podcast platforms and find out more about Seren by visiting our website at   https://www.serenbooks.com/

In this edition we talk to Judy Brown about her third collection ‘Lairs’. Describing it as the ‘angriest’ of her three books so far, Judy discusses the lair as a place of restriction or a confined space, her residency at Exeter University’s Institute of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, and other underlying themes from the book such as ‘pivotal change’.

Judy Brown is an award-winning poet who has published 3 full collections with Seren and a pamphlet ‘Pillars of Salt’ with Templar Poetry. Judy’s first poetry collection, ‘Loudness’ (2011), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize. Her second collection, ‘Crowd Sensations’ (2016) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the Ledbury Forte Second Collection Prize. Her third collection ‘Lairs’ was published in 2022. Judy now works as a freelance tutor and mentor and gives Poetry Surgeries in London and online for the Poetry Society.

‘Lairs’ is available in bookshops nationwide or from the Seren website https://www.serenbooks.com/book/lairs/ 

The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Sarah Johnson  

The interview recordings are by Sarah Johnson.

Production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

You can find out more about Judy Brown by visiting her website https://judybrownpoems.wordpress.com or following her on social media  @JudyBrown__

Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

X https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

Other books by Judy Brown

‘Pillars of Salt’ (Templar Poetry) https://templarpoetry.com/products/pillars-of-salt-by-judy-brown 

‘Loudness’https://www.serenbooks.com/book/loudness/ 

‘Crowd Sensations’ https://www.serenbooks.com/book/crowd-sensations/ 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories 

Contact them by email at office@alterantivestories.com  

Please join us next week for a conversation with poet Vanessa Lampert about her debut collection ‘Say it With Me’. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

Our fourth podcast of season three which will feature a full-length interview with Judy Brown  and will be out on Thursday 7th December and we'll bring you two further interviews with Seren poets in the series.  You can already listen to our interviews with Rhiannon Hooson, Rachael Clyne and Glyn Edwards in our podcast feed.  

Subscribe now  by searching "The Seren Poetry Podcast" in your favourite podcast app to be alerted when new editions are released. 

You can listen to the complete series one of the Seren Poetry Podcast now on all podcast platforms and find out more about Seren by visiting our website at   https://www.serenbooks.com/

In this episode we speak to North Wales-based poet Glyn Edwards about his collection, ‘In Orbit’ which is a sustained narrative of love, loss and longing. Using a variety of innovative forms, the collection explores grief and how we come to terms with losing someone close to us. The natural world offers sustenance and a new perspective in the face of intense emotions as a man struggles to come to terms with news of a beloved teacher’s death.   

Glyn Edwards is a PhD researcher in ecopoetry at Bangor University. His first poetry collection ’Vertebrae’ was published by the Lonely Press. He co-edits Modron, a journal for environmental writing, and the Wild Words feature for North Wales Wildlife Trust. He is a former winner and trustee of the Terry Hetherington Award for Welsh young writers and works as a teacher in North Wales.

‘In Orbit’ is available in bookshops nationwide or from the Seren website https://www.serenbooks.com/book/in-orbit/ 

The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Sarah Johnson  

The interview recordings are by Sarah Johnson.

Production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

You can find out more about Glyn Edwards by visiting his website https://www.glynedwardspoet.co.uk or following him on social media @glynfedwards

Other books by Glyn Edwards:

‘Vertebrae’ (The Lonely Crowd) https://thelonelycrowd.org/vertebrae-by-glyn-edwards/ 

Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below  
 https://alternativestories.com/

Contact them by email at office@alterantivestories.com  

Please join us next week for a conversation with poet Judy Brown about her collection ‘Lairs’. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

Our third podcast of season three which will feature a full-length interview with Glyn Edwards  will be out on Thursday 30th November and we will have four further interviews with Seren poets in the series.  You can already listen to our interviews with Rhiannon Hooson and Rachael Clyne in our podcast feed.  

Subscribe now  by searching "The Seren Poetry Podcast" in your favourite podcast app to be alerted when new editions are released. 

You can listen to the complete series one of the Seren Poetry Podcast now on all podcast platforms and find out more about Seren by visiting our website at   https://www.serenbooks.com/

In this episode we talk to Rachael Clyne about identity, belonging and self-acceptance, three central themes from her collection ‘You’ll Never Be Anyone Else’. Throughout the book, Rachel uses playful wit, and colourful imagery to explore Jewish and lesbian identity through various stages of life and consider what it takes to reconcile being different.  

Rachael Clyne is a poet from Glastonbury. Her work has been published in journals such as Iamb, Ink Sweat & Tears, Lighthouse, Rialto, Shearsman, and Tears in the Fence, and widely anthologized. Her debut collection ‘Singing at the Bone Tree’ (Indigo Dreams) won Indigo Dreams’ Geoff Stevens Award 2013. Her pamphlet, ‘Girl Golem’ (4word.org), explores her Jewish migrant heritage and sense of otherness. Rachael was a professional actor, then psychotherapist. Her passions are eco-issues and identity.  

‘You’ll Never be Anyone Else’ is available in bookshops nationwide or from the Seren website https://www.serenbooks.com/book/youll-never-be-anyone-else/ 

The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Sarah Johnson  

The interview recordings are by Sarah Johnson.

Production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

You can find out more about Rachael Clyne on her website https://rachaelclyne.blogspot.com/  or by following her on social media:

X @RachaelClyne1

Other books by Rachael Clyne:

‘Girl Golem’ (4word.org) https://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/products/girl-golem-by-rachel-clyne 

‘Singing at the Bone Tree’ (Indigo Dreams) https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9781909357518 

Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

https://alternativestories.com/

Contact them by email at office@alterantivestories.com  

Please join us next week for a conversation with poet Glyn Edwards about his collection ‘In Orbit’. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

Our second podcast of season two which will feature a full-length interview with Rachael Clyne will be out on Thursday 23rd November and we will have four further interviews with Seren poets in the series.  You can already listen to our interview with Rhiannon Hooson in our podcast feed.  

Subscribe now  by searching "The Seren Poetry Podcast" in your favourite podcast app to be alerted when new editions are released. 

You can listen to the complete series one of the Seren Poetry Podcast now on all podcast platforms and find out more about Seren by visiting our website at   https://www.serenbooks.com/

In the first episode of series 2, we talk to Rhiannon Hooson about her collection ‘Goliat’, the long-awaited follow up to her Wales Book of the Year shortlisted debut ‘The Other City’. Full of vivid imagery, pointed observations and informed by a deep sense of history, these poems offer absorbing stories of a precarious world on the brink of climate emergency. We chat to her about her fascination with the more-than-human, how arts informs her poetry, and the collection’s central sequence ‘Full Moon on Fish Street’.

Dr Rhiannon Hooson is a Welsh poet and author who has won major awards for her work, including an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. She has performed at literature festivals across the UK, and her work has been featured in the Guardian, Magma, and Poetry Wales among others. In the last few years, she has been a Literature Wales bursary recipient, a Hay Festival Writer at Work, poetry editor of Creative Countryside magazine, and the judge of the PENfro festival poetry competition. She has a PhD in poetry from the University of Lancaster and spent time living and working in Cumbria and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, before settling in the Welsh marches.

‘Goliat’ is available in bookshops nationwide or from the Seren website https://www.serenbooks.com/book/goliat/ 

The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Sarah Johnson  

The interview recordings are by Sarah Johnson.

Production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

You can find out more about Rhiannon Hooson by visiting her website https://www.rhiannonhooson.com/p/bio.html or by following her on Instagram @rhiannon.hooson 

Other books by Rhiannon Hooson

‘The Other City’ https://www.serenbooks.com/book/the-other-city/ 

Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

 https://alternativestories.com/

Contact them by email at office@alterantivestories.com  

Please join us next week for a conversation with poet Rachael Clyne about her collection ‘You’ll Never Be Anyone Else’. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released. 

Our first podcast which will feature a full-length interview with Rhiannon Hooson will be out on Thursday 16th November and we will have five further interviews with Seren poets in the series.   

Subscribe now in your favourite podcast app to be alerted when new editions are released. 

You can listen to the complete series one of the Seren Poetry Podcast now on all podcast platforms and find out more about Seren by visiting our website at   https://www.serenbooks.com/

 The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Chris Gregory  

Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

Recordings of Rhian Edwards are by Sarah Johnson 

 This conversation was recorded on location at Wordsworth Grasmere in the Lake District.   

 You can find out more about Kim Moore by visiting her website https://www.kimmoorepoet.co.uk/ 

 Other books by Kim Moore

If We Could Speak Like Wolves (Smith|Doorstop) – Winner of the Poetry Business Pamphlet Prize https://poetrybusiness.co.uk/product/if-we-could-speak-like-wolves/

The Art of Falling (Seren) – winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize https://www.serenbooks.com/productdisplay/art-falling 

What the Trumpet Taught Me (Smith|Doorstop) https://poetrybusiness.co.uk/product/what-the-trumpet-taught-me/

 
Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

 
This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories 

Contact them by email at office@alternativestories.com  

We would like to express our thanks to Wordsworth Grasmere and all the staff there for their hospitality during our visit.    If you’d like to find out more about the work of Wordsworth Grasmere, get details of how you can visit the museum or attend one of their events please use the links below.

You can visit the Wordsworth Grasmere website here https://wordsworth.org.uk/ 

And follow them on social media via these links
 https://twitter.com/WordsworthGras
https://www.instagram.com/WordsworthGrasmere/
https://www.facebook.com/WordsworthGrasmere/ 

This is the last interview in series one of The Seren Poetry Podcast. We hope you’ve enjoyed listening!   Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to revisit the series so far. We’ll be back in 2023…

 In this edition we speak with poet Eric Ngalle Charles. Eric Ngalle Charles was born in the west African state of Cameroon, a country rich in mythology and natural beauty, but with a troubled colonial history. Arriving in Wales as a near-penniless migrant, after being trafficked to Russia by a criminal gang, he has remade his life as a poet/writer, and dazzling performer of his own work. In this conversation we chat to him about his debut poetry collection Homelands.

 The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Chris Gregory  

Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

Recordings of Rhian Edwards are by Sarah Johnson 

 This conversation was recorded on location at the Seren office in Bridgend.

You can follow Eric on Twitter @yomadene https://twitter.com/yomadene

 Other books by Eric Ngalle Charles:

‘I, Eric Ngalle’ (Parthian Books) https://www.parthianbooks.com/products/i-eric-ngalle-a-migrant

‘The 3 Molas’ (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch) https://www.waterstones.com/book/3-molas-the/mike-jenkins/eric-ngalle-charles/9781845277512

‘Hiraeth Erzolirzoli: A Wales – Cameroon Anthology’ (Hafan Books) https://hafanbooks.org/2020/09/23/bestsellers/

Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories 

Contact them by email at office@alternativestories.com

Please join us next week for the last conversation in our first series. We’ll be talking to Kim Moore, about her Forward Prize shortlisted collection All The Men I Never Married, which will be released on Thursday 1st December. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

 Don’t forget to leave us a review is you like what you hear. 

Recorded on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from the Wordsworth Centre in Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio.  We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

 The Seren Poetry Podcast is available now on all podcast platforms.

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

In this edition we speak with poet Rosalind Hudis about her collection Restorations. Rosalind Hudis grew up in Suffolk but now lives in West Wales with her partner and family. A one-time accordion player in a gypsy band, Rosalind now works as a freelance writer, editor, reviewer and tutor. 

 Restorations is a journey into what it means to preserve – a monument, a moment, a life-story, a poppy. It’s about the hunger to possess and the need to let go. Welding themes from art and history with the contemporary, there are poems about pigments and dictators, glue and glass houses, collections, crinolines, and barometers, and the vagaries of memory itself. Entwined, is a more personal story that tracks the loss of a parent to dementia. Also running through, is a theme of women eroding the straitjacket of gendered roles. Linking all is a play with colour, particularly blue, in all its stages from vital to decayed.

The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Chris Gregory  

Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

Recordings of Rhian Edwards are by Sarah Johnson 

 This conversation was recorded on Zoom. As with all video calls, the sound quality may not always be perfect. but we hope you’ll enjoy listening.

You can find out more about Rosalind’s poetry on her website https://rosalindhudis.wordpress.com/

 Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories 

Contact them by email office@alternativestories.com  

Please join us next week for a conversation with Eric Ngalle Charles, about his collection Homelands, which will be released on Thursday 24th November. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

Don’t forget to leave us a review if you like what you hear. 

Recorded on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from the Wordsworth Centre in Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio.  We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

 The Seren Poetry Podcast is available now on all podcast platforms.

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

 In this edition we speak with poet Ben Wilkinson about his second collection Same Difference. Born in the Midlands, Ben now lives in Sheffield. His poems, criticism and journalism regularly appear in national publications including The Guardian, The Poetry Review, The New Statesman, The Spectator, and the TLS. In 2014 he won both a Northern Writers’ Award and the Poetry Business International Pamphlet Competition. He lectures in creative writing at the University of Bolton. His debut collection, Way More Than Luck, was highly commended in the Forward Prizes for Poetry. 

 The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Chris Gregory  

Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

Recordings of Rhian Edwards are by Sarah Johnson 

 This conversation was recorded on location at Ben’s home in Sheffield.

 You can find out more about Ben’s poetry on his website https://www.benwilkinson.org/ 

 Poetry collections Ben has enjoyed reading:

• High Desert – André Naffis-Sahely (Bloodaxe Books, 2022) https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/high-desert-1302 
• Peach Pig – Cecilia Knapp (Little Brown, 2022) https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/cecilia-knapp/peach-pig/9781472156815/ 
• The Arctic – Don Paterson (Faber, 2022) https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571338184-the-arctic/ 
•  Ben Wilkinson’s reader on Don Paterson: Don Paterson: Writers and their Work (Liverpool University Press, 2021) https://uk.bookshop.org/books/don-paterson/9781800855373 

 Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/

Follow Seren on social media 
Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks
Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

 This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories
Contact them by email at office@alternativestories.com 

Please join us next week for a conversation with Rosalind Hudis, about her collection Restorations, which will be released on Thursday 17th November. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

 Don’t forget to leave us a review is you like what you hear. 

Recorded on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from the Wordsworth Centre in Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio.  We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

 The Seren Poetry Podcast is available now on all podcast platforms.

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

 In this edition we speak with poet and novelist Carolyn Jess-Cooke about her third collection We Have to Leave the Earth which considers themes of the environment and motherhood.

Carolyn Jess-Cooke was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and is currently reader in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. She has published 15 books in 23 languages and won numerous awards, including an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors, a Tyrone Guthrie Prize, a K Blundell Award, and she has won a Northern Writer’s Award three times. 

Carolyn has a prestigious parallel career as the novelist C.J. Cooke. Her first novel The Guardian Angel’s Journal was an international bestseller. Her book The Lighthouse Witches was published in October 2021, was nominated for numerous prizes, was an international best seller, and is soon to be a major TV series. Her latest novel The Ghost Woods was published in 2022.

 The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Chris Gregory  

Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

Recordings of Rhian Edwards are by Sarah Johnson 

This conversation was recorded on location at Carolyn’s home near Glasgow.

You can find out more about Carolyn’s poetry and fiction on her website https://carolynjesscooke.com/ 

 Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories 

Contact them by email at  office@alternativestories.com

 Please join us next week for a conversation with Ben Wilkinson, about his collection Same Difference, which will be released on Thursday 10th November. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

Don’t forget to leave us a review is you like what you hear. 

Recorded on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from the Wordsworth Centre in Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio.  We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

 The Seren Poetry Podcast is available now on all podcast platforms.

 In this edition we speak with poet Rhian Edwards. Rhian Edwards is joint poetry editor at Seren alongside Zoë Brigley, but in this episode, she discusses her second collection The Estate Agent’s Daughter. Rhian Edwards is a winner of the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry. Her debut collection Clueless Dogs won Wales Book of the Year 2013 and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2012. The Estate Agent’s Daughter is both powerfully personal, local to her Bridgend birthplace, and performative, born to be read aloud. From the title poem, in which the speaker is reimagined as a surrealist house, to poems about family, relationships and the body, Edwards combines her visceral skill for description with a feminist forthright courage to speak of difficult things.

 The podcast is presented by Zoë Brigley  

The interviewer is Chris Gregory  

Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

Recordings of Zoë Brigley are by Sarah Johnson 

 This conversation was recorded on location at the Seren office in Bridgend.

You can hear Rhian and her fellow editor Zoë Brigley talking on the Alternative Stories and Fake Realities podcast about their editorship here https://www.buzzsprout.com/411730/11406109-the-seren-poetry-podcast-and-the-sylvia-plath-literary-festival-a-poetry-special-edition 

Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories 

Contact them by email at office@alternativestories.com

Please join us next week for a conversation with Carolyn Jess-Cooke, about her collection We Have to Leave the Earth, which will be released on Thursday 3rd November. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

Don’t forget to leave us a rating or review  if you like what you hear. 

Recorded on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from the Wordsworth Centre in Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio.  We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

 The Seren Poetry Podcast is available now on all podcast platforms.

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

 In this edition we speak with poet and novelist Christopher Meredith. Christopher Meredith is the award-winning author of five novels and five collections of poetry. His poetry collection ‘Still’ and short novel ‘Please’ were published simultaneously in 2020. ‘Still’ explores the plethora of meanings intrinsic to the word ‘still’, meditating on the paradoxes of stillness and motion, on the capacity of memory and imagination, landscapes and art to capture stillness or fixity, when all is implicitly transient and fluid. His novel ‘Please’ is a love story about the impossibility of being in love and the impossibility of telling stories. Sophisticated and controlled, it explores how hard it is to know yourself or others, how language has the power to conceal even as it reveals. Full of humanity, sly humour and verbal invention, ‘Please’ is Christopher’s shortest and arguably funniest, most innovative and most outrageous novel to date.

 The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  
The interviewer is Chris Gregory  
Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 
Recordings of Rhian Edwards are by Sarah Johnson 
 This conversation was recorded on location at the Seren office in Bridgend.

 
You can find out more about Christopher Meredith by visiting his website https://christophermeredit9.wixsite.com/website. 

 Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media 
Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks
Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

 This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below
https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories
Contact them by email at office@alterantivestories.com  

 Please join us next week for a conversation with Rhian Edwards, about her second collection ‘The Estate Agent’s Daughter’, which will be released on Thursday 27th October. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

Recorded on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from the Wordsworth Centre in Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio.  We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

 The Seren Poetry Podcast is available now on all podcast platforms.

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

 In this edition we speak with poet and veterinary surgeon Ilse Pedler. Ilse lives and works in the Lake District trying to juggle writing with the unpredictability of sick animals. ‘Auscultation’ means listening and specifically, in medicine, listening to sounds that come from the body’s internal organs. If listening is a central theme of this collection, it is also about being heard. There are poems about waiting rooms and surgical instruments, about crisis calls, about overhearing farmers, pet owners and colleagues, as well as poems about surviving a stern childhood and being a stepmother. 

 The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  
The interviewer is Chris Gregory  
Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 
Recordings of Rhian Edwards are by Sarah Johnson 
This conversation was recorded on location at Wordsworth Grasmere in the Lake District.   

You can find out more about Ilse Pedler by visiting her website https://ilsepedler.com/.    

 Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media 
Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks
Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

 
This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below
https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories
Contact them by email at office@alterantivestories.com  

 
We would like to express our thanks to Wordsworth Grasmere and all the staff there for their hospitality during our visit.   If you’d like to find out more about the work of Wordsworth Grasmere, get details of how you can visit the museum or attend one of their events please use the links below. 

You can visit the Wordsworth Grasmere website here https://wordsworth.org.uk/ 

And follow them on social media via these links 
https://twitter.com/WordsworthGras
https://www.instagram.com/WordsworthGrasmere/
https://www.facebook.com/WordsworthGrasmere/ 

 Please join us next week for a conversation with poet and novelist Christopher Meredith, about his books ‘Still’ and ‘Please’, which will be released on Thursday 20th October. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

Recorded on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from the Wordsworth Centre in Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio.  We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

 The Seren Poetry Podcast will be available on all podcast platforms from 6th October 2022. 

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

In this edition we speak with Polly Atkin about her startlingly original second collection ‘Much With Body’. The beauty of the Lake District is both balm and mirror, refracting pain and also soothing it with distraction: unusual descriptions of frogs, birds, a great stag that ‘you will not see’. Much of the landscape is lakescape, giving the book a watery feel, the author’s wild swimming being just one kind of immersion. There is also a distinct link with the past in a central section of found poems taken from transcripts of the journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, from a period late in her life when she was often ill. In common with the works of the Wordsworths, these poems share a quality of the metaphysical sublime. Their reverence for the natural world is an uneasy awe, contingent upon knowledge of our fragility and mortality. 

The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  
The interviewer is Chris Gregory  
Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 
Recordings of Rhian Edwards are by Sarah Johnson 
This conversation was recorded on location at Wordsworth Grasmere in the Lake District.   

 You can find out more about Polly Atkin by visiting her website https://pollyatkin.com/
You can follow her on social media 
Twitter https://twitter.com/pollyrowena
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pollyrowena/ 

Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/
Follow Seren on social media 
Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks
Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below
https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories
Contact them by email at office@alterantivestories.com  

We would like to express our thanks to Wordsworth Grasmere and all the staff there for their hospitality during our visit. 
If you’d like to find out more about the work of Wordsworth Grasmere, get details of how you can visit the museum or attend one of their events please use the links below.
You can visit the Wordsworth Grasmere website here https://wordsworth.org.uk/
And follow them on social media via these links 
https://twitter.com/WordsworthGras
https://www.instagram.com/WordsworthGrasmere/
https://www.facebook.com/WordsworthGrasmere/ 

Please join us next week for a conversation with poet and vet Ilse Pedler about her collection ‘Auscultation’ which will be released on Thursday 12th October. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

In this special bonus edition we chat with Melissa Mitchell, one of the curators at Wordsworth Grasmere about the centre, its work and its relevance for modern poets and writers.

If you’d like to find out more about the work of Wordsworth Grasmere or get details of how you can visit the museum or attend one of their events please use the links below.

You can visit the Wordsworth Grasmere website here https://wordsworth.org.uk/

And follow them on social media via these links 

https://twitter.com/WordsworthGras

https://www.instagram.com/WordsworthGrasmere/

https://www.facebook.com/WordsworthGrasmere/

The Seren Poetry Podcast is a new podcast dedicated to poetry and poets. Over 9 weeks we’ll speak to 9 poets and hear them read their work. We’ll talk influences, writing techniques and inspiration. Focussing on recent Seren collections, we’ll go in-depth with our poets on the themes they have chosen to write about and the people, events and other elements that have influenced them. 

Recording on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and, as we’ve heard in this bonus edition, at Wordsworth Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio. We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke,  Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

The Seren Poetry Podcast will be available on all podcast platforms from 6th October 2022. 

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

Recording on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and at Wordsworth Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio. We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke,  Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

The Seren Poetry Podcast will be available on all podcast platforms from 6th October 2022. 

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

Recording on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from Wordsworth Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio. We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke,  Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

The Seren Poetry Podcast will be available on all podcast platforms from 6th October 2022. 

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

Recording on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from Wordsworth Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio. We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke,  Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

The Seren Poetry Podcast will be available on all podcast platforms from 6th October 2022. 

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

Recording on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from Wordsworth Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio. We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke,  Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

The Seren Poetry Podcast will be available on all podcast platforms from 6th October 2022. 

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

Recording on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from Wordsworth Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio. We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke,  Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

The Seren Poetry Podcast will be available on all podcast platforms from 6th October 2022. 

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

Recording on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from Wordsworth Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio. We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke,  Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

The Seren Poetry Podcast will be available on all podcast platforms from 6th October 2022. 

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

Recording on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from Wordsworth Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio. We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke,  Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

The Seren Poetry Podcast will be available on all podcast platforms from 6th October 2022. 

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

 Recording on location in our poets homes, at Seren's headquarters and from the Wordsworth Centre in Grasmere  You'll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK , each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio.     We'll speak to Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess Cooke, Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

 The Seren Poetry Podcast.  Available on all podcast platforms from Autumn 2022. 

 https://www.serenbooks.com/