Oh what a night. . . In this special episode, recorded live at the London Review Bookshop, Rachael and Jack are joined by Ishion Hutchinson and Oluwaseun Olayiwola, and we have an audio postcard from Charlotte Mew, delivered by the actress Emilia Clarke.   Show notes Live guests ISHION HUTCHINSON was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica. He is the author of the poetry collections Far District, winner of the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry, and House of Lords and Commons, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the J ..read more

In this episode, Jack and Rachael talk couplets, nutlets and cats in poems, among many other things, with Lucy Mercer in the studio and Maggie Millner down the line from New York. Audio postcards are dispatched from Susannah Dickey, Oluwaseun Olayiwola and Rowan Ricardo Phillips. Show notes Studio guests LUCY MERCER'S first poetry collection Emblem (Prototype, 2022) is a Poetry Book Society Choice. She has written for ArtReview, LA Review of Books and Poetry Review amongst others. She teaches creative writing at Goldsmiths and lives in London. MAGGIE MILLNER was born and raised in rur ..read more

In this episode, Jack and Rachael are joined by award-winning poets Raymond Antrobus and Victoria Adukwei Bulley in the studio, where they consider the multiple meanings of the word 'quiet' and the gifts that make you feel seen. Audio postcards in this episode come from Declan Ryan, Holly Isemonger and Dawn Watson. Show notes Studio guests RAYMOND ANTROBUS is the author of three poetry titles: To Sweeten Bitter (Out-Spoken Press), The Perseverance (Penned in the Margins) and All The Names Given (Picador), as well as a forthcoming collection to be published by Picador. His work has won the R ..read more

AND we’re back! In the first episode of the third season, Rachael and Jack welcome guests Anthony Anaxagorou and Nick Laird to the studio to discuss poetry writing, tea drinking and the ultimate battle: long poem vs short poem. Audio postcards in this episode come from Courtney Bush, Emily Berry and Anthony Joseph.  Show notes  Studio guests ANTHONY ANAXAGOROU is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, spoken word artist, essayist, publisher and poetry educator. He has published several collections of poetry and short stories, and, in 2020, he published How to Write It, a pra ..read more

Rachael Allen and Jack Underwood are back for a third season, with an unmissable mix of studio guests, audio postcards from around the world and general poetry chat ..read more

We can’t believe we’ve come to the end of our second series [sad face]... In this extended final episode, Jack and Rachael have fun chatting with guests Daljit Nagra and Nisha Ramayya in the studio and there are audio postcards from Aria Aber and Jericho Brown, as well as poems from our two presenters. Thank you to all our listeners – we hope you've enjoyed our second series. Remember to rate and review us and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss future episodes of the podcast. Show notes  Studio guests DALJIT NAGRA has published four poetry collections with Faber & Faber, in ..read more

In the penultimate episode of the second series, Ilya Kaminsky and Sophie Robinson join Jack and Rachael in the studio to discuss, among other things, poems with ‘big dick energy’, the blurring of poetry with other literary forms and the tension between metaphor and the denial of metaphor. Audio postcards are from Daisy Lafarge, Anthony Anaxagorou and Hugo Williams.  Listen to this episode and subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss forthcoming episodes from the new season. Show notes  Studio guests ILYA KAMINSKY was born in the former Soviet Union and is now an American citiz ..read more

Two acclaimed award-winners join Rachael and Jack in the studio in our fourth episode of the second series: the Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Rae Armantrout and the Scottish poet Don Paterson, twice winner of the T. S Eliot Prize and recipient of all three Forward Poetry Prizes, the Costa Poetry Prize and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. This episode also features audio postcards from Daljit Nagra, Sylvia Legris and Zeyar Lynn and ko ko thett. See here for the full show notes, author bios and links.  Listen to this episode and subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss forthcom ..read more

In this week’s episode, award-winning poets Fiona Benson and Julia Copus join Rachael and Jack in the studio and there are audio postcards from Morgan Parker, Bobby Parker and Wendy Cope.  See here for the full show notes, author bios and links.  Trigger warning: Please note that this episode’s second audio postcard features details relating to sexual trauma. Listen to this episode and subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss forthcoming episodes from the new season and (should you be so inclined) please rate and review us so that other poetry-lovers can discover the show ..read more

In episode two of the new series, Rachael and Jack are joined in the studio by Mary Jean Chan and Rebecca Tamás to chat about recurring themes and preoccupations in their work – from fencing to the ecological world, the mother to the non-human. Audio postcards this week come from Paige Lewis, Peter Scupham and Matthew Dickman.  Show notes, including relevant links, for this episode can be found here. Remember to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss forthcoming episodes and if you like the show please rate and review us. Thank you ..read more