Faber Poetry Podcast

A special bonus episode of the Faber Poetry Podcast, taken from our audio vaults to celebrate this week's announcement of the 2025 T. S. Eliot Prize. Featuring Isabelle Baafi and Sarah Howe, both shortlisted for their most recent collections, Chaotic Good and Foretokens, respectively.
In this episode, recorded towards the very end of 2024, Rachael and Jack welcome Isabelle and Sarah to the studio to discuss dishes gone wrong, the fun of puns and why poets write about their mothers. Audio postcards in this episode come from Matthew Rohrer, Maurice Riordan and Sasha Debevec-McKenney.
Show Notes
Studio guests
ISABELLE BAAFI is a poet, editor and critic. Her pamphlet Ripe (ignitionpress) won the Somerset Maugham Award and was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. Her poetry and prose have been published in the TLS, the Poetry Review, the London Magazine, Oxford Poetry and elsewhere. Her debut collection Chaotic Good (Faber, 2025) has been awarded the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection, shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
SARAH HOWE is a British poet, academic and editor. Born in Hong Kong to an English father and Chinese mother, she moved to England as a child. Her pamphlet, A Certain Chinese Encyclopedia, won an Eric Gregory Award, and her first collection, Loop of Jade (Chatto & Windus, 2015), won the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. In 2014, she co-founded Prac Crit, an online journal of poetry and criticism. She is currently the Poetry Editor at Chatto & Windus and an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Liverpool. Her new collection Foretokens (Chatto & Windus, 2025) is shortlisted for the 2025 T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry.
Audio postcards featured in this episode
'Yevtushenko was the King' written and read by Matthew Rohrer, from his collection Army of Giants (Wave Books, 2024).
'The Narcissist' written and read by Maurice Riordan. The poem features in Selected Poems of Maurice Riordan, ed. by Jack Underwood (Faber, 2025).
‘At 33’ written and read by Sasha Debevec-McKenney, from her collection Joy is My Middle Name (Fitzcarraldo, 2025).
About the presenters
RACHAEL ALLEN is the author of Kingdomland and God Complex (both Faber) and co-author of numerous artists’ books, including Nights of Poor Sleep (Prototype), Almost One, Say Again! (Slimvolume), Green at an Angle (Kestle Barton) and Material (Loose Joints). She is the poetry editor for Fitzcarraldo Editions and teaches Creative Writing at Queen Mary University.
JACK UNDERWOOD is a poet, writer and critic. He is author of Happiness (Faber 2015) Solo for Mascha Voice (Test Centre, 2018) and A Year in the New Life (Faber 2021). His debut work of non-fiction, NOT EVEN THIS, was published by Corsair in 2021. He has collaborated widely with composers and artists, and his work has been published internationally and in translation. He is senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College.
The Faber Poetry Podcast is produced by Rachael Allen, Jack Underwood and Hannah Marshall for Faber. Production and editing by Strathmore Publishing. Special thanks to Isabelle Baafi, Sasha Debevec-McKenney, Sarah Howe, Maurice Riordan and Matthew Rohrer. All previous episodes are available to stream on Audioboom, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other major podcast listening platforms. This episode was recorded on 26 November 2024.

In this bonus episode of the Faber Poetry Podcast, Rachael and Jack welcome guests Edwina Attlee and Ange Mlinko to the studio to discuss archival encounters, the weather in Florida and the acceptable (or not) use of cliché. Audio postcards in this episode come from Michael Pedersen, Richard Scott and Diane Seuss.

Show Notes

Studio guests

EDWINA ATTLEE is a writer and lecturer. She has published two pamphlets, Roasting Baby (if a leaf falls press, 2016) and the cream (clinic, 2016) and her debut collection, a great shaking, was published by Tenement Press in 2023.

ANGE MLINKO has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Randall Jarrell Award for Criticism. She writes for the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. She lives and teaches in Florida. Foxglovewise is her latest collection.

Audio postcards featured in this episode
'Lines on the Melodies in Men' written and read by Michael Pedersen, from his collection The Cat Prince & Other Poems, Corsair, 2023. His debut novel, Muckle Flugga is out in May 2025.

'Carnelian' written and read by Richard Scott. Taken from his recent second collection, That Broke into Shining Crystals (Faber, 2025).

‘Romantic Poet’ written and read by Diane Seuss, from her collection Modern Poetry (Fitzcarraldo, 2025). Her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection frank:sonnets is also out with Fitzcarraldo now.

About the presenters

RACHAEL ALLEN is the author of Kingdomland and God Complex (both Faber) and co-author of numerous artists’ books, including Nights of Poor Sleep (Prototype), Almost One, Say Again! (Slimvolume), Green at an Angle (Kestle Barton) and Material (Loose Joints). She is the poetry editor for Fitzcarraldo Editions and teaches Creative Writing at Queen Mary University.

JACK UNDERWOOD is a poet, writer and critic. He is author of Happiness (Faber 2015) Solo for Mascha Voice (Test Centre, 2018) and A Year in the New Life (Faber 2021). His debut work of non-fiction, NOT EVEN THIS, was published by Corsair in 2021. He has collaborated widely with composers and artists, and his work has been published internationally and in translation. He is senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College.

The Faber Poetry Podcast is produced by Rachael Allen, Jack Underwood and Hannah Marshall for Faber. Production and editing by Strathmore Publishing. Special thanks to Edwina Attlee, Ange Mlinko, Michael Pedersen, Richard Scott and Diane Seuss. All previous episodes are available to stream on Audioboom, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other major podcast listening platforms.

Oh what a night. . . In this special episode, recorded live at the London Review Bookshop, Rachael and Jack are joined by Ishion Hutchinson and Oluwaseun Olayiwola, and we have an audio postcard from Charlotte Mew, delivered by the actress Emilia Clarke.  

Show notes

Live guests

ISHION HUTCHINSON was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica. He is the author of the poetry collections Far District, winner of the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry, and House of Lords and Commons, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize in Literature, the Whiting Award, and a Donald Windham–Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prize, among other honours. His new collection, School of Instructions, is shortlisted for the 2023 T. S. Eliot Prize.

OLUWASEUN OLAYIWOLA is a poet, critic, and choreographer living in London. His poems and criticism have been published in the Guardian, The Poetry Review, Oxford Poetry, the Telegraph, the TLS, and elsewhere. Seun was an inaugural member of the Southbank Poetry Collective. His debut collection, Strange Beach, is forthcoming in the US and UK. He recently began lecturing in the Kingston School of Art.

Audio postcards

'The Trees are Down' written by Charlotte Mew and read by Emilia Clarke. The poem is included in Charlotte Mew's Selected Poetry and Prose (Faber).

About the presenters

RACHAEL ALLEN is the author of Kingdomland (Faber) and co-author of numerous artists’ books, including Nights of Poor Sleep (Prototype), Almost One, Say Again! (Slimvolume), Green at an Angle (Kestle Barton) and Material (Loose Joints). She was recently Anthony Burgess Fellow at the University of Manchester, is the poetry editor for Granta Publications, teaches Creative Writing at Queen Mary University, and her second collection of poems, God Complex, is forthcoming from Faber in 2024.

JACK UNDERWOOD is a poet, writer and critic. He is author of Happiness (Faber 2015), Solo for Mascha Voice (Test Centre, 2018) and A Year in the New Life (Faber 2021). His debut work of non-fiction, NOT EVEN THIS, was published by Corsair in 2021. He has collaborated widely with composers and artists, and his work has been published internationally and in translation. He is senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College.

The Faber Poetry Podcast is produced by Rachael Allen, Jack Underwood and Hannah Marshall for Faber. This live episode was hosted by the LRB Bookshop. Special thanks to Emilia Clarke, John Clegg, Ishion Hutchinson, Gayle Lazda, Oluwaseun Olayiwola and Claire Williams. All three seasons of the podcast are available to stream on Audioboom, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other major podcast listening platforms.

In this episode, Jack and Rachael talk couplets, nutlets and cats in poems, among many other things, with Lucy Mercer in the studio and Maggie Millner down the line from New York. Audio postcards are dispatched from Susannah Dickey, Oluwaseun Olayiwola and Rowan Ricardo Phillips.

Show notes

Studio guests

LUCY MERCER'S first poetry collection Emblem (Prototype, 2022) is a Poetry Book Society Choice. She has written for ArtReview, LA Review of Books and Poetry Review amongst others. She teaches creative writing at Goldsmiths and lives in London.

MAGGIE MILLNER was born and raised in rural upstate New York. She teaches writing at Yale and is a senior editor at the Yale Review. Her poems have appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review and Poetry. Couplets is her first book.

Audio postcards

'Whenever you feel sad you enjoy the smooth refreshing taste of Diet Coke with Lemon' written and read by Susannah Dickey. Her collection ISDAL is shortlisted for the 2023 Forward Prize for Best First Collection and is out now. 

Oluwaseun Olayiwola reads from his poem 'Simulacrum'. Strange Beach, Oluwaseun Olayiwola's debut poetry collection will be published in 2024.

'El Pintor' written and read by Rowan Ricardo Phillips. His collections Living Weapon (2021) and Silver (forthcoming in April '24) are published by Faber.

About the presenters

RACHAEL ALLEN is the author of Kingdomland (Faber) and co-author of numerous artists’ books, including Nights of Poor Sleep (Prototype), Almost One, Say Again! (Slimvolume), Green at an Angle (Kestle Barton) and Material (Loose Joints). She was recently Anthony Burgess Fellow at the University of Manchester, is the poetry editor for Granta Publications, teaches Creative Writing at Queen Mary University, and her second collection of poems, God Complex, is forthcoming from Faber in 2024.

JACK UNDERWOOD is a poet, writer and critic. He is author of Happiness (Faber 2015), Solo for Mascha Voice (Test Centre, 2018) and A Year in the New Life (Faber 2021). His debut work of non-fiction, NOT EVEN THIS, was published by Corsair in 2021. He has collaborated widely with composers and artists, and his work has been published internationally and in translation. He is senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College.

The Faber Poetry Podcast is produced by Rachael Allen, Jack Underwood and Hannah Marshall for Faber. Production and editing by Strathmore Publishing. Special thanks to Susannah Dickey, Lucy Mercer, Maggie Millner, Oluwaseun Olayiwola and Rowan Ricardo Phillips. All three seasons are available to stream on Audioboom, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other major podcast listening platforms.

In this episode, Jack and Rachael are joined by award-winning poets Raymond Antrobus and Victoria Adukwei Bulley in the studio, where they consider the multiple meanings of the word 'quiet' and the gifts that make you feel seen. Audio postcards in this episode come from Declan Ryan, Holly Isemonger and Dawn Watson.

Show notes

Studio guests

RAYMOND ANTROBUS is the author of three poetry titles: To Sweeten Bitter (Out-Spoken Press), The Perseverance (Penned in the Margins) and All The Names Given (Picador), as well as a forthcoming collection to be published by Picador. His work has won the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Ted Hughes Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and his poems have been added to GCSE syllabi. He is also the author of a children’s book, Can Bears Ski? (Walker Books), which became the first story to be broadcast on the BBC entirely in British Sign Language. Antrobus was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020 and appointed an MBE in 2021. His debut work of non-fiction, An Investigation of Missing Sound, will be published by W&N in 2025.

VICTORIA ADUKWEI BULLEY is a poet, writer and artist. An alumna of the Barbican Young Poets and recipient of an Eric Gregory award, Victoria has held residencies in the US, Brazil and the V&A Museum in London. Her debut pamphlet, Girl B, was published by the African Poetry Book Fund in 2017. She is the recipient of a Techne scholarship for doctoral research at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her debut collection, Quiet, was published by Faber in 2022. It was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and won the Rathbones Folio Prize for Poetry and the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize.

Audio postcards

'Mayfly', written and read by Declan Ryan. His debut collection, Crisis Actor, is out now (Faber, 2023).

'My Life as an Artist', written and read by Holly Isemonger, from her collection Greatest Hit (Vagabond Press, 2023).

An extract from ‘We, Ghost Tigers’, written and read by Dawn Watson, taken from her collection, We Play Here (Granta, 2023).

About the presenters

RACHAEL ALLEN is the author of Kingdomland (Faber) and co-author of numerous artists’ books, including Nights of Poor Sleep (Prototype), Almost One, Say Again! (Slimvolume), Green at an Angle (Kestle Barton) and Material (Loose Joints). She was recently Anthony Burgess Fellow at the University of Manchester, is the poetry editor for Granta Publications, teaches Creative Writing at Queen Mary University, and her second collection of poems, God Complex, is forthcoming from Faber in 2024.

JACK UNDERWOOD is a poet, writer and critic. He is author of Happiness (Faber 2015), Solo for Mascha Voice (Test Centre, 2018) and A Year in the New Life (Faber 2021). His debut work of non-fiction, NOT EVEN THIS, was published by Corsair in 2021. He has collaborated widely with composers and artists, and his work has been published internationally and in translation. He is senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College.

The Faber Poetry Podcast is produced by Rachael Allen, Jack Underwood and Hannah Marshall for Faber. Production and editing by Strathmore Publishing. Special thanks to Raymond Antrobus, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Holly Isemonger, Declan Ryan and Dawn Watson. All three seasons are available to stream on Audioboom, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other major podcast listening platforms.