The Seren Poetry Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to The Seren Poetry Podcast, a series of conversations and readings with Seren poets.

In this episode we talk to Nerys Williams about her explosive third collection ‘Republic’. ‘Republic’ opens a window on life in rural west Wales during the 1980s and 90s when arts and culture boomed. English and Welsh-language post-punk bands, politics, feminism and family life are thrown together on the page as the poet questions what constitutes a republic?  

Nerys Williams’s first collection ‘Sound Archive’ (Seren) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and won the Irish Strong First Collection Prize. In 2017 she was a Government of Wales-Literature Wales poet in residence at Passa Porta, Brussels as part of the Literature of Loss programme. That same year her second collection ‘Cabaret’ was published by New Dublin Press. Nerys is an Associate Professor in poetry and poetics University College Dublin, a Fulbright alumnus and is originally from Carmarthenshire. She lives in Kells, Co. Meath, Ireland.

‘Republic’ is available in bookshops nationwide or from the Seren website https://www.serenbooks.com/book/republic/ 

Find out more about the ‘Republic’ playlist on the Seren website https://www.serenbooks.com/2023/02/guest-post-listening-to-republic-nerys-williams/ or listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/playlist/010HvnjFmyrCIqIhCofOUF. 

The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Sarah Johnson  

The interview recordings are by Sarah Johnson.

Production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories https://alternativestories.com/

You can find out more about Nerys Williams by visiting her website http://www.neryswilliams.com/about-us/ or following her on X: @achifsain 

Other books by Nerys Williams

‘Sound Archive’ https://www.serenbooks.com/book/sound-archive/ 

Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories 

Contact them by email at office@alterantivestories.com  

We hope you enjoyed the last episode of Season 2. If you’ve enjoyed listening along, don’t forget to also revisit Season 1 wherever you get your podcasts. 

The Seren Poetry Podcast will return! Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

Welcome to Season Two of the Seren Poetry Podcast. 

The Seren Poetry Podcast is a podcast dedicated to poetry and poets.  In our second series we’ll speak to 6 Seren poets and hear them read their work.  We’ll talk influences, writing techniques and inspiration.  Focussing on recent Seren collections, we’ll go in-depth with our poets on the themes they have chosen to write about and the people, events and other elements that have influenced them. 

Our full podcast featuring Nerys Williams and her collection Republic will be out on Thursday 21st December  You can already listen to our interviews with Rhiannon Hooson, Rachael Clyne, Glyn Edwards , Judy Brown and Vanessa Lampert  in our podcast feed.  

Subscribe now  by searching "The Seren Poetry Podcast" in your favourite podcast app to be alerted when new editions are released. 

You can listen to the complete series one of the Seren Poetry Podcast now on all podcast platforms and find out more about Seren by visiting our website at   https://www.serenbooks.com/

Welcome to The Seren Poetry Podcast, a series of conversations and readings with Seren poets.

In the first episode of series 2, we talk to Rhiannon Hooson about her collection ‘Goliat’, the long-awaited follow up to her Wales Book of the Year shortlisted debut ‘The Other City’. Full of vivid imagery, pointed observations and informed by a deep sense of history, these poems offer absorbing stories of a precarious world on the brink of climate emergency. We chat to her about her fascination with the more-than-human, how arts informs her poetry, and the collection’s central sequence ‘Full Moon on Fish Street’.

Dr Rhiannon Hooson is a Welsh poet and author who has won major awards for her work, including an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. She has performed at literature festivals across the UK, and her work has been featured in the Guardian, Magma, and Poetry Wales among others. In the last few years, she has been a Literature Wales bursary recipient, a Hay Festival Writer at Work, poetry editor of Creative Countryside magazine, and the judge of the PENfro festival poetry competition. She has a PhD in poetry from the University of Lancaster and spent time living and working in Cumbria and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, before settling in the Welsh marches.

‘Goliat’ is available in bookshops nationwide or from the Seren website https://www.serenbooks.com/book/goliat/ 

The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Sarah Johnson  

The interview recordings are by Sarah Johnson.

Production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

You can find out more about Rhiannon Hooson by visiting her website https://www.rhiannonhooson.com/p/bio.html or by following her on Instagram @rhiannon.hooson 

Other books by Rhiannon Hooson

‘The Other City’ https://www.serenbooks.com/book/the-other-city/ 

Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

 https://alternativestories.com/

Contact them by email at office@alterantivestories.com  

Please join us next week for a conversation with poet Rachael Clyne about her collection ‘You’ll Never Be Anyone Else’. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released. 

Welcome to Season Two of the Seren Poetry Podcast. 

The Seren Poetry Podcast is a podcast dedicated to poetry and poets.  In our second series we’ll speak to 6 Seren poets and hear them read their work.  We’ll talk influences, writing techniques and inspiration.  Focussing on recent Seren collections, we’ll go in-depth with our poets on the themes they have chosen to write about and the people, events and other elements that have influenced them. 

Our first podcast which will feature a full-length interview with Rhiannon Hooson will be out on Thursday 16th November and we will have five further interviews with Seren poets in the series.   

Subscribe now in your favourite podcast app to be alerted when new editions are released. 

You can listen to the complete series one of the Seren Poetry Podcast now on all podcast platforms and find out more about Seren by visiting our website at   https://www.serenbooks.com/

Welcome to The Seren Poetry Podcast, a series of conversations and readings with Seren poets. 

In this edition we speak with Kim Moore, winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2022.   Her winning collection All The Men I Never Married is pointedly feminist, challenging and keenly aware of the contradictions and complexities of desire. The 48 numbered poems take us through a gallery of exes and significant others where we encounter rage, pain, guilt, and love and the ‘easy misogyny’ of everyday life. 

 The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Chris Gregory  

Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

Recordings of Rhian Edwards are by Sarah Johnson 

 This conversation was recorded on location at Wordsworth Grasmere in the Lake District.   

 You can find out more about Kim Moore by visiting her website https://www.kimmoorepoet.co.uk/ 

 Other books by Kim Moore

If We Could Speak Like Wolves (Smith|Doorstop) – Winner of the Poetry Business Pamphlet Prize https://poetrybusiness.co.uk/product/if-we-could-speak-like-wolves/

The Art of Falling (Seren) – winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize https://www.serenbooks.com/productdisplay/art-falling 

What the Trumpet Taught Me (Smith|Doorstop) https://poetrybusiness.co.uk/product/what-the-trumpet-taught-me/

 
Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

 
This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories 

Contact them by email at office@alternativestories.com  

We would like to express our thanks to Wordsworth Grasmere and all the staff there for their hospitality during our visit.    If you’d like to find out more about the work of Wordsworth Grasmere, get details of how you can visit the museum or attend one of their events please use the links below.

You can visit the Wordsworth Grasmere website here https://wordsworth.org.uk/ 

And follow them on social media via these links
 https://twitter.com/WordsworthGras
https://www.instagram.com/WordsworthGrasmere/
https://www.facebook.com/WordsworthGrasmere/ 

This is the last interview in series one of The Seren Poetry Podcast. We hope you’ve enjoyed listening!   Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to revisit the series so far. We’ll be back in 2023…

Welcome to The Seren Poetry Podcast, a series of conversations and readings with Seren poets.

 In this edition we speak with poet Eric Ngalle Charles. Eric Ngalle Charles was born in the west African state of Cameroon, a country rich in mythology and natural beauty, but with a troubled colonial history. Arriving in Wales as a near-penniless migrant, after being trafficked to Russia by a criminal gang, he has remade his life as a poet/writer, and dazzling performer of his own work. In this conversation we chat to him about his debut poetry collection Homelands.

 The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Chris Gregory  

Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

Recordings of Rhian Edwards are by Sarah Johnson 

 This conversation was recorded on location at the Seren office in Bridgend.

You can follow Eric on Twitter @yomadene https://twitter.com/yomadene

 Other books by Eric Ngalle Charles:

‘I, Eric Ngalle’ (Parthian Books) https://www.parthianbooks.com/products/i-eric-ngalle-a-migrant

‘The 3 Molas’ (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch) https://www.waterstones.com/book/3-molas-the/mike-jenkins/eric-ngalle-charles/9781845277512

‘Hiraeth Erzolirzoli: A Wales – Cameroon Anthology’ (Hafan Books) https://hafanbooks.org/2020/09/23/bestsellers/

Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories 

Contact them by email at office@alternativestories.com

Please join us next week for the last conversation in our first series. We’ll be talking to Kim Moore, about her Forward Prize shortlisted collection All The Men I Never Married, which will be released on Thursday 1st December. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

 Don’t forget to leave us a review is you like what you hear. 

Our fifteenth preview podcast features Eric Ngalle Charles introducing and reading his poem ‘Homeland’, the title poem from his debut collection. The poem is read by Eric and was recorded on location at the Seren office in Brigend. 

Listen to our in-depth interview with Eric in the next edition of The Seren Poetry Podcast, due to be released on Thursday 24th November. 

The Seren Poetry Podcast is a new podcast dedicated to poetry and poets.  Over 9 weeks we’ll speak to 9 poets and hear them read their work.  We’ll talk influences, writing techniques and inspiration.  Focussing on recent Seren collections, we’ll go in-depth with our poets on the themes they have chosen to write about and the people, events and other elements that have influenced them. 

Recorded on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from the Wordsworth Centre in Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio.  We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

 The Seren Poetry Podcast is available now on all podcast platforms.

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

 Welcome to The Seren Poetry Podcast, a series of conversations and readings with Seren poets.

In this edition we speak with poet Rosalind Hudis about her collection Restorations. Rosalind Hudis grew up in Suffolk but now lives in West Wales with her partner and family. A one-time accordion player in a gypsy band, Rosalind now works as a freelance writer, editor, reviewer and tutor. 

 Restorations is a journey into what it means to preserve – a monument, a moment, a life-story, a poppy. It’s about the hunger to possess and the need to let go. Welding themes from art and history with the contemporary, there are poems about pigments and dictators, glue and glass houses, collections, crinolines, and barometers, and the vagaries of memory itself. Entwined, is a more personal story that tracks the loss of a parent to dementia. Also running through, is a theme of women eroding the straitjacket of gendered roles. Linking all is a play with colour, particularly blue, in all its stages from vital to decayed.

The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Chris Gregory  

Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

Recordings of Rhian Edwards are by Sarah Johnson 

 This conversation was recorded on Zoom. As with all video calls, the sound quality may not always be perfect. but we hope you’ll enjoy listening.

You can find out more about Rosalind’s poetry on her website https://rosalindhudis.wordpress.com/

 Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/ 

Follow Seren on social media  

Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks 

Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below 

https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories 

Contact them by email office@alternativestories.com  

Please join us next week for a conversation with Eric Ngalle Charles, about his collection Homelands, which will be released on Thursday 24th November. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

Don’t forget to leave us a review if you like what you hear. 

Our fourteenth preview podcast features Rosalind Hudis reading her poem ‘Insulation’ from her collection Restorations. The poem is read by Rosalind and was recorded via Zoom so we apologise if the sound quality isn't always perfect. 

Listen to our in-depth interview with Rosalind in the next edition of The Seren Poetry Podcast, due to be released on Thursday 17th November. 

The Seren Poetry Podcast is a new podcast dedicated to poetry and poets.  Over 9 weeks we’ll speak to 9 poets and hear them read their work.  We’ll talk influences, writing techniques and inspiration.  Focussing on recent Seren collections, we’ll go in-depth with our poets on the themes they have chosen to write about and the people, events and other elements that have influenced them. 

Recorded on location in our poets homes, at Seren’s headquarters and from the Wordsworth Centre in Grasmere, you’ll hear from some of the most important poets in the UK, each with an extended interview and a selection of their verse in high quality audio.  We’ll speak to Polly Atkin,  Kim Moore, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Rhian Edwards, Eric Ngalle Charles,  Ben Wilkinson and more.

 The Seren Poetry Podcast is available now on all podcast platforms.

 https://www.serenbooks.com/

Welcome to The Seren Poetry Podcast, a series of conversations and readings with Seren poets.

Some of the poems featured in this episode contain swearing.  If you are likely to be offended by this please avoid this podcast

 In this edition we speak with poet Ben Wilkinson about his second collection Same Difference. Born in the Midlands, Ben now lives in Sheffield. His poems, criticism and journalism regularly appear in national publications including The Guardian, The Poetry Review, The New Statesman, The Spectator, and the TLS. In 2014 he won both a Northern Writers’ Award and the Poetry Business International Pamphlet Competition. He lectures in creative writing at the University of Bolton. His debut collection, Way More Than Luck, was highly commended in the Forward Prizes for Poetry. 

 The podcast is presented by Rhian Edwards  

The interviewer is Chris Gregory  

Recordings, production, sound design and editing are by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories 

Recordings of Rhian Edwards are by Sarah Johnson 

 This conversation was recorded on location at Ben’s home in Sheffield.

 You can find out more about Ben’s poetry on his website https://www.benwilkinson.org/ 

 Poetry collections Ben has enjoyed reading:

• High Desert – André Naffis-Sahely (Bloodaxe Books, 2022) https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/high-desert-1302 
• Peach Pig – Cecilia Knapp (Little Brown, 2022) https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/cecilia-knapp/peach-pig/9781472156815/ 
• The Arctic – Don Paterson (Faber, 2022) https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571338184-the-arctic/ 
•  Ben Wilkinson’s reader on Don Paterson: Don Paterson: Writers and their Work (Liverpool University Press, 2021) https://uk.bookshop.org/books/don-paterson/9781800855373 

 Find out more about Seren and purchase books featured in this podcast by visiting the Seren website here https://www.serenbooks.com/

Follow Seren on social media 
Twitter https://twitter.com/SerenBooks
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/serenbooks/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SerenBooks
Contact them by email at seren@serenbooks.com 

 This podcast is produced by Alternative Stories, a spoken word production company specialising in literary podcasts and radio programmes. To find out more about Alternative Stories, follow or hire them please follow the links below https://linktr.ee/AlternativeStories
Contact them by email at office@alternativestories.com 

Please join us next week for a conversation with Rosalind Hudis, about her collection Restorations, which will be released on Thursday 17th November. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app to have all future editions delivered to your podcast feed the moment they are released.  

 Don’t forget to leave us a review is you like what you hear.