Podcast appearances and mentions of Michael Symmons Roberts

Ian McMillan's guests celebrate hedges, with poetry from Alison Brackenbury and Testament, singing from Sam Lee, Michael Symmons Roberts explores a poem with a nightingale at its centre, and hedgelayer Paul Lamb records himself walking a hedgerow that's rich in wildlife.This hedge-themed special features a haunted hedge from poet Alison Brackenbury, part of the anthology 'Lincolnshire Folk Tales Reimagined' (ed, Anna Milon and Rory Waterman). Alison's hedge started off life as a talking hedge in her non-fiction book 'Village' which is all about her childhood home in Lincolnshire (to be published online in July)Testament, a world record-breaking beatboxer, rapper and poet, performs a poem called 'The Lig', based on his experiences observing three generations of farmer hedge-layers in Cumbria. Testament is a member of the Hot Poets Collective which explores climate change through spoken word poetry.Sam Lee's most recent album is 'Songdreaming' - and he sings, not only in front of human audiences, but also with and alongside nightingales. Sam takes musicians and small groups of people into woodland for annual 'Singing With Nightingales' events - events which celebrate this vulnerable bird and our creative connection with it. Sam sings 'Bushes and Briars' on the show and explores the poetry of 19th century poet John Clare.Poet and professor Michael Symmons Roberts chooses a 'neon line' for The Verb's ongoing series about stand-out lines in poems . His choice is from a poem that features a 'deconstructed hedge' and a singing blackbird. Michael listened carefully to the blackbirds in his garden whilst writing his new book 'Quartet for the End of Time: On Music, Grief and Birdsong', - inspired by his relationship with the music of the composer Olivier Messaien.Ian also dips in and out of a very long hedge with the help of Paul Lamb, a hedge-layer who walks the Gower Peninsula to bring us hedge language. Paul's new memoir is called 'Of Thorn and Briar - A Year with the West Country Hedgelayer'

Jamaica's former poet laureate, Lorna Goodison, on setting Dante's Inferno on the island of her birth; Journalist Joanna Moorhead on Pope Francis' relationship with the arts; Poet and librettist Michael Symmons Roberts on writing a form-breaking book to re-examine French composer Olivier Messiaen's form-breaking masterwork - Quartet for the End of Time; and going in search of an important piece of theatre history with Daniel Swift, author of The Dream Factory: London's First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare.Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

The appeal of 'the road less travelled by', Emily Brontë as self-help guru, a new way to look at Little Red Riding Hood and the 'little miracles' we might notice when we care for the elderly; Ian McMillan celebrates poems that explore all of these ideas with his guests, the poets Len Pennie, Malika Booker, Kate Fox, and Michael Symmons Roberts.Michael Symmons Roberts' poetry collections include 'Drysalter', 'Mancunia' and 'Ransom'. This week Michael explores Robert Frost's poem 'The Road not Taken' and sheds light on the strange power of the 'neon' line in the poem (a memorable line that takes the poem to another level) 'I took the road less travelled by'.Kate Fox is a stand up poet, spoken word artist and broadcaster, her latest poetry collection is 'Bigger on the Inside'. Kate has written a new poem for The Verb in which Emily Brontë advises us that most of our thoughts 'are nowt but hill fog' and that problems can be solved by 'a walk or a big dog', or 'a walk with a big dog'.Malika Booker is the only poet to have won The Forward Prize for best single poem twice - she reads one of those winning poems, 'The Little Miracles' for The Verb. Malika founded the groundbreaking poetry workshop 'Malika's Kitchen' with Roger Robinson. Her books include 'Pepper Seed' and her poetry can be found in the 'Penguin Modern Poets' series.Len Pennie's collection 'Poyums' is a best-seller, and explores domestic violence and misogyny with energy, wit and inventive rhyme, It's written in a mixture of Scots and English. Len has a huge following on social media, partly down to her celebration of a 'Scots word of the Day'. For The Verb, she reads a poem about telling the story of a relationship in your own words, and considers the influence of Robert Burns.

Ian McMillan is joined by poets Michael Symmons Roberts, Kate Fox, Jacob Polley and sound designer Amanda Priestley to celebrate the rich variety of new poetry commissions written for the BBC's centenary year. The show includes work from the Sound First scheme (Radio 3 and BBC Contains Strong Language working together to find the best emerging sound design talent in the UK) - three poems with evocative sound design. Also, we share the very last commission in our Something New series, by Sinéad Morrisey - called Charm. Sound First work featured: Speaker - poem by Jacob Polley, sound designer Nicky Elson Atlas - poem by Joelle Taylor, sound designer Amanda Priestley Root Your Words in the Earth - poem by Malika Booker, sound designer Louis Blatherwick

Paul, Gwyn and Lara chat about ‘Edgelands' by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts It leads to a great discussion about nature in unexpected places and on our back doorstep. One other book gets a brief mention along the way and that is ‘How Green was my Valley' by Richard Llewellyn where nnaature and industry collide in the South Wales valleys. For the insatiably curious among you here is a link to an episode of ‘Old Country' starring Jack Hargreaves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpRvcEC2fnY this will give you a flavour of who we were talking about. His biography is interesting as well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Hargreaves

Ian McMillan celebrates 100 years of BBC Radio Drama with brand new commissions - from writers Alex Riddle, Georgia Affonso. Tim Barrow, and the poet Michael Symmons Roberts. This is a homage to what Ian describes as a form which feels 'as new as cinema and as old as a whispered story in a dark cave in winter', with tales of mysterious islands and time travel, the intimacy of the optometrist's gaze, and the power of friendship. Michael Symmons Roberts's poem is a commission for our 'Something Old, Something New' series, and evokes a frozen Atlantic - its sound and its shiver.

The first specially written original radio drama for this then new medium, was written by playwright and poet Richard Hughes, under the title 'A Comedy of Danger'. In order to emphasise the sound-only format he set the play in a deep Welsh coal mine, where some posh English visitors get trapped in total darkness in a flooded gallery hoping for rescue . This was broadcast in early 1924. In February 1923, the BBC broadcast a scene from Julius Caesar . To mark the centenary of this first broadcast, poet Michael Symmons Roberts has taken elements from Hughes first full play and updated them - the shocking plunge into complete darkness without apparent hope of escape, forcing strangers together, the distant sounds of a rising threat from approaching water that gradually rises in the mine's chamber, and the first and last lines of the original which frame this new version. In Danger 2023, the lights go out on a party visiting a remote 'doomsday' bank deep under the desert containing a vast collection of historical and cultural data about our lives, from governments, universities and media companies across the world . Our digital world being 'archivable' in a physical location, what would be lost if it were destroyed. ? Is our culture, our essence, so digital now that it can be preserved and resurrected by people in the distant future ? The VIP visitors are a small delegation on a confidential visit to this vault to see how the codes, programmes, files and data of our cyber-age are preserved in controlled conditions in case of nuclear or ecological apocalypse. Trapped in complete darkness, with attempts to contact the outside world proving futile, there's a growing fear that these people will never get out. They are increasingly forced to confront their own deaths, to enter into what they fear will be their final conversations, their last words. The metaphorical power of a location like a doomsday data bank - as the world attempts to avert a climate catastrophe and the risk of nuclear conflict feels more urgent than it has for decades . Psychologically and dramatically, the mounting pressure and remote isolation of the party leads them to explore and evoke their response to fear, rising paranoia, different responses to mortality. Cast Shura - Phia Saban Thomas/rescuer - Tachia Newall Belle - Laurel Lefkow Milton - Adonis Anthony Directed by Susan Roberts A BBC North production

Frank explores the poetic treasure-trove that is Michael Symmons Roberts' collection, Drysalter. The poems referenced are Face to Face, Through a Glass Darkly and Discoverers by Michael Symmons Roberts.

To celebrate its 500th edition, Beyond Belief has recorded a special programme at the Contains Strong Language poetry festival in Coventry. From the stage of the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry to discuss the theme of ‘Poetry as the Language of Religion', Ernie Rea is joined by a distinguished panel: Michael Symmons Roberts is one of Britain's leading poets whose work explores the connection between the things of the spirit and the things of the world, Canon Mark Oakley is the Dean and Fellow of St John's College Cambridge and the author of 'The Splash of Words, Believing in Poetry', Muneera Pilgrim is a British born convert to Islam and a poet and cultural producer and Bel Mooney is an author with a regular column in the Daily Mail where she also reviews books of poetry. Each member of the panel has chosen (and recites) a poem to illustrate the idea that poetry can be the language of faith: 'Names' by Wendy Cope 'To men who use "Why are you single?" as a chat up line' by Muneera Pilgrim 'Belsen, Day of Liberation' by Robert Hayden 'Rehearsal for the Death Scene' by Michael Symmons Roberts Producer: Helen Lee

In a world of daily pleases and thank-yous, obligatory thank-you notes, and polite appreciation how can we express authentic gratitude with sincerity? Has lockdown made us more grateful? Can the expectation of gratitude be a burden? Poet Kate Fox assesses the etiquette of writers' acknowledgements – who to thank? How much is too much? Is there such a thing as oversharing? Comedy writer Jack Bernhardt imagines how grateful you'd have to be – forever - if Superman saved your life. Sound artist Leafcutter John makes gratitude reverberate through a sheet of steel, and poet Michael Symmons Roberts reflects on the complexity of expressing gratitude in praise poetry, in a post secular world. Producer: Ruth Thomson

Hope you had a good Intermission. Time for some more Presence - like Christmas, but, well, for Easter. Act Two features Rebecca deBoer, Loren Wilkinson, Nicola Shannon, and me, reading from from Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sheila Rosen, David Kossoff, Luci Shaw, and Michael Symmons Roberts. With music from Miriam Jones, Ken Whitely, Cheryl Bear, Gillian Welch, Carolyn Arends, Julee Glaub, Viper Central, The Original Sloth Band, and Taj Mahal (joined by the Pointer Sisters). So let's close the lobby doors, settle in, get comfortable, and turn off your devices - well, except the one you're listening to this on. Enjoy the show!

This episode explores new research, which has combined genealogy and genetics to identify thousands of individuals in Québec whose remains lie in unmarked graves. --- Read this episode's science poem here. Read the scientific study that inspired it here. Read 'Mapping the Genome' by Michael Symmons Roberts here.   --- Music by Rufus Beckett. --- Follow Sam on social media and send in any questions or comments for the podcast: Email: sam.illingworth@gmail.com   Twitter: @samillingworth 

Michael Symmons Roberts is a Catholic who thinks his faith would be a lot worse off if it were not for atheists. He says all faiths need atheists - after all, you can only strengthen and deepen your belief if you have got someone to challenge your beliefs. Michael also argues that atheism and religion have a common enemy. As religious belief declines in many countries, it is being replaced by new-age beliefs rather than clear and thought-through atheistic positions. As the English writer G.K. Chesterton put it: "When we stop believing in God, we don’t start believing in nothing, we believe in anything." Presenter: Michael Symmons Roberts Producer: Geoff Bird Photo: Atheists and those who oppose religion in government gathered for a rally in Washington DC (Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

Episode 5: Epigenetics, Race, Activism Or, Who are we and what do we think we’re doing? Produced by: Catherine Charlwood (@DrCharlwood) and Laura Ludtke (@lady_electric) Music composed and performed by Gareth Jones Laura and Catherine are joined by a special guest: Dr Lara Choksey (@larachoksey), postdoctoral research associate at the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health at the University of Exeter. In addition to discussing #litsci aspects of her research and teaching, Lara also explores the intricacies of the language we use to talk about such topics as colonialism, her work with the Global Warwickshire Collective, and what #litsci might be able to offer in terms of decolonising the curriculum, or combating racism. At the end of the episode, you can hear Lara read an extract from Saidiya Hartman’s, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (2006). Episode resources: Michael Symmons Roberts, ‘To John Donne’ and ‘Mapping the Genome’ John Akomfrah (dir.), The Nine Muses (2010) Julian Huxley, Evolution: The Modern Synthesis (1942) Lily Kay, Who Wrote the Book of Life? A History of the Genetic Code (2000) Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Philosophie zoologique (1809) Doris Lessing, "The Whitehorn Letters" (1944-1949) ---- Memoirs of a Survivor (1974) ---- Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979-1983) Barbara McClintock, "The Significance of Responses of the Genome to Challenge." (1983) The Double Helix history project, https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/english/research/projects/double-helix-history/ Farah Mendlesohn writes in the "Introduction" to The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, "Language is not trustworthy in sf: metaphor becomes literal." ed. E. James and F.Mendlesohn (CUP, 2003). We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of LitSciPod - we enjoyed making it!

Highlights of the launch event for the Manchester International Festival 2019, held in Manchester on 7 March 2019. Introduced by MIF artistic director John McGrath, this episode also features announcements from festival participants including Phelim McDermott of Improbable Theatre, Kwame Kwei-Armah of Young Vic Theatre, actors Maxine Peake and Juliet Stevenson, Leo Warner of 59 Productions, writer Lolita Chakrabarti, choreographer Claire Cunningham, Mary Anne Hobbs of BBC 6 Music and grime artist Skepta. Other artists appearing at the festival include Philip Glass, Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson and David Lynch. Image from MIF launch: Michael Symmons Roberts, Emily Howard, John McGrath, Maxine Peake, Grainne Flynn, Wesley Thistlewaite, Adam Ali, Kirsty Housley, Claire Cunningham, Leo Warner, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Isaiah Hull, Young identity poet, Reggie Gray, Animals of Manchester child-curators, Sibylle Peters, Karl Hyde, Lois Keidan, Adam Thirlwell, Danny Collins, Adania Shibli, Juliet Stevenson, Lolita Chakrabarti, Benoit Swan Pouffer, Christine Cort, Mark Ball

Gillian Clarke, Sabrina Mahfouz and Michael Symmons Roberts respond to the war poet Wilfred Owen with their own new commissions from the Royal Society of Literature. Shahidha Bari hosts a discussion recorded with an audience at the British Library on the 100th anniversary of Owen's death during the crossing of the Sambre–Oise Canal on 4 November 1918, exactly 7 days (almost to the hour) before the signing of the Armistice which ended World War I. Born in Cardiff, Gillian Clarke’s work has been on the GCSE and A Level exam syllabus for the past thirty years. She was the first woman to win the Wilfred Owen Award – for a sustained body of work that includes memorable war poems – in 2012. Sabrina Mahfouz was brought up in London and Cairo, and is a playwright, poet, novelist and editor. She was elected an RSL Fellow in 2018. Poet and Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, Michael Symmons Roberts grew up less than a mile from Greenham Common and has often written about the Cold War ‘peace’. Producer: Fiona McLean

Our Poetry Special - part two! This time we're talking to Michael Simmonds Roberts about his new poetry collection,Mancunia...Read an extract from the book: http://po.st/f9IgdlManchester books that will make you want to visit http://po.st/ACfKjx Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/vintagebooksSign up to our bookish newsletter to hear all about our new releases, see exclusive extracts and win prizes: po.st/vintagenewsletterMichael Simmonds Roberts - MancuniaShortlisted for the 2017 T. S. Eliot PrizePBS Autumn RecommendationMancunia is both a real and an unreal city. In part, it is rooted in Manchester, but it is an imagined city too, a fallen utopia viewed from formal tracks, as from the train in the background of De Chirico’s paintings. In these poems we encounter a Victorian diorama, a bar where a merchant mariner has a story he must tell, a chimeric creature – Miss Molasses – emerging from the old docks. There are poems in honour of Mancunia’s bureaucrats: the Master of the Lighting of Small Objects, the Superintendent of Public Spectacles, the Co-ordinator of Misreadings. Metaphysical and lyrical, the poems in Michael Symmons Roberts’ seventh collection are concerned with why and how we ascribe value, where it resides and how it survives. Mancunia is – like More’s Utopia – both a no-place and an attempt at the good-place. It is occupied, liberated, abandoned and rebuilt. Capacious, disturbing and shape-shifting, these are poems for our changing times.Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1112493/mancunia/#ZiVegydh6ISYfdki.99 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For our Queer Icons series, Mary Portas champions Donna Summer's classic disco track, I Feel Love.The lexicographer Susie Dent pulls the stops out to tell John about words and phrases in the English language that have their origins in music, painting, the theatre or literature. The poet Michael Symmons Roberts describes his creation of a city that's rooted in Manchester, but isn't quite the real thing, for a new collection of poetry, Mancunia.And as the film Howard's End, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, celebrates its 25th anniversary, a new technically improved version of it is being released in cinemas. To get an unusual insight into the film-making process, Front Row brought together the film's cinematographer, Tony Pierce-Roberts, and colourist, Steve Bearman to discuss how they upgraded the visual quality for the digital age. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Sarah Johnson.

Medicine Unboxed 2015 MORTALITY looked at life and death and the lines that separate them. We will marvel at how molecules are arranged into life and examine other beginnings and endings, of the universe and how all nature folds and unfolds in time. We will wonder about time. We will hear the sounds of loss and grief and recovery and how death is felt in war, in hospital, in our homes and fields. We will see medicine’s hand raised against death and suffering and explore its duties to the living and dying. We will ask what a life costs and what it is worth. We will look at social and cultural differences in the experience of death, how immortality is conceived in mythology and sought in technology, our pursuit of the afterlife, and how fact and imagination meet in our encounter with death.

Every year Durham Book Festival works with Durham University to appoint a leading poet as Festival Laureate. In 2014, Paul Farley fulfilled the role and wrote a new poem especially for the festival. At this exclusive public event, Paul read from his commissioned poem for the first time. Paul Farley is a multi-award-winning poet, author and broadcaster. He has published four poetry collections with Picador, most recently The Dark Film, which was shortlisted for the 2012 TS EIiot Prize. His book, Edgelands, a non-fiction journey into England’s overlooked wilderness (co-authored with Michael Symmons Roberts) was published in 2011 and received the Royal Society of Literature’s Jerwood Award. Paul Farley is a professor of poetry at Lancaster University. Introduced by Professor Stephen Regan

Gareth Malone and Adrian Sutton discuss Sunday's Prom which takes World War One as its theme. Gareth's Military Wives choir will be performing and Adrian Sutton talks about his War Horse Suite which he's composed from his score for the original theatre production. Bel Mooney reviews In The Club, a new BBC drama series written and directed by Kay Mellor, which follows the lives of a group of friends who have met at an antenatal class. Neil Bartlett talks about his latest novel The Disappearance Boy, set in the world of 1950s Variety. And poet Michael Symmons Roberts chooses three poems that evoke summer for him.

Poet and librettist Michael Symmons Roberts and broadcaster Reverend Richard Coles on the literature which inspired John Tavener from George Herbert and John Donne to Blake. This programme presented by Matthew Sweet and was recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music as part of the BBC Proms.To find out further information about the events which are free to attended go to bbc.co.uk/proms

With Mark Lawson. Matthew McConaughey is Oscar nominated for his starring role in Dallas Buyers Club. He lost 47 lbs to play Ron Woodroof, a Texas electrician who became an unlikely AIDS activist after being diagnosed with HIV in the mid-1980s. He discusses the physical endurance of the part and his recent career renaissance. Nathan Filer, a registered mental health nurse, has won the Costa Book of the Year award with his debut novel The Shock of the Fall, a story about loss, guilt and mental illness. A surprise win, Filer beat the favourite Kate Atkinson with her novel Life after Life, and other award winning writers Lucy Hughes-Hallett for The Pike, an account of the life of Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, and poet Michael Symmons Roberts for his collection Drysalter. Nathan Filer tells Mark about what the award will mean for his writing. In the week that Rory Kinnear won twice at the Critics Circle for best actor and most promising playwright, David Edgar muses on the long tradition of the actor/writer, from Shakespeare to Pinter. Grammy winning singer/songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter discusses her new album Songs from the Movie, a re-working of 10 of her songs, recorded with a full orchestra and 15 voice choir. She reveals what inspires her new songs and the emotional pain of revisiting old material. Producer: Ellie Bury.

With Mark Lawson Sir Kenneth Branagh talks about his latest film: the return of Tom Clancy's iconic creation, Jack Ryan. In Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, the CIA analyst is up against a ruthless Russian oligarch, played by Branagh - who also directed the thriller. He discusses the parallels between directing multi-million dollar action films and stage-productions of Shakespeare, and the influence of Laurence Olivier. Costa poetry prize winner Michael Symmons Roberts discusses his latest collection, Drysalter. The book is his sixth collection of poetry, consisting of 150 poems, each one fifteen lines long. He explains why it was helpful to have formal constraints to hold the poems together, and the social uses of poetry. The main galleries of the Royal Academy have been transformed by its latest exhibition, Sensing Spaces, in which seven architectural practices from around the world have been commissioned to allow visitors to engage with structures, perspectives, sounds, textures - even scents. Mark visits the exhibition, together with author and critic Rachel Cooke. Producer: Gabriella Meade.

Taking Rilke's classic correspondence as inspiration, five leading poets write a personal letter to a young poet. Today, award-winning Scottish poet and editor, Don Paterson.The original Letters to a Young Poet is a compilation of letters by Rainer Maria Rilke, written between 1902 and 1908 to a 19-year-old officer cadet called Franz Kappus. Kappus was trying to choose between a literary career and entering the Austro-Hungarian army. Rilke's letters touch on poetry and criticism, but they range widely in subject matter from atheism and loneliness, to friendship and sexuality:"If your everyday life seems to lack material, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to summon up its riches; for there is no lack for him who creates and no poor, trivial place."In their new letters, five poets imagine a young poet protégé to whom they want to pass on life experience and thoughts about the poetic art.Our poets are: Michael Symmons Roberts, Vicki Feaver, Michael Longley, Moniza Alvi and Don Paterson.Don Paterson was born in 1963 in Dundee, Scotland. He moved to London in 1984 to work as a jazz musician, and began writing poetry around the same time. His collections of poetry are Nil Nil (Faber, 1993), God's Gift to Women (Faber, 1997), The Eyes (after Antonio Machado, Faber, 1999), Landing Light (Faber, 2003; Graywolf, 2004), Orpheus (a version of Rilke's Die Sonette an Orpheus, Faber, 2006) and Rain (Faber, 2009; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010).First broadcast in January 2014.

Taking Rilke's classic correspondence as inspiration, five leading poets write a personal letter to a young poet. Today, Pakistan-born Moniza Alvi.The original Letters to a Young Poet is a compilation of letters by Rainer Maria Rilke, written between 1902 and 1908 to a 19-year-old officer cadet called Franz Kappus. Kappus was trying to choose between a literary career and entering the Austro-Hungarian army. Rilke's letters touch on poetry and criticism, but they range widely in subject matter from atheism and loneliness, to friendship and sexuality:"If your everyday life seems to lack material, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to summon up its riches; for there is no lack for him who creates and no poor, trivial place."In their new letters, five poets imagine a young poet protégé to whom they want to pass on life experience and thoughts about the poetic art.Our poets are: Michael Symmons Roberts, Vicki Feaver, Michael Longley, Moniza Alvi and Don Paterson.About Moniza Alvi: Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and grew up in Hertfordshire. Her latest book are At the Time of Partition (Bloodaxe Books, 2013) which is shortlisted for the 2013 T S Eliot Prize. Other recent books include her book-length poem; Homesick for the Earth, her versions of the French poet Jules Supervielle (Bloodaxe Books, 2011); Europa (Bloodaxe Books, 2008); and Split World: Poems 1990-2005 (Bloodaxe Books, 2008), which includes poems from her five previous collections.

Taking Rilke's classic correspondence as inspiration, five leading poets write a personal letter to a young poet. Today, eminent Belfast poet, Michael Longley.The original Letters to a Young Poet is a compilation of letters by Rainer Maria Rilke, written between 1902 and 1908 to a 19-year-old officer cadet called Franz Kappus. Kappus was trying to choose between a literary career and entering the Austro-Hungarian army. Rilke's letters touch on poetry and criticism, but they range widely in subject matter from atheism and loneliness, to friendship and sexuality:"If your everyday life seems to lack material, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to summon up its riches; for there is no lack for him who creates and no poor, trivial place."In their new letters, five poets imagine a young poet protégé to whom they want to pass on life experience and thoughts about the poetic art.Our poets are: Michael Symmons Roberts, Vicki Feaver, Michael Longley, Moniza Alvi and Don Paterson.About Michael Longley: Michael Longley was born in Belfast in 1939. His Collected Poems was published in 2006 and in 2007, he was appointed Professor of Poetry for Ireland. His most recent poetry collections are Gorse Fires (2009) and A Hundred Doors (2011), shortlisted for the 2011 Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year).First broadcast in January 2014.

Taking Rilke's classic correspondence as inspiration, five leading poets write a personal letter to a young protégé. Today, to coincide with the announcement of the T S Eliot Prize, one of the prize's judges, Vicki Feaver, writes a letter to a young woman poet.The original Letters to a Young Poet is a compilation of letters by Rainer Maria Rilke, written between 1902 and 1908 to a 19-year-old officer cadet called Franz Kappus. Kappus was trying to choose between a literary career and entering the Austro-Hungarian army. Rilke's letters touch on poetry and criticism, but they range widely in subject matter from atheism and loneliness, to friendship and sexuality:"If your everyday life seems to lack material, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to summon up its riches; for there is no lack for him who creates and no poor, trivial place."In their new letters, five poets imagine a young poet protégé to whom they want to pass on life experience and thoughts about the poetic art.Our poets are: Michael Symmons Roberts, Vicki Feaver, Michael Longley, Moniza Alvi and Don Paterson.About Vicki Feaver: Vicki Feaver has published three collections of poetry, Close Relatives (Secker 1981), The Handless Maiden (Cape 1994) and The Book of Blood (Cape 2006), both short-listed for the Forward Prize Best Collection, with The Book of Blood also shortlisted for the 2006 Costa (formerly Whitbread) Poetry Book Award. Her poem 'Judith' won the Forward Prize for the Best Single Poem. She lives in Scotland.

Taking Rilke's classic correspondence as inspiration, five leading poets write a personal letter to a young poet. Today, to coincide with the announcement of the T S Eliot Prize, shortlisted poet Michael Symmons Roberts writes a letter about poetry that dares the depths.The original Letters to a Young Poet is a compilation of letters by Rainer Maria Rilke, written between 1902 and 1908 to a 19-year-old officer cadet called Franz Kappus. Kappus was trying to choose between a literary career and entering the Austro-Hungarian army. Rilke's letters touch on poetry and criticism, but they range widely in subject matter from atheism and loneliness, to friendship and sexuality:"If your everyday life seems to lack material, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to summon up its riches; for there is no lack for him who creates and no poor, trivial place."In their new letters, five poets imagine a young poet protégé to whom they want to pass on life experience and thoughts about the poetic art.Our poets are: Michael Symmons Roberts, Vicki Feaver, Michael Longley, Moniza Alvi and Don Paterson.About Michael Symmons Roberts: Roberts's latest collection Drysalter (Cape 2013) won the 2013 Forward Prize and is on the shortlist for both the T S Eliot Prize and the Costa Poetry Award. He is a leading poet, librettist, novelist, radio dramatist and broadcaster. Previous collections include The Half-Healed, Corpus and Burning Babylon.First broadcast in January 2014.

Institute of Musical Research ALBUM: New Music Insight lectures TITLE: Composing a libretto: Questions ARTIST: John Casken, Michael Symmons Roberts, Robert Saxton, Fiona Sampson DESCRIPTION: John Casken, Michael Symmons Roberts and Robert Saxton ...

Institute of Musical Research ALBUM: New Music Insight lectures TITLE: Michael Symmons Roberts: Composing a libretto ARTIST: Michael Symmons Roberts, Fiona Sampson DESCRIPTION: Michael Symmons Roberts discusses the creation of his opera libretti ...

Institute of Musical Research ALBUM: New Music Insight lectures TITLE: 4 Composing a libretto Round Table.m4v ARTIST: John Casken, Michael Symmons Roberts, Robert Saxton, Fiona Sampson DESCRIPTION: John Casken, Michael Symmons Roberts and Robert ...

Michael Symmons Roberts has been described by Jeanette Winterson as ‘a religious poet for a secular age’ and by Les Murray as ‘a poet for the new chastened, unenforcing age of faith that has just dawned.’ His latest collection Drysalter (Jonathan Cape) is a series of 150 poems each of 15 lines and takes its name from the ancient trade in powders, chemicals, salts and dyes, while drawing formal inspiration from the Book of Psalms. Michael will be at the shop to read from his work, and to discuss his poetry and its inspirations with fellow poet and essayist Jean Sprackland. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On Start the Week Stephanie Flanders talks to the award-winning novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, about the notion of 'home' in today's globalised world. It's a theme taken up on stage in 'Paper Dolls' directed by Indhu Rubasingham, which follows a Filipino drag act working in Tel Aviv. David Goodhart explores the British Dream and the successes and failures of post war immigration. And from the movement of people, to the trade in powders, salts, paints and cures, the poet Michael Symmons Roberts's latest collection is called Drysalter. Producer: Katy Hickman.

In the last of our StAnza 2012 triptych we sit down with Michael Symmons Roberts. In a wide ranging discussion, he talks about poetry as a process of discovery and connection making, poetic license, genomics, the ethics of drugs companies, collaboration, hotels, civil war and being asked to write a poem for a 9/11 anniversary. Michael also reads from a number of his poems. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser @anonpoetry. Music by Ewen Maclean. Photo: Martin Bence

Richard Uridge explores the Edgelands around Manchester with poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts, who urge us to love the disregarded spaces between the city and countryside.