Podcast available on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, OverCast, Player FM, Radio Public, PocketCast, CastBox, iTunes, Podbean, Podcast Addicts and many more platforms. The poetry podcast is produced and hosted by Damien B. Donnelly.
On this season of the poetry podcast we celebrated one ‘about to be published’, ‘recently published’ or ‘previously published’ collection each week and here is a run down of them all…
Andy Breckenridge – Episode 1
Andy Breckenridge is a Secondary English teacher living in Brighton but originally from Oban. He writes about self imposed exile, place, relationships, cultural identity and memory, and his poems are likely to include fish and water. His debut pamphlet, The Liquid Air, was published by Dreich in July 2021, and the Chris Riddell illustrated version came out in August 2022. His poetry has appeared in several print and online journals, and he has been a featured poet on Flight of the Dragonfly Spoken Word, and with the Northern Poets Society. He is an honorary member of East Kilbride rock group, The Moes.
Follow Andy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/drbafc
The Fish Inside is his first full collection, and is available from Flight of the Dragonflies press https://flightofthedragonfly.com/shop/
Nigel Kent – Episode 2
Nigel Kent is a four times Pushcart Prize nominated poet and reviewer who lives in rural Worcestershire. He is an active member of the Open University Poetry Society, managing its website and occasionally editing its workshop magazine. He has been shortlisted for several national competitions and his poetry has appeared in a wide range of anthologies and magazines. Some of his work has been translated by Mariana Zavati Gardner for the Romanian literary journals, Banchetful, Pro Saeculum and Atenua. He is the author of two collections, and four pamphlets: Unmuted (Hedgehog Press, 2021); Saudade (Hedgehog Press, 2019); Psychopathogen, (Hedgehog Poetry Press, 2020), which was nominated for the 2020 Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets and made the Poetry Book Society’s Winter List, 2020 and two poetry conversations with Sarah Thomson, Thinking You Home and A Hostile Environment, Hedgehog Poetry Press, 2018. In 2021 and 2022he was shortlisted for the Saboteur Award for Reviewer of Literature. Benchwarmers is his latest pamphlet, published in April of this year by Hedgehog Poetry Press and as joint winner ofits ‘Wee Collection Challenge in 2022.
Follow Nigel on Twitter at https://twitter.com/kent_nj
Find out more about Nigel and read his reviews at https://nigelkentpoet.wordpress.com/
Benchwarmers is available at https://nigelkentpoet.wordpress.com/benchwarmers/
Matt Gilbert – Episode 3
Matt Gilbert is a freelance copywriter, who also blogs about place, books and other distractions at richlyevocative.net. Originally from Bristol, he currently gets his fill of urban hills in South East London. He has also had poems published by Anthropocene, Atrium and The Storms among others. His debut collection ‘Street Sailing’ published by Black Bough Poetry is now available.
Follow Matt on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RichlyEvocative
Street Sailing is available at https://www.blackboughpoetry.com/matt-gilbert
Sarah Connor – Episode 4
Sarah Connor was brought up in South Yorkshire and now lives in North Devon. She spent her working life as a Child Psychiatrist. She has two adult children and one husband. Writing has enriched her life so much. She has been published in numerous publications, including Spelt magazine; The Storms; anthologies from Black Bough, Experiments in Literature and Sidhe Press. She is a regular writer of prompts at dVerse, and is still hanging about on Twitter. Her first chapbook, The Crow Gods, is available now from Sidhe Press
Follow Sarah on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sacosw
Find out more about Sarah at her blog https://fmmewritespoems.wordpress.com/
The Crow Gods is available at https://sidhe-press.eu/books/the-crow-gods/
Paul Brookes – Episode 5
Paul Brookes is a shop asst. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. First play performed at The Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull. His poetry has featured on BBC Radio Three, the Verb, and on BBC Radio Sheffield. Seven of his Wombwell Cemetery Sonnets featured in an exhibition at Barnsley Cooper Art Gallery. His chapbooks include, local history poetry in The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). Accepted notions turned upside down poetry in A World Where and, short stories in verse in She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018), Sci-Fi poetry in The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Shopworker poetry in Please Take Change (http://Cyberwit.net, 2018),poetry about neighbours in As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). A poetry collaboration with artworker and publisher Jane Cornwell: “Wonderland in Alice, plus other ways of seeing”, (JCStudio Press, 2021), As Folktaleteller , (Impspired, 2022), These Random Acts of Wildness, Glass Head Press, 2023, and Othernesses, JCStudio Press, 2023, completing a loose sonnets mostly, quartet.
Follow Paul on Twitter at https://twitter.com/PaulDragonwolf1
For all things Wombwell Review check out https://thewombwellrainbow.com/
Othernesses is available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BST7T59N/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
JP Seabright – Episode 6- The Pride Party
JP Seabright is a queer disabled writer living in London. They have three solo pamphlets published: Fragments from Before the Fall (Beir Bua Press, 2021); No Holds Barred (Lupercalia Press, 2022); Traum/A (fifthwheelpress, 2023) and the collaborative works: GenderFux (Nine Pens Press, 2022) and MACHINATIONS (Trickhouse Press, 2022).
Follow JP on Twitter at https://twitter.com/errormessage
Tim Rich / Thêrêse Kieran / John Simmons Episode 7
Therese Kieran is a Belfast based poet and visual artist. Her work has featured in: Dark Angels: Three Contemporary Poets, Book 1, Her Other Language, The Honest Ulsterman, Valley Press Anthology, Four X Four, Washing Windows I, 2 and 3 and many others, including Poetry Jukebox’s climate change curation in Paris & Belfast. She’s been twice long-listed for the Seamus Heaney New Writing award. She’s received two Arts Council NI awards. Recently she made the short-list for Poems for Patience and was short-listed and commended for the 22/23 Coast to Coast to Coast poetry competition. She is a member of the 26 writing collective, a professional member of the Irish Writers Centre and is vice-chair of Irish PEN.
Follow Therese on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ThereseKieran
Therese is on Instagram at @tk.ni
For all things Dark Angels head over to https://darkangelswriters.com/
Get a copy of Dark Angels at https://www.paekakarikipress.com/?content=publications.php
John Simmons is the co-founder of two influential writing organisations – Dark Angels and 26. His book Dark Angels inspired writers at work to take a more creative approach to writing, developing into an international programme of workshops that use techniques of poetry and storytelling. His first book We, Me, Them & It was recently republished in a 21st anniversary edition. His published novels are Leaves, Spanish Crossings and The Good Messenger.
Follow John on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JNSim
Tim Rich is a writer and lo-fi photographer. He is one of three poets featured in the book Dark Angels: Three Contemporary Poets (Paekakariki Press, 2023). His words and images have also appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including Oscillations, Random Spectacular and arterial. His piece Landfall, featuring a poem and four photographs, was exhibited at the Bloomsbury Festival, London, and is now also a limited-edition letterpress print. Tim writes for a living and is a New York Times Bestselling ghostwriter and editor, a member of writers’ collective Dark Angels and a co-founder of writing organisation 26. He lives in Hastings, England.
Follow Tim on Twitter at https://twitter.com/timiswriting
Tim is on Instagram at @timrichphotographs
Chris Fitzpatrick – Episode 8
Chris Fitzpatrick has published short stories and poetry. His first collection of poetry. Poetic Licence in a time of Corona, was published in May 2022 by Twenty First Century Renaissance. Chris recently retired after forty years in medical practice.
Poetic Licence in a time of Corona is available to buy at https://www.21cr.ie/store/p38/Poetic_Licence_in_a_Time_of_Corona_by_Chris_Fitzpatrick.html
Elizabeth M Castillo – Episode 9
Elizabeth M Castillo is a British-Mauritian poet, writer, workshop teacher, and a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. She lives in Paris with her family and two cats, where she runs a variety of different businesses, writes a variety of different things, in a variety of different languages, and under a variety of pen names. In her writing Elizabeth explores the different countries and cultures she grew up with, as well as themes of race & ethnicity, motherhood, womanhood, language, love, loss and grief, and a touch of magical realism. Her writing has been featured in publications and anthologies in the UK, US, Australia, Mexico and the Middle East. Her bilingual, debut collection “Cajoncito: Poems on Love, Loss, y Otras Locuras” is for sale on Amazon, and her debut chapbook “Not Quite an Ocean” is out now with Nine Pens Press.
Follow Elizabeth on Twitter at https://twitter.com/EMCWritesPoetry
For all things Castillo follow https://www.elizabethmcastillo.net/
Briony Collins – Episode 10
Briony Collins is a widely published writer from North Wales. She won the 2016 Exeter Novel Prize, was the 2020 Runner-Up for the Danby Prize, and has two Pushcart Prize nominations. Her books Blame it on Me, All That Glisters, and The Birds, the Rabbits, the Trees are available with Broken Sleep Books. She co-authored a mini-pamphlet with Caleb Nichols called Whisper Network, which is available by request on her website. Her latest book, cactus land, is out now with Atomic Bohemian, where she is one of two Founding Directors. Briony manages her time between running Cape Magazine, working on a science fiction novel for her PhD, and lecturing at her university in English Literature and Linguistics. For fun, she is interested in horticulture and taking care of her guinea pigs!
Follow Briony on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ri_collins
Find out more about Briony via her website https://brionycollins.co.uk/
Simon Maddrell – Episode 11
Simon Maddrell is a queer Manx writer, editor and performer living in Brighton & Hove. Simon is published in sixteen anthologies and numerous publications including AMBIT, Butcher’s Dog, The Moth, The Rialto, Poetry Wales, Stand, Under the Radar. Simon’s pamphlets: Throatbone, UnCollected Press, 2020; Queerfella, which jointly-won The Rialto Open Pamphlet Competition, 2020; Isle of Sin, Polari Press, March 2023; The Whole Island, Valley Press, July 2023.
Facebook Page: @SimonMaddrellPoetry
Facebook Personal: @SimonMaddrell
Instagram: @simonmaddrell
Threads: @simonmaddrell
Twitter: https://twitter.com/QueerManxPoet
LinkedIn: @simonmaddrell
SoundCloud: @simonmaddrell
YouTube: @simonmaddrell
Buy Books: https://simonmaddrell.sumupstore.com/
Michael McKimm – Episode 12
Originally from north Antrim, Northern Ireland, Michael McKimm has lived for many years in London, UK. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 2007 and was an International Writing Fellow at the University of Iowa in 2010. His most recent poetry collection is Because we could not dance at the wedding (Worple, 2023), following his collections Still This Need (Heaventree, 2009) and Fossil Sunshine (Worple, 2013). Michael has edited two anthologies: MAP: Poems after William Smith’s Geological Map of 1815 (Worple, 2015) and The Tree Line: Poems for Trees, Woods & People (Worple, 2017). His poems are included in the anthologies The Future Always Makes Me So Thirsty: New Poets from the North of Ireland (Blackstaff, 2016) and Queering the Green: Post-2000 Queer Irish Poetry (Lifeboat, 2021).
Follow Michael on twitter on https://twitter.com/MichaelMcKimm
Find our more about Michael via is website http://michaelmckimm.co.uk/
Charles K. Carter – Episode 13
Charles K. Carter (they/he) is a queer poet and educator from Iowa who currently lives in Oregon. They share their home with their artist husband and their spoiled pets. He enjoys film, yoga, and live music. Melissa Etheridge is his ultimate obsession. Carter has an MA in creative writing with a poetry concentration from Southern New Hampshire University and an MFA in writing from Lindenwood University. They are a volunteer video curator for Button Poetry. His poems have been featured in several literary journals and anthologies. Carter is the author of several chapbooks including Salem Revisited from WordTech Editions. Their debut full-length collection, Read My Lips, was released in 2022 by David Robert Books. To coincide with the release of his most recent chapbook, Artificial Sweetness(Finishing Line Press), Carter created the video podcast series #SundaySweetChats, which can be found on YouTube. Kelsay Books will release his second full-length, If the World Were a Quilt, in late 2023.
Follow Charles on twitter on https://twitter.com/CKCpoetry
Check out Sunday Sweet Chats on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt3mtHj_9lsZbwDhAGtmjU0eO-jXMHf0S
Find our more about Charles via https://linktr.ee/CharlesKCarter
Vic Pickup – Episode 14
Vic Pickup is a previous winner of the Café Writers and Cupid’s Arrow competitions and was shortlisted for the National Poetry Day #speakyourtruth competition. Vic’s debut pamphlet Lost & Found was published by Hedgehog Press in 2020, and her Micro-pamphlet What Colour is My Brain? (co-written with Jules Whiting) followed in 2022. Her debut collection The Omniscient Tooth Fairy has been published by Indigo Dreams Press this year, featuring poems written over the course of a decade. Vic co-runs Reading’s Poets’ Café and Poets’ Café Online, as well as the town’s Stanza group. By day, she is a postgraduate researcher, exploring the Mills & Boon archives held in Reading University’s Special Collections.
Follow Vic on twitter on https://twitter.com/VicPickup
For more about Vic check out https://vicpickup.com/
The Omniscient Tooth Fairy is available at https://vicpickup.com/?p=1156
Damien B Donnelly, Producer, Host and Poet
Damien B Donnelly is a 47-year-old Irish, adopted, gay writer and podcast producer who spent 23 years living in Paris, Amsterdam, and London forking in the fashion industry, returning to Dublin at the end of 2019. He is the host and producer of the poetry podcast Eat the Storms and the editor-in-chief of The Storms, a journal of poetry, prose and visual art. His debut pamphlet, Eat the Storms, published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press, nominated for a Pushcart Prize and featured on the Poetry Book Society Winter List 2020/21, followed by a Pushcart Prize nominated Stickleback (micro collection) and In the Jitterfritz of Neon, a conversational pamphlet co-written with Eilín de Paor. His first full collection Enough! was published by Hedgehog in August 2022. His poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous journals, both online and in print. His 2nd full collection is due out in Spring 2024 with Turas Press
The Storms journal is available at https://eatthestorms.com/the-storm-shop/
He is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/deuxiemepeau and instagram at both @damiboy and @weshallalwayshaveparis
You can purchase his pamphlets and collections at his website https://deuxiemepeaupoetry.com/
Backing music for Eat the Storms is from Purple Planet Royalty Free Music, with thanks…
https://www.purple-planet.com/
You can find us on many platforms including Spotify and here is the link…
Storm Shelter 