The Verb

The Verb explores the art of conversation with Claudia Rankine, one of America's most innovative poets. She has just published her sixth poetry book 'Just Us' a work that combines poetry, poetic prose, images and marginalia, allowing them to speak with, to, and across each other.At a time when political conversation in the USA has been criticised for having too much heat and not enough light, Claudia Rankine explores how a poet's ability to navigate silences, stutters, and the endings of poems, can bring truth-telling and resilience to difficult encounters - especially to conversations about whiteness, inequality and friendship.She also shares with Ian the early influences on her writer's ear: the work of the poet Emily Dickinson, the novels of Louisa May Alcott, and the poetry of Adrienne Rich.Claudia Rankine won many awards for her last book 'Citizen- An American Lyric', including two National Book Critics Awards and the Forward Prize. One of Citizen’s reviewers, the critic Kate Kellaway, said it was 'a bold work that occupies its own space powerfully, an unsettled hybrid – she eavesdrops on America and a racism that has never gone away.”

This year the Contains Strong Language Festival of poetry and spoken word goes to Cumbria, as part of the programme of events marking the 250th anniversary of William Wordsworth's birth. This week's Verb was recorded at the Forum Theatre in Barrow-in-Furness, with a small, but enthusiastic socially distanced audience. Our theme is the meeting of language and landscape, and Ian's guests are the poet Clare Shaw whose 2018 collection Flood conveys water at its most awesome and destructive, writer and playwright Zosia Wand, who uses the shifting sands of Morecambe Bay as her stage in work that examines how we find identity amidst unreliable memories and family secrets. National Youth Slam Poetry Champion Matt Sowerby is one of the poets commissioned by the Contains Strong Language Festival to write a poem in response to Ruskin's View, alongside Karen Lloyd, who also reads from her work in progress book of essays on the importance of telling hopeful stories and truly paying attention tot he natural world. Many of the events at Contains Strong Language are available to view online, please see the website for more details: https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ezb3v2Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Jessica Treen

The Verb celebrates 250 years since Wordsworth's birth. Ian McMillan is joined by poets Hussain Manawer, Luke Wright, Kim Moore, and Helen Mort - part of the Contains Strong Language Festival and recorded at Dove Cottage in Grasmere, Which ideas from Wordsworth's 'Preface to the Lyrical Ballads' appeal most to our guests? Ian finds out and hears brand new poetry.

Do extraordinary times call for extraordinary kinds of writing and attention? Is it time to recalibrate, as William Wordsworth did in the middle of a revolutionary age, with his ‘Preface to the Lyrical Ballads’ ( his poetic manifesto with ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity' at its heart’)?Join The Verb each week for ‘experiments in living’ and experiments in language, as we build a new writing manifesto with the help of all our guests.   The first experiment is in nature poetry, and this week Ian is joined by Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate. Simon has founded the Laurel Prize, an annual award for the best collection of nature or environmental poetry published over the last five years. He’s joined by fellow Laurel Prize judge, Moniza Alvi, whose latest poetry collection is ‘Blackbird, Bye Bye’.Shortlisted for the Laurel Prize are Colin Simms for his collection ‘Hen Harrier Poems’, Pascale Petit for ‘Mama Amazonica’ and Karen McCarthy Woolf for ‘Seasonal Disturbances’. We hear readings of their poems on the programme. Karen’s work is scored by Andrea Allegra.And we also welcome poet, musician, editor and plant-whisperer Jade Cuttle, who, along with Simon Armitage, will be judging the Gingko Prize for Ecopoetry . The prize is for a single poem; for more information on how to enter please visit https://ginkgoprize.com/Jade Cuttle: https://www.jadecuttle.com/ Moniza Alvi: https://www.moniza.co.uk/ Simon Armitage: https://www.simonarmitage.com/Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence

Ian McMillan talks to Salman Rushdie about writing ‘cancel culture’ into his latest novel ‘Quichotte’, putting the realism into magic realism, the craft of an opening sentence, the appeal of Latin hymns, the genius of PG Wodehouse – and the resonance throughout his work of the classic film ‘The Wizard of Oz’. To close the Verb season, Dr Jason Allen- Paisant reads his poem 'A Sound From The Throat of God', written after the killing of George Floyd. Allen-Paisant's work has been published in Callaloo and PN Review and his debut collection is forthcoming from Carcarnet. He is Lecturer in Caribbean Poetry and Decolonial Thought at the University of Leeds.Salman Rushdie Salman Rushdie’s latest novel is ‘Quichotte’ – a story with echoes and plot rhymes, where the main protagonist is in love with a celebrity called Salma R, and goes on a road trip with an imaginary son. It’s a story where people are capable of turning into rhinoceroses, communicate in chess moves, and which also interrogates ‘cancel culture’.Salman Rushdie is the author of thirteen novels including 'Midnight’s Children', for which he won the Man Booker Prize and Booker of Bookers Prize, and one collection of short stories. He has also published four works of non-fiction, including the internationally acclaimed bestseller, Joseph Anton, and co-edited two anthologies. His children’s fiction has also been much praised. Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature. His books have been translated into over forty languages.

Ian McMillan is joined by former US Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey, the poet Louise Fazackerley, linguist Deborah Cameron and singer Kathryn Williams to explore the language that feeds into domestic violence, and the images, myths and fairy stories that can help us cope with it, and prevent it.Natasha Trethewey Natasha is a former US poet Laureate and a Pulitzer Prize winner. She brings tenderness, compassion, and forensic attention to language in her new memoir ‘Memorial Drive’ (Memorial Drive), an account of growing up with violence in the home, and of her mother’s killing at the hands of her stepfather. Natasha explores the layers of silence that surround intimate violence – the way children’s speech is often disregarded, even if they overcome their own silencing.Kathryn Williams Kathryn Williams is one of the most subtle singer-songwriters of her generation, crafting songs which balance strength and delicacy. Here she performs a special rendition of ‘Wolf’ from her album ‘Old Low Light’ ,recorded in lockdown, and speaks about the circumstances that inspired it for the first time. Kathryn’s back catalogue is available in the limited edition ‘Anthology’.Louise Fazackerley Louise was one of The Verb’s New Voices in 2014 – and her work has never shied away from difficult territory – described by one reviewer as razor-sharp and visceral, she is also a brilliant performer of her work. Louise reads ‘Women’s Refuge’ from the collection ‘Bird St’ and an extract from her new collection ‘The Lolitas’ (Verve Poetry Press) .Deborah Cameron Professor Deborah Cameron researches language and communication at the University of Oxford – she has a blog called 'Language: a feminist guide' – recent posts include commentary on dieting, the word ‘lad’ and the ‘tone’ of voice ascribed to women https://debuk.wordpress.com/ . She is the author of ‘The Myth of Mars and Venus’.

This week we celebrate the spirit of the Ledbury Poetry Festival. With a distinctly international programme, Ledbury is one of the best-loved events in the UK literary calendar. The festival has been, like many events, sadly cancelled this year. Ian McMillan is joined by Sandeep Parmar of the Ledbury Festival Board and just a few of the poets who would have appeared at the 2020 event; Carolyn Forché, Kaveh Akbar and Juana Adcock.As part of the festival programme, Carolyn Forché was going to be in conversation with Sandeep, so here we give Sandeep a chance to ask just a few of the questions she wanted to ask. Carolyn has recently published her first collection of poetry in 17 years, 'In the Lateness of the World' (Bloodaxe). Juana Adcock discusses her translation of the Mexican poet Hubert Matiuwaa, and reads a poem from her collection 'Split' (Blue Diode), set to music by Jer Reid. Kaveh Akbar's debut collection 'Calling A Wolf A Wolf' was published to great acclaim in 2017, and here he reads work in progress. Sandeep Parmar has written the afterword to a new edition of Hope Mirrlees's ‘lost' modernist masterpiece 'Paris'. The festival has been able to move a small number of events online, including Kaveh Akbar in conversation with Danez Smith and Juana Adock and Martha Sprackland will be taking part in a Spanish Poetry Translation Duel, posted by Clare Pollard. For more details about Ledbury and to register for online events please visit https://www.poetry-festival.co.uk/Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Jessica Treen

An eight-tentacled look at the world of the cephalopod, and the way these intelligent sea creatures inspire writers and performers. Peter Godfrey Smith is the author of ‘Other Minds: The Octopus, The Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness’. The book has become a cult classic, introducing many people to the remarkable intelligence of the octopus and other cepahalopods, and asking questions about what the evolution of that intelligence might mean for humans. Peter shares his experience of an incredible cuttlefish display, watching it change colour repeatedly, and shares his sense that cephalopods are often as interested in humans as we are in them.Whilst writing her latest book, Tania Hershman was surprised to find herself with a female octopus as an imaginary friend. Tania reads from her work-in-progress, a poetry collection entitled ‘Still Life with Octopus’ in which the poet discovers her octopus reading several books at the same time, and performing feats of flexibility (a sequence partly inspired by reading ‘Other Minds’).Matthew Welton has just published ‘Squid Squad: A Novel’ (Carcarnet). Spoiler alert – it contains only one brief reference to a cephalopod, and is not a novel in the traditional sense. Not to be deterred, The Verb detects a ‘squid aesthetic’ in Matthew’s work, hinted at in the title poem, with its cast of characters who might be said to interact in the manner of a squid’s connected but independent tentacles. This week Verb regular Kate Fox has formed a psychic link with ‘Pauline the Octopus’. Pauline is the sister of Paul the Octopus, who famously predicted the results of the 2010 Men’s Football World Cup. Pauline is an eminent octopus film reviewer and through Kate offers up her thoughts on the Octopus as represented by humans on celluloid – for which she has coined the word ‘Schlocktopus’This week’s lockdown poem comes from Catherine Ayres, who has been considering her complicated relationship with the octopus and has found it offers a useful metaphor for social distancing. The poem features in 'Write Where We Are Now', curated by Carol Ann Duffy and Manchester Metropolitan University. www.mmu.ac.uk/writePresenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence

This week's Verb looks at writing from the Caribbean diaspora.The poet Roger Robinson won the T.S. Eliot award and the Ondaatje prize for his collection 'A Portable Paradise' (Peepal Tree). Roger explains how the title poem, with it's theme of finding paradise inside yourself, has been taken to heart by many in the age of Covid-19.Ingrid Persaud won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2018, and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2017, and Love After Love (Faber) is her debut novel. Set in Trinidad, the novel centers on an unconventional family unit and examines questions of unconditional love and the legacy of violence.Writer, Poet and Theatre Maker Malika Booker was the first Poet in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her work in progress involves marrying the language King James Bible with the languages and culture of the Caribbean.Jacob Sam La Rose was born in the UK and his family are from Guyana. He has always felt he inhabits a liminal space between these cultures which has inspired his poetry. His collection, Breaking The Silence is published by Bloodaxe. Jacob shares brand new poems 'The Truth and Nothing But' and 'For The Young Men Popping Wheelies on Southwark Street in Late Afternoon Traffic' Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

A few months ago, writing an email to a colleague that starts 'I hope you are safe in these extraordinary times' would have been an unusual thing to do, but it very quickly became 'the new normal'. This week Ian McMillan and guests look at the many ways in which our language has adapted to fit our our new routines, from Zooming with friends to socially distancing in supermarkets.Rob Drummond, The Verb's resident linguist has been keeping an ear out for the neologisms of our time, and Kate Clanchy presents some of the work written by her students as part of their weekly online poetry classes.With more time to read, many of us are finding solace in our bookshelves, and discovering new resonances in classic texts. In a piece especially recorded for The Verb, Julie Hesmondhalgh reads from Ruth, by Elizabeth Gaskell, accompanied by Nicholas Howson & Ruth Montgomery from the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, just two of the many musicians who have turned their creative energies towards new ways to perform and collaborate.We also hear from just a few of the poets and performers responding to Lockdown - Hollie McNish, Michael Dickman, and Morgan Bassichis.Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Jessica Treen