Podcast appearances and mentions of Mary Jean Chan

In this episode, Cassandra explores the powerful impact of Mary Jean Chan's non-Anglophone upbringing on her poetry and poetics. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Chan writes from the intersection of cultures, languages, and identities—bringing Cantonese inflections and a diasporic lens into English verse. We examine how her bilingual background shapes her themes of queerness, voice, and belonging, and how her poetry navigates the tension between inherited tradition and self-invention.

Siblings (Monitor Books) is a unique round-table discussion / poetry collection, convened by Will Harris, between Harris, Jay Bernard, Mary Jean Chan and Nisha Ramayya. The four poets explore real and imaginary siblings, writing communities, and the wayward directions of the lyric mode – writing as makers and friends about the possibilities that poetry enables now. All four poets convened at the Bookshop for discussion and readings.Get the book: https://lrb.me/siblingsbookFind more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we chat to Andrew McMillan about his novel, Pity. We discuss intersections of masculinity, sexuality and class and the way the body might hold these ideas within fiction and poetry. We think about the ways in which the form of the novel can hold multiple truths and stories, and how this links to post-industrial identities. We explore the dangers of describing post-industrial towns by their lack or an absence, and consider what it would take to find new definitions of community. We chat about the need for more northern stories, and the idea that everyone's village, town or city is worthy of literature. We think about finding a new language to discuss the past, which honours its legacies and yet allows us to define ourselves on new terms, in order to move forwards. Andrew McMillan's debut collection physical was the only ever poetry collection to win The Guardian First Book Award. The collection also won the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, a Somerset Maugham Award (2016), an Eric Gregory Award (2016) and a Northern Writers' award (2014). It was shortlisted the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Costa Poetry Award, The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2016, the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Roehampton Poetry Prize and the Polari First Book Prize. It was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Autumn 2015. In 2019 it was voted as one of the top 25 poetry books of the past 25 years by the Booksellers Association. His second collection, playtime, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2018; it was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Autumn 2018, a Poetry Book of the Month in both The Observer and The Telegraph, a Poetry Book of the Year in The Sunday Times and won the inaugural Polari Prize. His third collection, pandemonium, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2021, and 100 Queer Poems, the acclaimed anthology he edited with Mary Jean Chan, was published by Vintage in 2022. Physical has been translated into French, Galician and Norwegian editions, with double-editions of physical & playtime published in Slovak and German in 2022. He is Professor of Contemporary Writing at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His debut novel, Pity, was published by Canongate in 2024. ​ References Pity by Andrew McMillan Pandemonium by Andrew McMillan Playtime by Andrew McMillan Physical by Andrew McMillan As always, visit Storysmith for 10% discount on Andrew's work.

A 62-year-old man in Boston in the United States has received a kidney from a genetically-engineered pig in the first transplant of its kind. Surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital say if such procedures are carried out on a large scale, dialysis could become obsolete. Richard Slayman - whose previously transplanted human kidney began to fail last year - is recovering well after the four-hour surgery last week. His surgeons say they stand on the brink of a "monumental breakthrough". Also in the programme: we get an update from Haiti as we ask how the gangs are supplying themselves with sophisticated weapons; and celebrating World Poetry Day, we hear from Mary Jean Chan whose poetry collection "Bright Fear" has been nominated for the prestigious Dylan Thomas Prize. (Photo Credit: Massachusetts General Hospital)

Mary Jean Chan reads from their new collection, Bright Fear, and discuss it with Andrew McMillan.Chan's debut, Fleche, won the Costa Book Award for Poetry in 2019. Bright Fear extends and develops that collection's themes of identity, multilingualism and postcolonial legacy, while remaining deeply attuned to moments of tenderness, beauty and grace.Andrew McMillan's most recent collection is pandemonium (Cape, 2021); a novel, Pity, is forthcoming in 2024. Together with Chan, he edited the landmark anthology 100 Queer Poems(Penguin). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 148 Notes and Links to Chen Chen's Work       On Episode 148 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Chen Chen, and the two discuss, among other topics, his experience as a teacher, his early relationships with reading, writing, and multilingualism, those writers and writing communities who continue to inspire and encourage him, muses in various arenas, etymology, and themes like family dynamics, racism, beauty, and anger that anchor his work.      Chen Chen is an author, teacher, & editor His second book of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is out now from BOA Editions. The UK edition will be published by Bloodaxe Books (UK) in October. His debut, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA, 2017; Bloodaxe, 2019), was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. Chen is also the author of five chapbooks, including the forthcoming Explodingly Yours (Ghost City Press, 2023), and the forthcoming book of craft essays, In Cahoots with the Rabbit God (Noemi Press, 2024). His work appears in many publications, including Poetry, Poem-a-Day, and three editions of The Best American Poetry (2015, 2019, & 2021). He has received two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from Kundiman, the National Endowment for the Arts, and United States Artists.    He holds an MFA from Syracuse University and a PhD from Texas Tech University. He has taught in UMass Boston's MFA program and at Brandeis University as the 2018-2022 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence. Currently he is core poetry faculty for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College and Stonecoast. With a brilliant team, he edits the journal Underblong; with Gudetama the lazy egg, he edits the lickety~split. He lives in frequently snowy Rochester, NY with his partner, Jeff Gilbert and their pug, Mr. Rupert Giles. Buy Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency   Chen Chen's Website   Interview with Chen Chen: “Chinatown Presents: Finding Home with Chen Chen”    Interview with Poetry LA from 2017   By Andrew Sargus Klein for Kenyon Review-"On Chen Chen's When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities"               At about 9:15, Chen responds to Pete asking about how he stays so prolific and creative by describing his processes and the idea of any muses or inspirations    At about 11:00, Chen describes “shed[ding] expectations” is or isn't “worthy” of poetry   At about 13:10, The two discuss books on craft and Chen gives more background on his upcoming book of craft essays   At about 16:10, Chen gives background on the Taiwanese Rabbit God and how his upcoming book was influenced by the idea, especially as presented in Andrew Thomas Huang's Kiss of the Rabbit God   At about 18:25, Chen explains his interest in the epistolary form, and how his upcoming work is influenced by Victoria Chang's Dear Memory and Jennifer S. Chang “Dear Blank Space,”    At about 22:30, Chen gives background and history in a macro and micro way for the use of the word “queer” and his usage and knowledge of Mandarin    At about 26:50, Chen describes the sizable influence of Justin Chin on Chen's own work   At about 28:25, Chen describes his early relationship with languages and explores how Mandarin and his parents' Hokkien may influence his writing    At about 34:55, Chen outlines what he read and wrote as a kid, including K.A. Applegate and The Animorphs and Phillip Pullman   At about 37:50, Chen responds to questions about motivations in reading fantasy and other works   At about 38:55, Chen highlights “chill-inducing” works and writers, such as Cunningham's The Hours    At about 41:30, Chen shouts Mrs. Kish and other formative writing teachers and talks about his early writing and the importance of “the interior voice”   At about 42:45, Pete wonders about how Chen's teaching informs his writing and vice versa   At about 45:20, Chen cites Marie Howe's “What the Living Do” and Rick Barot's During the Pandemic as some of his go-to's for teaching in his college classes   At about 48:20, Chen responds to Pete's question about teaching his own work   At about 49:50, Pete and Chen discuss the idea of muses and the writing community energizing-the two cite Bhanu Kapil and Mary Ruefle and the ways in which their philosophies are centered on mutual communication/conversation   At about 55:30, Chen highlights Muriel Leung and an enriching conversation and her unique perspective that led to “I Invite My Parents…”   At about 57:45, The two begin discussing Chen's Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency and its seeds   At about 1:00:40, Pete cites grackles as a motif, and Chen recounts memories of his time at Texas Tech and the Trump Presidency    At about 1:02:45, The two discuss the powerful poem “The School of Fury” and the themes of rage and powerlessness and racism; Pete cites a profound insight from Neema Avashia   At about 1:06:45, Pete cites some powerful lines from Chen's work and Chen makes connections   At about 1:08:20, Pete rattles off one of the longest titles known to man, “After My White Friends Say…” and Chen discusses ideas of identity and his rationale for the poem's title and structure   At about 1:11:30, Chen talks about exercises he does in class with Mary Jean Chan's Flèche    At about 1:12:10, The two discuss craft and structure tools used in the collection   At about 1:14:25, The two talk about family dynamics and the speaker's mother and her relationship with the speaker's boyfriend     At about 1:18:50, Pete cites lines that were powerful for “leaving things unsaid” and Chen expands on ideas of innocence and willful ignorance in his work   At about 1:22:30, The two discuss ideas of mortality, including the Pulse tragedy, familial connections, and the series of poems titled “A Small Book of Questions”   At about 1:24:10, Ideas of beauty of discussed from Chen's work   At about 1:25:15, Chen reads “The School of Fury” and the two discuss it afterwards   At about 1:29:40, Chen gives contact info and recommends Boa Editions as a place to buy his book and support independent publishers, and another good organization in Writers and Books, featuring Ampersand Bookstore     You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.  This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.  Please check out my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl to read about benefits offered to members and to sign up to help me continue to produce high-quality content, and a lot of it. The coming months are bringing standout writers like Justin Tinsley, Jose Antonio Vargas, Robert Jones, Jr., Allegra Hyde, Laura Warrell, and Elizabeth Williamson. Thanks for your support!    The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 149 with Erika T. Wurth. Erika's highly-awaited literary-horror novel, White Horse, is forthcoming on November 1; she is a Kenyon and Sewanee fellow and an urban Native of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent. The episode will air on November 1, the publication date for White Horse.  

This month Suzannah V Evans takes over as host; she's in conversation with Mary Jean Chan in an interview recorded at StAnza, Scotland's poetry festival, earlier this year. Chan was born in 1990 and raised in Hong Kong before continuing her education at the Universities of Oxford and London. She's already been nominated for the Forward Prize for Poetry's Best Single Poem category twice and earlier this year she won an Eric Gregory Award. Her first full-length collection Flèche has just been published by Faber. During the podcast, Chan discusses fencing (where the term ‘flèche' comes from), how learning English at a young age made her realise some languages are more valued than others, and queerness.

We meet artists of the queer diaspora: LGBTQ+ creatives living abroad, away from the cultures that raised them, to discuss ideas of personal and artistic freedom, exile and home and the meaning of the word ‘queer' in 2022. Arab film makers Sarah Kaskas, co-founder of Karaaj Films, and Mohammad Shawky Hassan discuss their new films, The Window, and Shall I Compare You to a Summer's Day? with Tina Daheley. Mohammad Shawky Hassan recently appeared in London as part of the The SAFAR Film Festival of cinema from the Arab world. British transgender writer Juno Roche discusses their candid memoir A Working Class Family Ages Badly and the idea of creativity in exile. Nhojj, a singer and songwriter raised in Guyana and Trinidad and living in New York, explains how his sexuality informs his art. And Hong Kong Chinese poet Mary Jean Chan explains the thinking behind the word ‘queer,' used in the title of their latest co-edited poetry anthology 100 Queer Poems., as well as reading exclusive new work. Produced by Simon Richardson (Photo: Sophia Moussa Fitch and Tamara Saade in a still from The Window. Credit: Karaaj Films)

This month's show is about East and Southeast Asian identity in Britain. We spoke to journalist Helena Lee about East Side Voices, the anthology of writing she edited that celebrates the diversity of these voices in the UK. We also spoke to poet and writer Will Harris about the poem he contributed and some of the other pieces from the collection, which features writers including Mary Jean Chan, Sharlene Teo, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan and Catherine Cho. These essays and poems cover a range of experiences and settings, from the set of Harry Potter to the NHS frontlines, and seek to combat the absence of representation in British culture in which East and Southeast Asian lives are often, to use Salman Rushdie's words, "visible but unseen". Listen in for readings, music, plus all the usual recommendations. Recommendations: Octavia: Pisti, 80 rue de Belleville by Estelle Hoy Helena: Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda Will: Ultimatum Orangutan by Khairani Barokka Carrie: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/feb-2022-east-side-voices-with-helena-lee-and-will-harris Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction Email us: litfriction@gmail.com Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador: https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

What do we land-locked souls know about the ocean?

This week, hear Mary Jean Chan discuss and read from Flèche, her award-winning debut collection of growing up and coming out. Cultures clash, family expectations are questioned and identity is explored. What happens when the protective gear comes off?  We're going into combat, but in a spirit of peace-keeping and love.  Meanwhile Peter is in awe of feminist writer and activist Audre Lorde and Robin celebrates white jeans and wonders why Hubert Moore isn't better known. Plus, fancy a guest moment on Planet Poetry? We've got a new idea we'd like to try, and it involves you!

From surrealism and science fiction to inspiration drawn from historic objects in stately homes and the painting of Francis Bacon: Shahidha Bari hosts a conversation with Will Harris, who has written long-form poems; new Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Max Porter and Chloe Aridjis, who have written poetic novels which play with form; and academic Christine Yao, who looks at speculative fiction. Max Porter is the author of Grief Is The Thing With Feathers and Lanny. He has also collaborated with the Indie folk band Tunng and has a book out in January called The Death of Francis Bacon. You can hear dramatizations of Lanny at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000pqdc and Grief Is The Thing with Feathers on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000plzl Chloe Aridjis is a London-based Mexican writer who has published the novels Book of Clouds, Asunder and Sea Monsters, and was awarded the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2020. She was co-curator of a Leonora Carrington exhibition at Tate Liverpool and writes for Frieze. They have been announced as Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature to mark the 200th anniversary of the RSL https://rsliterature.org/ Will Harris is a writer of Chinese Indonesian and British heritage who won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2020 and is shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2021 for his collection RENDANG. He co-edited the spring 2020 issue of The Poetry Review with Mary Jean Chan. Christine Yao is one of the 2020 New Generation Thinkers on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the AHRC to turn research into radio. She teaches at UCL on American Literature in English to 1900, with an interest in literatures in English from the Black and Asian diasporas, science fiction, the Gothic, and comics/graphic novels. You can find more conversations in the playlist Prose and Poetry on the Free Thinking website, which includes Max Porter discussing empathy, Christine Yao looking at science fiction and the experimental writing of the Oulipo group, and a whole series of conversations recorded in partnership with the Royal Society of Literature. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p047v6vh Producer: Emma Wallace

We were joined by Toby Litt, Helen Charman, Lisa Kelly and Mary Jean Chan, four of the poets featured in Carcanet’s New Poetries VII. From the first anthology, published in 1994, through to this seventh volume, the series showcases the work of some of the most engaging and inventive new poets writing in English from around the world. The New Poetries anthologies have never sought to identify a school, much less a generation: the poets included employ a wide range of styles, forms and approaches, and new need not be taken to imply young. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hosts Kate, Eric, and Medaya are joined by renowned Chinese writer Yan Lianke, whose latest book is the memoir Three Brothers, about his childhood growing up during the Cultural Revolution. Calling in from Beijing, Yan discusses his life as a writer, being banned and censored in his own country and how he thinks literature can influence politics. Nicole Liu translates from the Chinese. Also, Nicole Liu recommends Fleche, a book of poetry by Hong Kong author Mary Jean Chan.

Review contributor Sandeep Parmar talks to Mary Jean Chan, guest co-editor with Will Harris of the spring 2020 issue of The Poetry Review. Sandeep reads her poem, ‘The Nineties', and reflects on its origins – growing up in California at the time of the L.A. riots, which followed the arrest and beating of Rodney King, the trial of O.J. Simpson and the 1994 Northridge earthquake – and their relevance now, following the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement as a catalyst for change. In an exhilarating conversation Sandeep and Mary Jean discuss race and contemporary literature, the lyric 'I' and, post-Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric, the fluidities and opportunities of the second-person ‘you', and changing the critical context of BAME writing with the Ledbury Emerging Critics scheme, which Sandeep co-founded with Sarah Howe.

Hosts Kate, Eric, and Medaya are joined by renowned Chinese writer Yan Lianke, whose latest book is the memoir Three Brothers, about his childhood growing up during the Cultural Revolution. Calling in from Beijing, Yan discusses his life as a writer, being banned and censored in his own country and how he thinks literature can influence politics. Nicole Liu translates from the Chinese. Also, Nicole Liu recommends Fleche, a book of poetry by Hong Kong author Mary Jean Chan.

This month's interview is with poet, breakdancer, teacher and cirus performer, RikTheMost. Plus, we discuss Flèche, by Mary Jean Chan and get a writing and performing tip from Jamal Hassan. The poem of the month is Out and Proud by Sez Thomasin.

Samira talks to Sir Patrick Stewart about what tempted him back to Star Trek to play Jean-Luc Picard for the first time in 18 years. Star Trek: Picard finds the legendary Starfleet officer in retirement but still deeply affected by the loss of Lieutenant Commander Data and the destruction of Romulus that ended his career. Stewart also discusses the parallels between the world of Star Trek: Picard and politics today. The overall winner of the Costa Book of the Year is announced on Front Row, live from the ceremony. Contenders this year include debut novelist Sara Collins, novelist Jonathan Coe, biographer Jack Fairweather, poet Mary Jean Chan and children’s novelist Jasbinder Bilan. Continuing our Risk Season, Sharmaine Lovegrove tells us about the risks involved in setting up Dialogue Books, an imprint that publishes authors from under-represented communities, including writers from BAME, LGBTQI+ and working class backgrounds. Arts Council England’s Chief Executive Darren Henley and Amanda Parker, Editor of arts industry journal, Arts Professional, discuss “Let’s Create” - the Arts Council’s new 10-year Strategy which seeks to expand our nation’s creative opportunities. Image: Sir Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: Picard Image credit: Amazon Prime Video Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Simon Richardson

This week, the Costa Book Award Winners in four categories Sara Collins talks to Robert Kirkwood about her debut novel, ‘The Confessions of Frannie Langton’ (Starts at 1.55) Jack Fairweather reveals the untold story of ‘The Volunteer’ who infiltrated Auschwitz. (17.35) Jasbiner Bilan takes Red Szell on a Himalayan quest with ‘Asha and the Spirit Bird’. (32.45) Poet Mary Jean Chan on her collection, Fleche. (41.15) And we return to Sara Collins for the books of her life (50.10) (We'll have Jonathan Coe next week!)

A teenage sex therapist on a high school campus is the premise of the hit Netflix series Sex Education. Starring Asa Butterfield and Gillian Anderson, its first season attracted 40m viewers in the first weeks of streaming and it’s back for a second series. Writer and creator Laurie Nunn discusses balancing serious sexual content with humour, why it’s hard to pin down the location and era of the series, and the debt it owes to the American high school movies of the '80s and '90s. All this week Front Row is talking to the winners of the different categories of the Costa Book Awards. Tonight Samira hears from the poetry winner, Mary Jean Chan. Chan was a competitive fencer, representing Hong Kong, and her first collection takes its title, Flèche, from an offensive technique in the sport, but it also suggests the vulnerability of the body. At the end of last year came news that podcasts will now be eligible for the Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting. What does this mean about the status and quality of podcasts and what are the trends in their consumption, whether streamed or downloaded via Apple, Spotify, BBC Sounds and others? Podcaster and critic Caroline Crampton joins us to discuss this along with Kate Hutchison, co-fouder of Lasso Audio, a new podcast talent agency based in New York. Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome Weatherald

Today in the Poetry Pharmacy, we had a visit from MARY JEAN CHAN. Mary Jean’s work has appeared in The Poetry Review, Ambit, The Rialto, The London Magazine, Callaloo and elsewhere. She is also a Co-Editor at Oxford Poetry. Her poem “//” is currently shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. She also recently won the Poetry Society Members’ Competition, as well as the Poetry and Psychoanalysis Competition. Mary Jean brought in Adrienne Rich’s poem DEDICATIONS to read and discuss. We also talked about our love for the poet Chen Chen and read his poem WINTER, followed by a reading of Mary Jean’s own SELF-PORTRAIT, a poem I’ve recently been by-heart dosing myself on. If you’ve enjoyed the episode, please (pretty please) could you leave us a nice review on iTunes, Also, in the next year, I’m trying to raise funds for the S.H.E College Fund initiative in Kenya by learning 52 poems in 52 weeks. Here is my 52 Poems in 52 Weeks Donations Page: https://chuffed.org/project/52-poems-in-52-weeks If you’re feeling some poetry-love after listening, a donation, no matter how small (or large) would be greatly appreciated. Don’t forget, the Poetry Pharmacy is open every day on Twitter, dispensing poems for whatever ails body and soul. Feel free to @/DM us there, or email us here (thepoetrypharmacy AT gmail.com) with your requests for a poem prescription. [Theme music for the podcast is from Vladimir Martynov’s The Beatitudes played by the wonderful coversart on YouTube]

To support our work and listen to additional content, see here: https://patreon.com/yourshelf and follow us on social media @_yourshelf_. In the debut episode of The YourShelf Podcast, The Poetic Pop Premiere, our chief curator Juliano Zaffino (Jay) sits down with Florence Welch (of Florence and the Machine) and Rebecca Lucy Taylor (of Self Esteem) to discuss books and the music industry, all through the lens of their personal brands of poetic pop. For full show notes, see here: https://podcast.yourshelf.uk/episodes/1. Thanks for listening.  LinksPatreonInstagramTwitterPodcastYourShelfEpisode NotesJay quizzes Florence and Rebecca on their bookshelves, the books that made them, and whose reading habits they want to know more about.Florence and Rebecca discuss songwriting and poetry, producing music as women in a male-dominated industry, the importance of personal lyrics, listening to and believing in women, young women "radiating" with feminism, and female solidarity in the industry.Florence and Rebecca share their favourite of each other's lyrics, and talk about what they've been reading recently.Jay recommends signing up to our Patreon for access to exclusive content, including a 30min bonus episode with more content from the interview, where Rebecca and Florence play a game of "Celebs Read Nice Tweets" and answer some "phone-in questions".Jay wraps up with all the books that were discussed in the episode and a few other books he recommends. Discussed in the podcast: Rebecca Solnit's essays Hope In The Dark, the books of Jacqueline Wilson, Frank Herbert's Dune, Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, the Margaret Atwood classic The Handmaid's Tale, Patti Smith's M Train, Ocean Vuong's stunning debut novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Ryka Aoki's book of poems Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul, and Yrsa Daley-Ward's memoir The Terrible. Our current Guest Curated title, chosen by the YourShelf community, is Jia Tolentino's incredible Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self Delusion. Additional recommendations: Julia Armfield's short story collection salt slow, and RJ Arkhipov's Visceral: The Poetry of Blood, which were given to Florence at the recording, and Mary Jean Chan's Flèche, which was given to Rebecca. Jay's favourite read in August was Lucy Ellmann's groundbreaking, Booker Prize longlisted Ducks, Newburyport.Stream Self Esteem's album Compliments Please and go see her on tour in October. Buy and stream Florence and the Machine's 10th anniversary edition of Lungs and read her book Useless Magic.Thanks for listening and tune in again next month for Episode Two!

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 (https://www.faber.co.uk/blog/the-faber-poetry-podcast-mary-jean-chan-rebecca-tamas) . 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!

This week, Ian McMillan and the guests shoot for the moon. Ian is joined by Ocean Vuong, winner of the 2017 TS Eliot prize for 'Night Sky with Exit Wounds', who has just published his first novel 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' (Cape). Ocean celebrates his favourite recent moon writing by Mojave American poet Natalie Diaz. We also her from Mary Jean Chan, who has just published her debut collection 'Flèche'. As it's our last programme of The Verb season before we take our summer break, we've brought together our Verb regulars from the past year - poets Ira Lightman and Kate Fox and linguist Rob Drummond. Together they be considering how man walking on the moon 50 years ago has changed our language and our relationship with the moon, and there will be brand new poetry from both Kate and Ira. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Jessica Treen

Dion O'Reilly interviews Julia Levine. Julia B. Levine has won numerous awards for her work, including the Northern California Book Award in Poetry for Small Disasters Seen in Sunlight. She has three other books: Ditch Tender, Ask, and Practicing for Heaven. She received a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University. She lives and works in Davis,California. Also, Farnaz Fatemi reads from Flèche by Mary Jean Chan and Halal If You Hear Me: The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 3, edited by Fatimah Asghar and Safia Elhillo

A live recording of the National Poetry Competition 40th Anniversary Readings at Kings Place, held on 20th March 2019 featuring, featuring Caleb Parkin, Geraldine Clarkson, Mary Jean Chan, Fran Lock, Liz Berry, Mark Pajak, Stephen Sexton, Sinéad Morrissey, Ian Duhig and Jo Shapcott. Supported by Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation. You can enter the 2019 National Poetry Competition for yourself at poetrysociety.org.uk/npc. The deadline for entries is 31 October 2019. This is part 1 of 2!

A live recording of the National Poetry Competition 40th Anniversary Readings at Kings Place, held on 20th March 2019 featuring, featuring Caleb Parkin, Geraldine Clarkson, Mary Jean Chan, Fran Lock, Liz Berry, Mark Pajak, Stephen Sexton, Sinéad Morrissey, Ian Duhig and Jo Shapcott. Supported by Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation. You can enter the 2019 National Poetry Competition for yourself at poetrysociety.org.uk/npc. The deadline for entries is 31 October 2019. This is part 2 of 2!

Listen back to an evening of readings and discussion from three outstanding poets, Mary Jean Chan, Will Harris and Sarah Howe. ------ Mary Jean Chan's first full length collection Flèche is published by Faber this July. Her debut pamphlet, A Hurry of English, was selected as the 2018 Poetry Book Society Summer Pamphlet Choice. She is a Ledbury Poetry Critic, editor of Oxford Poetry and is a Lecturer in Creative Writing (Poetry) at Oxford Brookes University. Will Harris is the author of the essay Mixed-Race Superman, published in the UK by Peninsula Press and in an expanded edition in the US by Melville House. His debut poetry collection, RENDANG, is forthcoming from Granta in 2020. Sarah Howe is a British poet, academic and editor. Her first book, Loop of Jade (Chatto), won the T.S. Eliot Prize and The Sunday Times / PFD Young Writer of the Year Award. She is a Lecturer in Poetry at King’s College London. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This month Suzannah V Evans takes over as host; she's in conversation with Mary Jean Chan in an interview recorded at StAnza, Scotland's poetry festival, earlier this year. Chan was born in 1990 and raised in Hong Kong before continuing her education at the Universities of Oxford and London. She's already been nominated for the Forward Prize for Poetry's Best Single Poem category twice and earlier this year she was given an Eric Gregory Award. Her first full-length collection Flèche has just been published by Faber. During the podcast, Chan discusses fencing (where the term 'flèche' comes from), how learning English at a young age made her realise some languages are more valued than others, and queerness.

To celebrate the poem's shortlisting for the 2019 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, Mary Jean Chan reads 'The Window', which was first published as the 2nd prize winner in the 2017 National Poetry Competition. You can find the poem, and enter the National Poetry Competition for yourself, at http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/npc

Kate Clanchy is a writer, poet, teacher and journalist. She has a thirty-year career in teaching and is the recipient of several awards for her writing including a Forward Prize for her poetry collection Slattern. Her novel Meeting the English was shortlisted for the Costa Prize. Clanchy’s BBC Radio 3 programme We Are Writing A Poem About Home was a collaborative work with students and was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award 2015. In 2018 an anthology of her students’ work, England: Poems from a School, was published to great acclaim, and she was awarded an MBE for services to literature. Her new book, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, has been called, by Philip Pullman: ‘the best book on teachers and children and writing that I've ever read’. @KateClanchy1 Mukahang Limbu is an 18 year old Nepalese writer based in Oxford. He is a 3-time Foyle Young Poet, a SLAMmbassador, and has won the First Story National Competition. In 2019 he was also the recipient of the Outspoken prize for poetry. His poems have been published in ‘England: Poems from a School’, an anthology written by migrants and he is a die-hard fan of poets Ocean Vuong, Raymond Antrobus, Mary Jean Chan, Frank O'Hara and Rebecca Perry, among many others. @mukki_s1 Recorded live at Wilton's Music Hall London in April 2019. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories ‏

In this episode, Rachael and Jack talk fatherhood, the lyric I and the magical sound of a garden pond with their guests Wayne Holloway-Smith and Maurice Riordan and there are audio postcards from Mary Jean Chan, Kaveh Akbar and Nisha Ramayya. Featured audio poems: * ‘Poetry is the last place’ by Mary Jean Chan.  * ‘Ultrasound’ by Kaveh Akbar.   * ‘After infatuation’ by Nisha Ramayya. All relevant links can be found in this episode's [show notes](https://www.faber.co.uk/blog/faber-poetry-podcast-episode-four-wayne-holloway-smith-maurice-riordan). The Faber Poetry Podcast is produced by Rachael Allen, Jack Underwood and Hannah Marshall for Faber & Faber. Editing by Billy Godfrey at Strathmore Publishing.  Thanks to Kaveh Akbar, Mary Jean Chan, Wayne Holloway-Smith, Nisha Ramayya and Maurice Riordan. Special thanks to Margot Holloway-Smith for this episode’s outro.

This episode is in two parts: Part one - David Turner talks to Mary Jean Chan about her debut pamphlet, 'a hurry of english' (Ignition Press), finding queer and gender-bending identities in classic English literature and how it feels to be demanding space as a published queer writer. Mary Jean also reads three poems: (00:04:00) - Rules for a Chinese Child Buying Stationery in a London Bookshop (00:28:11) - Dragon Hill Spa (1:00:30) - Tea Ceremony http://www.maryjeanchan.com/ https://www.brookes.ac.uk/poetry-centre/ignition-press/ Part two (1:02:06) - David Turner is at Verve Poetry Festival in Birmingham interviewing Sandeep K Parmar in front of a lovely crowd of festival goers. The pair discuss whether poems are always retrospective or if they can ever exist in the moment, what role live literature events play in the development of Sandeep's writing and how Sandeep balances the dual roles of writing and literary criticism. Sandeep also reads two poems: (1:05:20) - Invocation (1:15:49) - Against Chaos https://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/sandeep-parmar A full transcript of this conversation can be downloaded here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/ep112-mary-jean-chan-sandeep-k-parmar.pdf Assistant producer on this episode - Tiegan Hall-Turner.

To celebrate National Poetry Day 2017 here in the UK we gathered some poets together to share their work with us. This episode contains some strong language and as it's in the poems I've decided not to bleep the words. Poets and Readings are as follows: David Turner - "Milk" by Susannah Dickey (00:02:00) Rishi Dastidar - "Contour" (00:06:10) Mary-Jean Chan - "Conversation with fantasy mother" (00:07:07) "They would have all that" (00:08:02) Holly Corfield-Carr - "Z" (00:10:16) Lizzy Turner - "Putting the art back in K-mart" by Scott Laudati (00:14:11) Thomas Darby - "Alfresco in waves" (00:1702) Khairani Barokka - "Meteorology" (00:18:40) "Pineapple" (00:21:19) David Turner - "over skype" by Sean Wai Keung (00:24:14) A transcript can be downloaded here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/ep-107-national-poetry-day-2017-lpp-transcript.pdf