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The special episode aires on Sunday 23rd June 2024. It is produced and hosted by Damien B. Donnelly. Below are details and links to the guest stars…

Arachne Press

Arachne Press has long been a champion of LGBTQ+ writers, but they’ve never before published an anthology of LGBTQ+ poetry. Joy/Us, Poems of Queer Joy are indeed joyful poems that celebrate all that is best about the community/ies and lives. This is not an ‘explain it to the straights’ book, this is for the LGBTQ+ community who can open this book at random and find a moment of poetic queer joy for themselves, however big or small.

Follow Arachne Press on X at https://x.com/ArachnePress

Find out about all things Arachne Press at https://arachnepress.com/

Follow Jeremy Dixon on X at https://x.com/HazardPressUK

Buy Joy / Us Poems of Queer Joy at https://arachnepress.com/JOY-US-poems-of-queer-joy-p606092625

Cherry Potts is the Director of Arachne Press, she is editor/co-editor of most of their anthologies, and runs the annual literature and music festival Solstice Shorts. She also commissions and sometimes designs book covers.

Jeremy Dixon is a poet and maker of Artist’s Books. His poetry has appeared in Butcher’s Dog, Found Poetry Review, HIV Here & Now, Impossible Archetype, Lighthouse Journal, Anti-Heroin Chic, Roundyhouse and other print and online magazines. He has been published several times by Arachne Press, including his debut pamphlet IN RETAIL (2019) and in the recent bilingual Welsh/English anthology, A470: Poems for the Road/Cerddi’r Ffordd (2022). Arachne Press published Jeremy’s first full collection, A Voice Coming from Then, in August 2021 and it wom the poetry category for Wales Book of the Year English Language. https://x.com/HazardPressUK

Dean Atta’s is an award-winning Black British author and poet of Greek Cypriot and Jamaican heritage whose works have received praise from Bernardine Evaristo and Malorie Blackman. His novel in verse, The Black Flamingo, about a Black gay teen finding his voice through poetry and drag performance, won the Stonewall Book Award and was shortlisted for numerous further prestigious awards. His poetry collection, There is (still) love here, explores acceptance, queer joy and the power of unapologetically being yourself and fully embracing who you are. https://x.com/DeanAtta

JP Seabright (she/they) is a queer disabled writer living in London. They have four solo pamphlets published and two collaborations, encompassing poetry, prose and experimental work. They have been widely published and anthologised, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Forward Prize. https://x.com/errormessage

Aoife Mannix is the author of four collections of poetry, two pamphlets, four libretti and a novel. She has been poet in residence for the Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live. Her latest collection Reconstructuion is out now. https://x.com/AoifeMannix

Rick Dove is a queer, disabled, and neurodivergent writer and activist from South London. Widely anthologised since 2016, Rick has brought his signature blend of lyrical storytelling to stages across the UK and internationally, becoming National Poetry Slam Champion in 2021. Equally at home on a stage, or a page, or a march, Rick has a vision of a fairer world and he wants to take you with him. https://x.com/multistable

Vron McIntyre (they/them) is a queer disabled non-binary poet, a longtime resident of Nottingham, and a member of the DIY Poets Collective. They perform frequently at online open mics, and run the Facebook group Poetry+ Events Online. Their work has been published by DIY Poets, Poetry and COVID, tattiezine, Impossible Archetype, and Wildfire Words, and in anthologies Geography is Irrelevant, The Spirit of Fire&Dust, and Dungheap Cockerel. Their debut poetry pamphlet Random Trail was published by Big White Shed in December 2021. https://x.com/vron_chariot

Conway Emmett is a fat, queer, nonbinary, neurodivergent poet who was born and lives in South Wales. They worked in higher education for many years, and later as an independent consultant, researcher and writer. They recently came back to creative writing after a couple of decades away. They often use their writing as a way to understand themself, their experiences, and the social world.

Alexander Williams is a jazz singer, and host of the popular Dial Up Open Mic Events. In addition to his regular open mics, he stages an LGBT+ History Month open mic every February, and a Black History Month open mic every October. He is author of Secular Verses, a collection of humanist poetry featured monthly in Humanistically Speaking magazine.

Rab Green is a Scottish writer and artist based in London. He can be found at https://www.rabgreen.co.uk/

Joshua Jones (he/him) is a queer, autistic writer and artist from Llanelli, south Wales. He co-founded Dyddiau Du, a NeuroQueer art and literature space in Cardiff. His fiction and poetry have been published by Poetry Wales, Broken Sleep Books, Gutter and others. He is a Literature Wales Emerging Writer, 2023, and is currently working with the British Council to connect Welsh and Vietnamese queer writers. His debut, Local Fires, was published November 2023 by Parthian Books.

Desree is an award-winning spoken word artist, writer and facilitator based in London and Slough. Currently Artist in Residence for poetry collective EMPOWORD, Desree explores intersectionality, justice and social commentary.  Poet In Residence for Glastonbury Festival 2022, producer, and TEDx speaker, Desree has featured across the UK and internationally, including Sofar Sounds, Royal Albert Hall and Bowery Poetry – New York.  Following the sell-out of her first self-published pamphlet I Find My Strength In Simple Things (2017), Burning Eye Books published the pamphlet in May 2021. https://x.com/Dezziiee_

Elizabeth Gibson is a writer, performer, and workshop facilitator in Manchester. Elizabeth has been a recipient of the New North Poets Prize from The Poetry School and a Developing Your Creative Practice Grant from Arts Council England, and has been commissioned by Manchester Poetry Library, Manchester Literature Festival, Superbia at Manchester Pride, The Portico Library, Islington Mill, Oldham Coliseum, and Yorkshire Dance. https://x.com/Grizonne

Zo Copeland (they/them) is a writer from South Devon. They are inspired by their lived experiences of queerness and disability, and by their magical experiences in nature. Zo writes to connect with people, evoke change, and challenge taboo subjects. When they are not writing, they’re usually found rummaging in compost or floating on water. Their work is published or forthcoming by Querencia Press, Vital Minutiae Quarterly, and Wishbone Words Magazine. https://x.com/zocowrites

Jane Aldous is an Edinburgh based poet who returned to writing poetry later in life.  She has been commended in several competitions and her poems have been widely published in magazines and anthologies. She has had two collections published by Arachne Press, the second of which was a lesbian love story set in 1960s Edinburgh told in 70 poems. She is currently working on a third series of poems which tell a more contemporary and mysterious tale. Aracnhe Press published Jane’s second collection, More Patina than Gleam. Jane’s debut poetry collection Let out the Djinn was published by Arachne Press in 2019 and several of her poems appear in Arachne’s Solstice Shorts Festivals anthologies. Her poems have also been also been anthologised by Edinburgh Council Museum and Galleries, Speculative Books (also podcast), the Stanza Poetry Map of Scotland (online), New Writing Scotland and Grey Hen Press.

Kate Foley is a widely published, prize-winning poet who has read in many UK and European locations. She was president of the Suffolk Poetry Society until 2022.  Her first collection, Soft Engineering was short-listed for best first collection at Aldeburgh.  Her working life has ranged from delivering babies to conserving delicate archaeological material, and she also became Head of English Heritage’s scientific and technical research laboratories. Although she has always written poetry it wasn’t until Kate gave up the day job that she began to publish more widely.  She now lives with her wife, between Amsterdam and Suffolk, where she performs, writes, edits, leads workshops and whenever possible works with artists in other disciplines. Her poem The Other Side of Sleep, the title poem for Arachne Press’ first poetry anthology, won the 2014 Second Light Long Poem competition. Arachne Press  published Kate’s third collection with Arachne, Saved to Cloud, in February 2023. We published Kate’s collections, The Don’t Touch Garden in October 2015 and A Gift of Rivers in 2018. 

Lydia Fulleylove has published three collections: Notes on Sea & Land, (HappenStance 2011) and Estuary, with artist Colin Riches, (Two Ravens 2014), Ampersand,  Valley Press 2022). Her poem Night Drive was shortlisted for the Forward Best Single Poem.  She has been published in a wide range of anthologies, magazines and other publications. She has worked extensively in community collaborative arts projects, including healthcare, prison and with young people. https://x.com/LydiaFulleylove

Steph Morris‘ poems have been published in his pamphlet Please don’t trample us; we are trying to grow! (Fair Acre Press) and in Rialto, Ambit, Ink Sweat & Tears, Under the Radar, Finished Creatures, The North, and in various anthologies and gardens. He was longlisted for the 2021 UK National Poetry Competition. His poetry translations have appeared in MPT and on no-mans-land.org and he translated Ilse Aichinger’s collection Squandered Advice (Seagull). In 2021 he was awarded an Arts Council England grant to develop his visual poetry, seen in Beir Bua Journal, Streetcake, Mercurius, and on various walls. He is an RLF fellow at Greenwich University. https://x.com/herr_morris

Garnett ‘Ratte’ Frost is a dyslexic transman with an English BA from Wirral. He is also an ink and wire artist, though not at the same time. He co-facilitates the Merseyside LGBTQI+ Creative Writing group held monthly at various locations across Liverpool. https://x.com/RatteWrites

Damien B Donnelly, Producer, Host and Poet

Damien B Donnelly is a 48-year-old Irish, adopted, queer writer and podcast producer who spent 23 years living in Paris, Amsterdam, and London working in the fashion industry, returning to Dublin at the end of 2020. 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 2^nd full collection Back from Away was published on the 8th May 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…