All My Pretty Ones by Anne Sexton

Recorded live in Galway in 2021, we were joined by novelist Mary Costello for a special episode recorded live at Galway International Arts Festival in Ireland. The book we're debating is Elizabeth Costello (2003) by South-African born Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee, a novel that pol ...  Show more

Returning to a show we made in 2022. The Ice Palace or Is-slottet by Tarjei Vesaas is a 20th century classic by one of Norway’s greatest modern writers. First published by Gyldendal in 1963, it went on to win the Nordic Council Literary Prize in 1964. In 1966, it was published in ...  Show more

** TW: This episode contains themes of suicide **Sylvia Plath was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.During and since she died, she became known for her volatile relationship with fellow poet, Ted Hughes, as much as her own beautiful, confessional writing.Wha ...  Show more

After taking a look at Emily Dickinson's Poem #269 ("Wild Nights - wild nights!"), Jacke talks to novelist Anne Enright about growing up in Ireland, her writing career, and her new book The Wren, The Wren. PLUS Dublin literary historian Christopher Morash (Dublin: A Writer's City ...  Show more

This week, AE Stallings, the new Oxford professor of poetry, on the lives of poets; and Ann Kennedy Smith considers the different faces of Cornwall.'Sleeping on islands: A life in poetry', by Andrew Motion'The American poet laureate: A history of US poetry and the state', by Amy ...  Show more

Poetry! Poetry! Poetry! After taking a look at Emily Dickinson's Poem #1 94 ("Title divine - is mine!"), Jacke talks to Cambridge University's Jess Cotton, whose biography of John Ashbery (John Ashbery: A Critical Life) charts Ashbery's rise from a minor avant-garde figure to the ...  Show more