The Verb

On The Verb this week we're raising the curtain on playwriting. Ian McMillan is joined by four playwrights; Winsome Pinnock whose recent work includes The Principles of Cartography and Rockets and Blue Lights; by Liz Lochhead, whose writing ranges widely over playwriting and poetry and who has written for the National Theatre of Scotland, Steve Waters who works for stage, radio and screen and Keisha Thompson Director and CEO of Contact Theatre in Manchester.Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

Celebrate 100 years of poetry on the BBC with Ian McMillan's cabaret of the word. The Verb presents brand new poetry especially commissioned for the centenary, and explores the corporation's relationship with poetry - including highlights from the archive. With poets Paul Farley and Hannah Silva and the Director of The Poetry Society Judith Palmer.

How or what is the voice of the narrator, and what happens in a story when the narrator proves to be unreliable? Booker Prize winner Damon Glagut's novel The Promise toys with the idea of the narrator as different people at different times disorientating the reader and exposing the duplicity of the novel, poet Daniel's latest collection Single Window explores the 'I' in the poem and the poet, Sheen Patel's debut novel I Am A Fan is about an obsessed young woman and the unreliability of the internet and Prof. Mike Sharples is the author of Story Machines: How Computers Have Become Creative Writers. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

This week The Verb is doing some straight talking and celebrating verbatim and everyday speech with the novelist Will Ashon whose book The Passengers is a collection of voices telling their own stories; the performance artist Scottee whose new podcast After The Tone listens to so-called ordinary people in all their extraordinary glory; the poet Anna Robinson whose work always listens hard to the way people sound; and Verb regular the poet and performer Kate Fox brings some drama to how we speak. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

When we think of Liberation Narratives we perhaps most often mean slave or revolution narratives but they can be profoundly personal expressions of freedom as well as stories of huge geopolitical or historical changes. Ian McMillan considers Liberation Narratives with American poet Carl Philips, poet, performer and singer Rommi Smith, poet Yomi Sode and folk singer-songwriter and activist Grace Petrie. Carl Philips' latest book 'Then the War', a collection of new and selected poems is an exploration of self discovery and the revolutionary power of tenderness and human connection. During a stint as poet in residence at Dove Cottage, Wordsworth's home in Grasmere, Rommi Smith sought new escapes in his sonnets. Yomi Sode's debut collection 'Manorism' is an examination of the lives of Black British men and boys and the liberating impact of having a voice. Grace Petrie's politically charged protest music challenges us to envisage and demand a kinder world than the one we live in. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

This week in tribute to the poet, performer, playwright and activist Benjamin Zephaniah who has died aged 65, Ian McMillan presents another chance to hear a special extended interview with him. Benjamin began publishing and performing his work for adults and children in the early 1980s, and had recently committed his life to print in his autobiography The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah. The programme was recorded last year in front of a live audience at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Benjamin's home city of Birmingham.Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile WrightFirst broadcast 14 Oct 2022

The Verb this week is abundant with the language of Autumn and fruitfulness as Ian Mcmillan and his guests explore writing about the season and harvest festivals; past, present and future. Rebecca May Johnson is the author of 'Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen'. In this playful memoir she rewrites the kitchen as a vital source of knowledge and revelation. A novelist and nature writer, everything Melissa Harrison writes is attuned to the seasons and for Melissa, autumn is a particularly poignant time of year when life and death rub up against each other. Amy Jeffs explores the stories and myths that make up Britain in her books 'Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britain' and 'Storyland', here she explains how harvest traditions have fed into our folk tales. And our 'Something New' poem, part of our series celebrating 100 years of the relationship between the BBC and poetry comes this week from Joelle TaylorPresenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

This week on The Verb we're celebrating the birthday of Apples and Snakes, who've been pioneering spoken word poetry for 40 years. Ian McMillan is joined onstage at the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival in Birmingham by six poets who've been involved with Apples and Snakes over the years; Casey Bailey, the current Poet Laureate of Birmingham, award-winning poet Kayo Chingonyi, Roy McFarlane, Muneera Pilgrim and Malika Booker, co-founder of the writer's collective Malika's Kitchen.Presented by Ian McMillan Producer Cecile Wright

Recorded at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Birmingham, Ian showcases verse that has arisen from two collaborative projects: Across Borders and Language Is a Queer Thing. Dzifa Benson's explores the phenomenon of the Ghanaian drinking name which is part of her Ewe heritage, and we ask our poets to come up with their own.Alvin Pang gives us his insight into a location which was formative in the development of poetry in Singapore in the poem Boat Quay, and Fred D'Aguiar offers us two readings as well as insights into his memoir, Year of Plagues. Amani Saeed and Megha Harish discuss the challenges and intricacies of collaboration, and Nick Makoha considers the march of history with one of the poems that came from his collaboration - Primer.Across Borders and Language Is a Queer Thing were developed in partnership with the Verve Poetry Festival, the British Council and the Queer Muslim Project.

The first Verb of a new season, recorded in front of an audience at the Contains Strong Language Festival of poetry and performance at the Hippodrome in Birmingham. We have brand new work from the legendary dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and we're also joined by two of this year's CSL poets; Romalyn Ante, author of 'Anti-Emetic for Homesickness', and Isabelle Baafi, who won a Somerset Maugham award for her debut pamplet Ripe. Linda France is one of the shortlisted poets for this year's Laurel Prize for the best collection of nature or environmental poetry, and our 'Something New' comes from Luke Kennard.Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence