Brenda Shaughnessy’s Liquid Flesh (Bloodaxe) gathers together poems from across her first five collections, as thrilling and unpredictable as any contemporary American poet. Writing about her work in the Boston Review, Richard Howard says that ‘when anything is as fresh as this diction, as free as these associations, as fraught as these passions, it is not descriptions or definitions which are wanted but the thing itself, the new words in new places, the necessary instigations’. Brenda Shaughnessy was in conversation with Amy Key, whose second collection, Isn’t Forever, came out with Bloodaxe ..read more

In Ruth Padel’s latest pamphlet, Watershed, the poet reflects on the natural world, on water, and on the psychology of denialism, particularly where it concerns the climate crisis. Padel was joined in reading and conversation by Sean Borodale, whose latest pamphlet is Re-Dreaming Sylvia Plath as a Queen Bee. Find more events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/eventspod Buy a signed copy of Watershed: lrb.me/watershedbook Or a copy of Re-Dreaming Sylvia Plath...: lrb.me/plathbeebook Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

Ian Patterson, in both poetry and prose, revels in language, its possibilities, absurdities and contradictions. He joined fellow poet Keston Sutherland for conversation at the Bookshop, and to read from and present his latest collection Shell Vestige Disputed. Find more events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/eventspod Buy Shell Vestige Disputed: lrb.me/ianpattersonpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

30 years after he reinvented the family memoir with And When Did You Last See Your Father? poet, critic and novelist Blake Morrison returns to the subject of his family in Two Sisters (The Borough Press) which reflects on the recent deaths of his two sisters as well as on the often fraught relationships of siblings in history and literature. Morrison was in conversation with Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Everyone is Still Alive (Phoenix). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

Based on the true story of an unsolved mystery, Sophie Mackintosh’s new novel, Cursed Bread (Hamish Hamilton), centres on a small village community upturned by the arrival of a glamourous couple. Jo Hamya calls the book‘sensuous and haunted, like Madame Bovary reworked as a ghost story’. Mackintosh was in conversation with Rebecca Watson, author of Little Scratch (Faber). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

In Affinities, a series of linked essays, Brian Dillon investigates what it might mean for a thing to be like something else, and what it might mean for things to be connected even when they are nothing like one another. Currently Professor of Creative Writing at Queen Mary, University of London, Dillon’s writing is always surprising, and revelatory. Expect both revelations and surprises. Dillon was joined in conversation by the writer Jennifer Higgie, whose latest book is The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and the Spirit World. Buy Affinities: lrb.me/affinitiesbook Find more ..read more

Fellow of All Souls, Oxford and regular LRB contributor Clare Bucknell argues in The Treasuries: Poetry Anthologies and the Making of British Culture (Head of Zeus) that the selective way in which poetry has been presented over the past three centuries tells a fascinating story about the democratisation of literature, class, gender, politics and nationalism. She talks about it with another regular LRB contributor, social and architectural historian Rosemary Hill. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

In one of the most eagerly anticipated debuts of 2023, LRB editor Tom Crewe presents a fictionalised account of the lives and loves of John Addington Symonds and Henry Havelock Ellis. The New Life charts their collaboration on a revolutionary work that set out to transform our understanding of sexual ethics. Tom Crewe was in conversation with Paul Mendez, author of another ground-breaking debut Rainbow Milk. Find more events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

Novelist and essayist Michael Bracewell reads from and talks about his latest novel Unfinished Business. An apparently ordinary, suburban office life, with its regular troubles of work, ambition, disappointment, marriage, age and bereavement becomes sharpened as pleasure is mistaken for happiness. Bracewell is in conversation with Gwendoline Riley, author of First Love and My Phantoms. Find upcoming events on the Bookshop website: lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

According to his excellent website, Ha-Joon Chang doesn’t do extreme sports, is not a hi-tech buff nor a secret expert on 18th-century maps, and he doesn’t even do gardening. He is however one of the world’s leading thinkers on development economics. In Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World Chang combines his passion for numbers with his passion for food (in particular, chocolate) to explain how the politics and economics of food production work with, for, and against us.  Chang was in conversation with economist and philosopher Daniel Chandler, whose first book, F ..read more