The Verb

Ian McMillan explores the language of leaving, resettling and exile with songwriter Ana Silvera and poets John McAuliffe, Igor Klikovac, Mina Gorji, and André Naffis-Sahely.

Welcome to Hotel Verb. Checking in with Ian McMillan this week are novelist Eimear McBride. Eimear won the Goldsmiths Prize and the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction for her debut novel 'A Girl is A Half-Formed Thing'. Since then, she's spent a lot of time in hotels, inspiring her new novel 'Strange Hotel' (Faber), in which the hotel becomes a metaphor for middle age.Joining Eimear is Andy Miller, author of 'The Year of Reading Dangerously' and presenter of the Backlisted Podcast. Andy Miller celebrates his favourite author, Anita Brookner, and her Booker Prize-winning classic novel, 'Hotel du Lac'And Roger Luckhurst is the author of 'Corridors: Passages of Modernity', on corridors, 'Monster hotels', and the fictional hotel corridors that populate our imaginations. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Jessica Treen

Poets Layli Long Soldier who is Oglala Lakota, and Natalie Diaz who is Mojave, join Ian McMillan for a programme in which they explore the power of pleasure, the effect of recurring images - and the way language can fall short in conveying apology. Professor Sarah Rivett explores the profound impact that Algonquin languages have had on the European mindset, and on the culture of the USA.

How can writers make 'goodness' compelling, as a theme or character trait ? Why is virtue-signalling seen as a negative thing? Is poetry the best form for exploring goodness? And do we need more writing about goodness, and more imaginative imagery for it'? Ian McMillan is joined by guests Toby Litt, Will Harris, Kate Fox and Kelcey Wilson-Lee.Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence

Puns have a long history in human writing. Most of us recognise them as those little gems of comedy genius that make you laugh, or groan, but they're useful for being more than just funny, they're also fundamental to what makes poetry work and they provide the engine of change in language by allowing ideas to slip from one meaning to another. Artist and composer Hannah Catherine Jones, comedy writer Jack Bernhardt, poet Nasser Hussain and Sam Leith - Literary editor of The Spectator - join Ian Macmillan to reveal the linguistic power of the pun.

A must for those who submit poetry and fiction to presses and magazines - the Verb takes a deep dive into the language of the poetry publishing world. It's a vibrant landscape, with publishers like Carcanet celebrating 50 years in business, and a whole host of smaller presses and magazine publishers thriving both online and in print. Many of the people behind the scenes are poets and writers themselves, including our guests. They explore the 'poetry' words that inexplicably appear in submissions, the balance between writing and editing, and how to write book blurbs without using the word 'exciting'.Ian is joined by Michael Schmidt, Peter Sansom, Malachi McIntosh, and Nell Nelson. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence

The Christmas Verb rejoices in the pleasure of nonsense language, nonsense stories, ridiculous rhymes and things that makes no sense at all. Presenter Ian McMillan is joined by one of the greatest children’s book partnerships of all time, Julia Donaldson and Axel Schleffer, whose made-up monster the ‘Gruffalo’ is now part of childhoods all over the world – he’s also joined by the former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen with new poetry; Michael’s latest book celebrates the power of silliness and nonsense in all our lives.

This week the cabaret of the word heads to the playing field to examine the language of sports writing. Playing for Ian McMillan's team are the T.S.Eliot nominated poet Zaffar Kunial who has just published a pamphlet of poems on cricket, Frank Skinner, whose 'Fantasy Football League' set the tone for sports coverage in the 90's, and we'll hear another short form audio piece recorded as part of the 'New Creatives' Scheme; Joseph Bond's creative documentary 'All Ball'. Verb regular Rob Drummond returns with an analysis of the lexicon of sports commentators Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

This week The Verb goes to the Circus where it uncovers the darker side of the Victorian fair and the extraordinary language used to tell the stories of the living exhibits of the Freak Show with ringmaster extraordinaire Norman Barrett, historian John Woolf, writer Rosie Garland and poet Keith Hutson.Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

Ian McMillan explores German poetry after the fall of the Berlin Wall – with two of Germany’s most celebrated and groundbreaking poets Durs Grünbein and Nora Gomringer. He is also joined by Professor Karen Leeder who’s explored the ways in which contemporary German literature is ‘haunted’ by the GDR, and by Ira Lightman who reads a new poem haunted by Rainer Maria Rilke – the German language poet most often translated into English - and a translation of one of Durs' poems.Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence