Maurice Riordan

Just a quick heads up to those interested - I notice that Faber poet Maurice Riordan's entry on the PoetCasting audio site is now online, including readings of his poems 'Fish', 'Silenus' and the excellent 'Southpaw'. Well worth checking out.

The recording was made on the same afternoon as my own, and along with another Sheffield poet, Chris Jones, whose readings are also now on the site - of the four poems featured, I'd recommend 'Work' in particular. Jones will also be reading at the Oxfam Poetry Night taking place at the Oxfam Bookshop on West St, Sheffield, alongside myself, Helen Mort and Frances Leviston.

More about → Maurice Riordan

PoetCasting and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch

I've mentioned PoetCasting on the Wasteland before - an admirable and, I think, extremely valuable collection of audio recordings of established and emerging contemporary poets, professionally put together by the enterprising young poet Alex Pryce. Andrew Motion's Poetry Archive should watch its back.

Well - shameless self-promotion alert - having been featured on the site in a joint venture with literary magazine Pomegranate, showcasing young poets published in the magazine since its beginnings, I've my own feature on the site now, including recordings of four poems from the sparks.

It was great of Alex to come up and record this and, more generally, for her to run PoetCasting so professionally and diligently in the first place (on visiting Sheffield, she recounted how whenever her mother rings her up, she's invariably on a train heading someplace or other to make a recording). Unsurprisingly then, the poets featured on PoetCasting to date span the height and breadth of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and more are always being added. In fact, on the same day my recordings were done, Gregory Award-winning Sheffield writer Chris Jones and Faber poet Maurice Riordan were also recorded reading, both of which'll no doubt be added to the site soon.

Do take a look at the PoetCasting site then, and if you like the sound of what you find there, subscribe to their feed for regular updates.

Also, on a slight tangent, for those interested in the work of Welsh poet Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, my critical perspective of her poetry is now up on the British Council's Contemporary Writers website.

More about → PoetCasting and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch

Pomegranate meets PoetCasting

There's a new feature on the PoetCasting website today, which, for those not in the know, is a varied, interesting and always-growing collection of poets reading their work, put together by the enterprising Alex Pryce.

The new feature includes 18 poets who've previously been published in Pomegranate, an online poetry mag which publishes work by poets under 30, edited by a dedicated team of previous Foyles' Young Poet of the Year winners. For each poet there are two recordings - one of a poem which previously appeared in the mag, one of a new piece - and among the contributors (as chosen by Pryce and the mag's editors) are talented young poets including Claire Askew, James Midgley, George Ttoouli and Martha Sprackland. I'm also featured with the latter, reading a short sonnet and one of the poems from my tall-lighthouse pamphlet, The Sparks. Handily, there are also pdf docs of the recorded poems so you can enjoy them on the page while you listen to them, should you be so inclined.

Worth checking out, anyhow. And while you're there, have a browse of the other poets that've appeared reading on PoetCasting - plenty of interesting writers, established and new, including Alison Brackenbury, Tom Chivers, Matt Merritt, Joe Dunthorne, Leontia Flynn, Andrew Philip, Fiona Sampson and Roddy Lumsden, to name but a few.

More about → Pomegranate meets PoetCasting