The Verb

Ian McMillan explores the ghostly presences and phantoms of predecessors, literary or not, which hover in and around all writing. In poetry and stories how do we seek through the spectres of time and memory to conjure invocations of people lost to us, and to understand the importance of human connections through time and space? With David Constantine, Denise Riley, Andrew Taylor and Clare Shaw. David Constantine's new book Rivers of the Unspoilt World interweaves fictional characters and events with the real to create new ways of seeing and connecting our past, present and possible futures. Denise Riley's latest collection Lurex is a meditation on the timelessness of time, in which the past is never really past but is both then and now, haunting, our memories and our futures. Andrew Taylor's collection Northangerland conjures the ghost of Bramwell Bronte to rewrite his poetry for the modern reader. Clare Shaw's Towards A General Theory of Love seeks to summon the Spirit of those we have loved and lost.Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

The Verb this week is another chance to hear Ian McMillan's interview with the great Scottish poet Douglas Dunn, in front of our Poetry Book Club audience. Douglas Dunn is the author of over ten poetry collections. He published his debut in 1969, whilst working in the Brynmor Jones Library at Hull under Philip Larkin. The book, Terry Street, won the Somerset Maugham Award. Since then Douglas has continued to write poems that shine a light on the human condition - on our foibles, our desires, our fragility. His 2019 collection, The Noise of a Fly, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot award. Among other awards he received the Whitbread Book of the Year in 1985 for Elegies, a moving account of his wife's early death from cancer. Dunn was awarded the OBE in 2003 and is an Honorary Professor at St Andrews. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

This week we examine the sometimes painful process of drafting and redrafting. We're joined by Denise Mina, who appeared on the Verb in 2019 to share her feelings towards a book she had only just started. What became of it? Listen to find out.Toby Litt's current novel is 'A Writer's Diary'. Initially published in the form of daily emails to subscribers, the lines between fact and fiction appear to blur with every email. How is a work like this drafted? Paul Tran says redrafting of his poems is also a redrafting and a rebuilding of the self in the wake of trauma or extremity. For Singer-songwriter and folk historian Polly Paulusma it is through the process of drafting that ideas and images that first appear buried bubble up to the surface, And our 'Something New' poem this week comes from Costa Award-winning poet Hannah LowePresenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright

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