Best Robin Houghton & Peter Kenny Podcasts (2024)

1
Lost trades | Lost songs - with Jane Commane 1:05:40

13d ago1:05:40

1:05:40

Send us a Text Message. Grip the square steering wheel of your Austin Allegro and let Jane Commane navigate you through the haunted places of the post-industrial Midlands. She treats us to poems from Assembly Lines published by Bloodaxe including UnWeather, quite possibly the best Brexit response we've heard. We upload this episode on the day of th…

1
Fathers | Frontiers - with Rory Waterman 59:10

29d ago59:10

59:10

Send us a Text Message. Hear Rory Waterman describe his experience of being stuck in quarantine in Korea, where (as well as doing press ups) he used his time to begin his fourth collection Come Here to This Gate, from Carcanet Poetry. He tells us about Korea's DMZ, hilarious Lincolnshire folk tales, and we explore an exceptionally moving sequence a…

1
Bold Lines | Black Pages - with Seni Seneviratne 48:29

2M ago48:29

48:29

Send us a Text Message. Silent faces and displaced lives. Seni Seneviratne gives voice to overshadowed Black children, exotic pages and servants in the portraits of nobility and the mercantile class in 18th Century paintings. Other of her poised and beautiful poems, from The Go-Away Bird from Peepal Tree Press, are infused with bird imagery, and th…

1
Absence | Accidents - with Ali Lewis 1:02:35

2M ago1:02:35

1:02:35

Send us a Text Message. Staring at the mark on the wall where that painting once hung? Wondering why the moon, seen by others, has been hidden from you? You've entered the world of Absence (Cheerio Poetry 2024) by Ali Lewis. He guides us through this exceptional first collection, from the painful ache of lost love, to the possibilities unleashed by…

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Testaments | Troubles - with Roy McFarlane 1:06:57

3M ago1:06:57

1:06:57

Send us a Text Message. Hop aboard. No time to idle in green pastures here, instead let’s follow Roy Mc Farlane as he guides us through his collection Living by Troubled Waters from Nine Arches Press weaving the toxic legacy of slavery in the complexity and warmheartedness of his own personal history. Plus we glance at a gorgeous poem, Leaves, from…

1
Rapture | Reality - with Seán Hewitt 1:03:50

4M ago1:03:50

1:03:50

Send us a Text Message. We’re back with global ambitions for World Poetry Day. First we skip over to Dublin to interview Seán Hewitt about his gorgeous second collection Rapture’s Road, published 2024 by Cape. Enriched by the traditions of Irish poetry, Seán’s work speaks unflinchingly to contemporary issues as well as conjuring moments of absolute…

1
Archive - Inua Ellams from March 2021 33:32

4M ago33:32

33:32

Send us a Text Message. A classic interview from the archive: Inua Ellams talking about his extraordinary book The Actual (Penned in the Margins, 2020), a powerful, personal and often very funny collection that pokes a sharp stick at the legacy of British Empire, foolish machismo, hero culture, relationships and much more. Support the Show. Planet …

1
Sorrow | Stored - with Paul Stephenson 57:10

5M ago57:10

57:10

Send us a Text Message. Go on. Press the button. Paul Stephenson guides us through a choice of his varied, formally diverse and moving elegies in his Carcanet collection Hard Drive -- written in the years following his partner's sudden death -- and find a curiously life-affirming exploration of grief and its aftermath. Robin and Peter also make the…

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Darkness | Discovered - with Tamar Yoseloff 1:01:45

6M ago1:01:45

1:01:45

Send us a Text Message. We are back and delighted to bring you more wonderful poetry in 2024. So let's illuminate the new year with Tamar Yoseloff, whose long engagement with visual art has created a poetry that blazes out against a black backdrop. We’ll hear poems from two Seren collections A Formula for Night her New and Selected poems and The Bl…

1
Archive | Kim Moore from October 2022 30:29

7M ago30:29

30:29

Send us a Text Message. Happy New Year! We're on our festive break, but wanted to share with you another classic interview from the archive. Here's Kim Moore talking about her Forward Prize-winning collection 'All the Men I Never Married' from Seren Books. Support the Show. Planet Poetry is a labour of love, paid for out of our own pockets. If you …

1
Crossings | Christmas - with Jane Clarke 1:01:53

7M ago1:01:53

1:01:53

Send us a Text Message. Psssst! Here's a moment of reprieve from the festive frenzy... Follow Jane Clarke wobbling on an oak log slick with frost, then she smooths us down a butter path to a place of poetry. Here we revel in the beauty and quiet authority of Jane's collection A Change in the Air shortlisted for the T.S.Eliot prize among others. Pet…

1
Bridges | Broken - with Martyn Crucefix 1:02:34

8M ago1:02:34

1:02:34

Send us a Text Message. Go on. We dare you to reach across the gulf to Planet Poetry. This time you'll find Martyn Crucefix, reading poems from his Salt collection Between A Drowning Man. This ambitious, timely work depicts the isolation and polarisation brought about by Brexit, Populism, social media and more. A deep and subtle work that reflects …

1
Aloneness | Liberty - with Leontia Flynn 50:13

9M ago50:13

50:13

Send us a Text Message. All aboard! Planet Poetry is going to rattle you into a Belfast haunted by absence. Here you'll meet Leontia Flynn and discover how the upheavals of Brexit and the pandemic have been echoed by ruptures and aloneness in her own life. Her magnificent response is the spare and intensely-moving collection Taking Liberties from C…

1
Observation | Celebration - with Ian McMillan 1:05:12

9M ago1:05:12

1:05:12

Send us a Text Message. Hush your vuvuzela! Barnsley's own Ian McMillan lobs the keeper and helps Planet Poetry's fourth season start with a belting win. He treats us to selections from To Fold The Evening Star, New and Selected Poems from Carcanet as well as his smith|doorstop pamphlet, Yes But What Is This? What Exactly? Plus your podcast pals Ro…

1
Archive | Kathryn Maris in March 2021 25:14

10M ago25:14

25:14

Send us a Text Message. We revisit the Spring of 2021 and Robin's interview with Kathryn Maris, principally about her collection The House with only and Attic and a Basement (Penguin, 2018). Support the Show. Planet Poetry is a labour of love, paid for out of our own pockets. If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support and Buy us a Coffee!…

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Archive | Charlotte Gann in January 2021 28:17

10M ago28:17

28:17

Send us a Text Message. Another absolute sparkler from our trove of first season interviews. Charlotte Gann talks about her exceptional Happenstance Press collections, Noir, and The Girl Who Cried. Back with season four on October 12 2023 Support the Show. Planet Poetry is a labour of love, paid for out of our own pockets. If you enjoy the podcast,…

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Archive | Clare Shaw in November 2020 19:37

11M ago19:37

19:37

Send us a Text Message. Another gem from the archives to tide you over the long, hot (?) summer of 2023...the brilliant Clare Shaw was our second interviewee on the podcast back in 2020, and here she is talking to Robin about her 2018 Bloodaxe collection Flood. Support the Show. Planet Poetry is a labour of love, paid for out of our own pockets. If…

1
Archive | Pascale Petit in Oct 2020 30:10

11M ago30:10

30:10

Send us a Text Message. Summertime. Ho, hum. But wait! What's this on your device. Planet Poetry? Robin and Peter have descended into The Vaults to present a conversation first broadcast in October 2020 with the fabulous Pascale Petit. Enjoy! Support the Show. Planet Poetry is a labour of love, paid for out of our own pockets. If you enjoy the podc…

1
Culture | Cut-ups - with Richard Skinner 1:02:30

1y ago1:02:30

1:02:30

Send us a Text Message. Follow us as we slip into le Quartier asiatique through a noirish wordscape, when the flutes in the musique concrète are interrupted by David Bowie, Kate Bush and Genesis… Suddenly you realise you are hearing Richard Skinner sharing poems from his collections Dream Into Play (Poetry Salzburg 2022) and White Noise Machine (Sa…

1
Play | Wonder - with Rachel Piercey & Kate Wakeling 56:05

1y ago56:05

56:05

Send us a Text Message. Pens down, everybody! Now look at me... Today we meet poets Kate Wakeling and Rachel Piercey, editor of Tyger Tyger Magazine, who will share insights about writing poetry for children -- the language, considerations and freedoms. We'll hear Kate read from Cloud Soup and Moon Juice (from the Emma Press) and Rachel read her po…

1
Looking | Relooking - with Greta Stoddart 53:40

1y ago53:40

53:40

Send us a Text Message. Did you ever repeat a word so often that its meaning ebbed away? Or look so hard at an object -- say a glass of water -- that it began to hint at unknowable mysteries? No? Then you should join us as we meet Greta Stoddart and hear poetry from her new Bloodaxe collection Fool which will take you to an extraordinary place in y…

1
Trust | Betrayal - with Clare Best 59:15

1y ago59:15

59:15

Send us a Text Message. If you have endured a childhood overshadowed by profound betrayal and abuse, how do you learn to trust again? What kind of bravery must this take? We feature Clare Best reading from her poetry collections, Excisions and Each Other and also discuss her memoir The Missing List - written during the last illness of the father wh…

1
Black Country | Lost Wum - with Liz Berry 59:35

1+ y ago59:35

59:35

Send us a Text Message. Keep the carriage curtains open as we chug into the post-industrial midlands of The Black Country. We're in the company of Liz Berry as she coins resonant new myths from her midland's dialect word hoard. But next stop is Liverpool, following orphaned Eliza The Home Child as she sets off for Nova Scotia in Berry's heartbreaki…

1
Pacing | Preserving - with Robert Hamberger 58:43

1+ y ago58:43

58:43

Send us a Text Message. Strap on your toughest boots. Now dodge the speeding cars as we match strides with Robert Hamberger. We discuss two works: his exceptional poetry collection Blue Wallpaper and his memoir A Length of Road -- recalling a time when Robert (facing a life crisis) retraced the footsteps of the 'peasant poet' John Clare who had, in…

1
Asterisks | Alternatives - with Mark Fiddes 54:05

1+ y ago54:05

54:05

Send us a Text Message. Stop polishing that halo for a moment and listen to this! It's Mark Fiddes reading from his Live Cannon collection *Other Saints Are Available - a series of vivid and memorable footnotes to an increasingly polarised world... All via men roaring into flame from the neck up, the haircuts of Burnley defenders, brash parakeets a…

1
Airborne | Afterwardness - with Mimi Khalvati 1:00:41

1+ y ago1:00:41

1:00:41

Send us a Text Message. Hop aboard! And join your Planet Poetry pals as we bravely embark on a new year. Strap in beside a child of six -- flying away from her family, culture and language -- to arrive, wordlessly, in a new country and a new life. Mimi Khalvati shares poems from her exquisite Carcanet collection Afterwardness and relives the journe…

1
Foreign | Belonging - with Matthew Stewart 53:10

1+ y ago53:10

53:10

Send us a Text Message. What's that? The airy caper of Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and their mates? No it's Planet Poetry bringing you Matthew Stewart, who - by some uncanny podcast magic - is sheltering from the sweltering heat of the Spanish sun. His collection The Knives of Villalejo provides clues to what could have coaxed a poet from the cul-de-sa…

1
Thinking | Rethinking - with Sarah Barnsley 55:56

1+ y ago55:56

55:56

Send us a Text Message. What's that popping and blazing from your favourite podcast device? A plethora of lightbulb moments, that's what. This episode features an in depth conversation with Sarah Barnsley whose bravura first collection The Thoughts has been published by Smith | Doorstop. With immense originality she deals with the intrusive thought…

1
Epic | Exploration - with Shane McCrae 52:08

1+ y ago52:08

52:08

Send us a Text Message. Here we go again, blazing through the vast firmaments... We go all starry and stripy this week as we meet Shane McCrae - one of the US's most celebrated new poets - to be awed by the Miltonic vastness of an imagination that electrifies his collections Cain Named The Animal and Sometimes I Never Suffered. Meanwhile Robin cont…

1
Masculinity | Men - with Peter Raynard 53:55

1+ y ago53:55

53:55

Send us a Text Message. Forging manfully through cyberspace just to be with you... Robin and Peter are back with another cracking episode featuring Peter Raynard, who guides us through his elegiac, furious and moving book Manland from Nine Arches Press. We'll hear how Peter Raynard's experiences of growing up working class in Coventry has stimulate…

1
Season 3 opener: Kim Moore 52:26

2y ago52:26

52:26

Send us a Text Message. A tantalising twinkle on your favourite device? Relax! It’s Planet Poetry surging back with Season Three! Onboard for Episode 1 is Kim Moore, talking about All The Men I Never Married, from Seren — a powerful work... Compelling, complex and empathetic. No wonder it is currently Shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Coll…

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Ep 13 - Season Finale with Fiona Sampson 1:01:56

2y ago1:01:56

1:01:56

Send us a Text Message. Whew. What a scorcher! And the weather's hot too. Slip on your shades, and listen to our interview with the incredibly talented Fiona Sampson, about her subtly structured collection Come Down, and wander with her into organic and resonant evocations of nature infused with memories and undermined by loss. And instead of hunch…

1
Postmodern | Precision - with Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino 49:02

2y ago49:02

49:02

Send us a Text Message. Fasten your safety belt and jet with us over to New York where we try to get a grip on the elusive eel of postmodernism. Who better to talk to than Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino? He edits the outstanding postmodern magazine eratio and is author of an impressive body of postmodern work, which takes poetry, novels and critical…

1
Serious | Playful - with Caleb Parkin 59:56

2y ago59:56

59:56

Send us a Text Message. This episode of Planet Poetry sees us striding forth with our seriousness only outdone by the luminosity of our socks... Caleb Parkin entices us with his seriously playful take on eco poetry with readings from his vibrant collection This Fruiting Body. Meanwhile Peter wanders into the Roman ruins of Bath as we look at one of…

1
Distance | Desolation - with J.O. Morgan 1:01:46

2y ago1:01:46

1:01:46

Send us a Text Message. Strap in! We're going boldly into interplanetary space -- and returning to see our own planet through alien eyes. J.O. Morgan tells us about his lates poetry collection The Martian’s Regress from Cape Poetry -- an epic, gripping sequence about a martian and his pale companion investigating a dead and sterile earth. Next... T…

1
Joy | Grief - with Sasha Dugdale 52:06

2+ y ago52:06

52:06

Send us a Text Message. Then what angelic vision is this? It's Sasha Dugdale sharing poetry from her award-garlanded Carcanet collection Joy including an excerpt from the title poem in the voice of William Blake's wife Catherine. And in her latest work Deformations Sasha tackles, among other things, the conflicted legacy of Eric Gill. Plus Robin pi…

1
Memory | Minutiae - with Jeremy Page 49:49

2+ y ago49:49

49:49

Send us a Text Message. You remember us. Of course you do! It's your pals at Planet Poetry! Fascinating in-depth conversations with poets and poetry lovers, bardic banter and more . Now spring is in the air, we have a spanking new episode featuring writer and poet Jeremy Page. With him we'll delve into The Naming a collection that braves the shifti…

1
Collaboration | Undercurrents - with Joolz Sparkes & Hilaire 56:47

2+ y ago56:47

56:47

Send us a Text Message. Ding-ding. All aboard! In this episode we ride a big red bus into the heart of London's hidden histories. Robin meets poetical dynamic duo Joolz Sparkes and Hilaire whose beautifully researched collaboration London Undercurrents gives voice to women at pivotal moments in their lives. We catch glimpses of criminal forgers, a …

1
Eels | Elements - with Janet Sutherland 58:09

2+ y ago58:09

58:09

Send us a Text Message. Welcome home! Now slip off your raincoat and settle down in the flickering firelight. Listening to Janet Sutherland will suggest summer snakes hissing in the hay, as you explore the rural upbringing that has shaped the quietly-magnificent world of her four Shearsman Books collections: Burning the Heartwood, Hangman’s Acre, B…

1
Publisher | Poets - with Sharon Black & Di Slaney 1:00:33

2+ y ago1:00:33

1:00:33

Send us a Text Message. We see you. Covered in tinsel and cavorting with Dancer, Prancer, Vixen and the rest of those red nosed reindeers. Luckily here is a treat you can open immediately! Our interview with two inspiring poet publishers - Sharon Black of Pindrop Press, and Di Slaney of Candlestick Press - who share the proximity of goats but have …

1
Sympathy | Uncensored - with Alireza Abiz 56:24

2+ y ago56:24

56:24

Send us a Text Message. You know us. At Planet Poetry we are always mooning around thinking about poetry instead of doing the laundry. But imagine if you had to haggle with a censor just to get your words read... Or had to account for your personal morality to an interrogator. Discovering the subtly devastating poetry of The Kindly Interrogator by …

1
Cinematic | Demotic - with Martina Evans 52:37

2+ y ago52:37

52:37

Send us a Text Message. Fabulous stories, overheard conversation and a panoply of characters? It's the sound of Planet Poetry basking in the glowing Technicolor of Martina Evans's funny, moving and brilliantly inventive new collection American Mules (Carcanet). Meanwhile a croaky-with-Covid Robin props herself up on one elbow to re-read a favourite…

1
Empathy | Affirmation - with Ashanti Anderson 53:43

2+ y ago53:43

53:43

Send us a Text Message. Want to face the future with strength and empathy? Of course you do! So hop aboard Planet Poetry and jet over to New Orleans to meet Ashanti Anderson and hear from her exceptional debut, Black Under. We'll also feature Robin's encounter with the work of Scottish poet George Mackay Brown, whose centenary is celebrated by Dark…

1
Season 2 opener: Kim Addonizio 57:10

3y ago57:10

57:10

Send us a Text Message. Kerpow! Planet Poetry is back for a second season, replete with box-fresh poetical guests, an assortment of musings on the muses – and even a new intro tune. We whiz across the Atlantic to meet Kim Addonizio and hear about her Vulcan mind meld with Shakespeare and Dante - and we can guarantee she will transform how you think…

1
Selfhood | Sovereignty - with Rishi Dastidar 53:52

3y ago53:52

53:52

Send us a Text Message. Is that a fanfare of brazen trumpets? Why? Well, it's our season finale! Join our audience with the regal Rishi Dastidar who tells us about the declaration of sovereignty made by his eponymous hero Saffron Jack - a hugely impressive long poem, glittering with biting satire, postcolonial thinking, humour and logical inevitabi…

1
Real | Surreal - with Helen Ivory 53:16

3y ago53:16

53:16

Send us a Text Message. Welcome back, poppets! Join us as we peer into the dreamlike cabinet of curiosities that is Helen Ivory’s The Anatomical Venus where women are labelled witches and hysterics, pathologised by medical science and surreally transformed into demure models with visible innards. Meanwhile, Robin enjoys the primal force of Nobel-wi…

1
Playfulness | Persistence - with John McCullough 49:26

3y ago49:26

49:26

Send us a Text Message. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Planet Poetry is swooping through the air with Hawthornden Prize winner John McCullough tucked under its origami wing. John entices us with his three poetry collections: The Frost Fairs (Salt Publishing), Spacecraft and Reckless Paper Birds (Penned in the Margins), and praises the virtues of play…

1
Publishing | Not Publishing - with JT Welsch 48:10

3y ago48:10

48:10

Send us a Text Message. To publish or not to publish? Join us as we venture into the shadowy world of poetry publishing. Do instapoets endanger traditional publishing or help it to quietly flourish? Is the whole thing shapeshifting into something new and exciting? The person clutching the torch and heading into the dark is poet and academic JT Wels…

1
Untold | Unspoken - with LeAnne Howe 47:22

3y ago47:22

47:22

Send us a Text Message. We’re back! In this episode we encounter esteemed poet, writer and scholar LeAnne Howe — who talks about the extraordinary Norton anthology of Native Nations poetry ‘When The Light of The World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through’ she edited with Joy Harjo and Jennifer Elise Foerster which highlights the untold stories of pe…

1
Time | Translation - The Sarah Maguire Prize with Alireza Abiz, Yang Lian & Brian Holton 51:56

3+ y ago51:56

51:56

Send us a Text Message. Welcome to our translation special! Join Robin and Peter as we take a deep dive into the Sarah Maguire Prize 2020. We ask Chairman of the judges, the Persian poet and translator, Alireza Abiz about poetry from Iraq, Korea, Japan, Mexico, and Syria and and ponder the nature of time, Mandarin and poetry with the legendary Chin…

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Robin Houghton & Peter Kenny Podcasts

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