Interviews
#Afterhours: An Interview with Inua Ellams
An Interview with Inua Ellams
‘I think, arguably, all poems are response poems and attempts by the poet to find or claim personal space in any given topic.’
Ali Lewis
Poetry in Aldeburgh: Ben Rogers interviews… Geraldine Clarkson
An Interview with Geraldine Clarkson
“The boundaries can be a little porous, and spoonfuls of poetry can be stirred into daily life…”
BenRogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh: Ben Rogers interviews… Ruth Padel
An Interview with Ruth Padel
A work which tries to be ‘political’ often fails to work as art. You have to make the poem as good as you can as a poem, as art, rather than bang on with its message.
BenRogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh: Ben Rogers interviews… Blake Morrison
An Interview with Blake Morrison
“I have written two memoirs and my poems have become increasingly personal. So yes, I understand the torment.”
BenRogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh: Ben Rogers interviews… Ian Duhig
An Interview with Ian Duhig
“I think it can be misleading to talk about musicality in poetry as that tends to mean a certain kind of musicality when in fact many exist, including those which seem distinctly unmusical to other musics.”
BenRogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh: Ben Rogers interviews… Chrissy Williams
An Interview with Chrissy Williams
“Play is fundamental, I think, to anyone interested in artistic expression, and communication.”
BenRogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh: Ben Rogers interviews… Paul Stephenson
An Interview with Paul Stephenson
“In the manner of George Perec’s lipogram novel La Disparition, can you explain, without using the letter E, what you like about poetry in Aldeburgh…?”
BenRogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh: Ben Rogers interviews… Rebecca Watts
An Interview with Rebecca Watts
A poem should always involve an imaginative act, and pretending to be something other is a good way of triggering one.
BenRogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh: Ben Rogers interviews… Dan Burt
An Interview with Dan Burt
“If a piece has nothing to say, why bother saying it?”
BenRogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh Residency: Ben Rogers interviews… Jacqueline Saphra
An Interview with Jacqueline Saphra
“Say whatever you want, invent what you like, use your imagination – that’s what writers do, for god’s sake – if it strengthens the poem.”
BenRogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh Residency: Ben Rogers interviews… Holly Corfield Carr
An Interview with Holly Corfield Carr
As soon as we talk about ‘chance’ we’ve already stationed part of the writing process outside ourselves. We decide on names for this other part, like ‘found’ or ‘inspiration’ or something else, but we are always just writing back to what we have already recognised, writing back to ourselves, collaborating with the back of our heads.
BenRogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh residency: Ben Rogers interviews… Julia Bird
An Interview with Julia Bird
“What motivates me to produce, promote or write anything is the idea that there will be people around to receive it meaningfully”
BenRogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh residency: Ben Rogers interviews… Hannah Lowe
An Interview with Hannah Lowe
In the latest collection, Chan, I’ve tried to push form a bit more, writing in a new form I’ve called a “borderliner”, a conflation of a bold and non bold poem which can be read vertically and horizontally, but which fits into a block of text.
BenRogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh Countdown – An Interview with Tamar Yoseloff
An Interview with Tamar Yoseloff
“I fell in love with it right from the start, that bleak winter seascape. I’ve been going back ever since.”
BenRogers
Haiku Rebellion: An interview with Lynne Rees
An Interview with Lynne Rees
“I think there’s a democratic aspect to haiku that persists in Japan and in the West that’s very appealing: groups of ordinary people meet to write and share their haiku and, inevitably, their lives”
James Trevelyan (Poetry School)
Adventures in the Blind Field: An Interview with Sally Flint
An Interview with Sally Flint
“The art of really looking intrigues me – especially how poets interpret, use and move beyond what they see“
James Trevelyan (Poetry School)
Off the Page: An Interview with Niall O’Sullivan
An Interview with Niall O'Sullivan
“The materiality of the poem manifesting as sound within a physical and social environment can often pop the idealistic bubble that the poem was composed within.”
Poetry School
Interview with the Primers Volume One poets: Lucy Ingrams, Katie Griffiths, Geraldine Clarkson and Maureen Cullen
An Interview with Primers Winners
“If you’re hesitating between sending poems to Primers or another competition, send your very best to Primers. You won’t regret it!” – Geraldine Clarkson, Primers Volume One Poet.
Poetry School
Site-Seeing: An Interview with Holly Corfield Carr
An Interview with Holly Corfield Carr
“Writing poems for particular places might change the way we write, but finding places to write particular poems changes the way we move through the world”
James Trevelyan (Poetry School)
The Radiance of Materials: An Interview with Fawzia Kane
An Interview with Fawzia Kane
In a sense, considering the raw material folds time back in on itself, holds it in suspension: what can this substance become?
Poetry School
Hands On Zines: An Interview with Cherry Styles
An Interview with Cherry Styles
For me, the definition has to do with intent. Zines are not made for profit, it’s all about community, support and a desire to share the good stuff.
Ali Lewis
Interview with Star, our Work Experience Student!
An Interview with Star
Poetry has been a way for me to break out of my shell, become something more than myself.
Ali Lewis
The Bloodjet: An Interview with Katrina Naomi
An Interview with Katrina Naomi
“I think the main thing for me is if you’re going to write about violence, do it well. Let us smell it, taste it.”
Ali Lewis
Making Birds: an Interview with R.A. Villanueva
An Interview with R.A. Villanueva
R.A. Villanueva is an award-winning Filipino-American poet and founding editor of Tongue: A Journal of Writing & Art. His first collection, Reliquaria, won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize, and new writing appears in Poetry, Prac Crit and widely elsewhere. Now living in the UK, Ron’ll be teaching the Summer Term course Making Birds: New Poetic…
Ali Lewis
Tales from the frontline: a conversation with Shey Hargreaves
An Interview with Shey Hargreaves
Halfway through her four-week digital poetry residency with 1215today, we talked to writer Shey Hargreaves about her work, why even bad jobs are about more than just paying the bills, and her frontline experience of recent cuts to healthcare in this country. Note: this interview was originally published on the 1215today website. Hi Shey, can…
Will Barrett (Poetry School)