Shows
Poem-a-DayAnthony Vahni Capildeo: "Niche"Recorded by Anthony Vahni Capildeo for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on June 25, 2024. www.poets.org2024-06-2503 min
The Writing LifeInto the contemporary poetry archiveIn this episode of The Writing Life, NCW CEO Peggy Hughes speaks to four dazzling voices in contemporary poetry.
On Wednesday 22 November, Jay Bernard, Anthony Vahni Capildeo, Gail McConnell and Joelle Taylor gathered to celebrate the launch of exciting new poetry archive collection, ‘Towards a Centre for Contemporary Poetry in the Archive'. This project, delivered by the British Archive for Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, is supported by the Mellon Foundation with partners the National Centre for Writing and Norfolk County Council Library and Information Service.
The project aims to promote and pr...2023-12-0444 min
Rippling Pages: Interviews with WritersCharlotte Eichler and Swimming Between Islands"It's not confessional...but it's absolutely full of concrete details of things that I've observed or really happened."
Charlotte Eichler joins the Rippling Pages to discuss her new collection, SWIMMING BETWEEN ISLANDS, published by Carcanet
Tickets to Tom Branfoot launch that I'm hosting here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/boar-book-launch-tickets-733576425837
Rippling Points
Fruit bats: the mystery of the mystery, and how we write it
Unnatural world: how even poets find it difficult to connect with nature
Reference Points
Anthony Vahni Capildeo
2023-11-0331 min
Scottish Poetry Library PodcastNothing But The Poem - Anthony Vahni CapildeoAnthony Vahni Capildeo is the subject of the new Nothing But The Poem podcast. The SPL’s regular podcast host, Sam Tongue, takes a deep dive into two of their poems which were discussed at the online monthly meet-up of the Nothing But The Poem group.
A Trinidadian-Scottish writer of poetry and non-fiction, Anthony Vahni Capildeo has published eight books and eight pamphlets, including Measures of Expatriation which won the 2016 Forward Prize. Their most recent poetry collection is Like a Tree, Walking (Carcanet, 2021).
Beth Cochrane in The Skinny said of the collection: ‘ 'Vahni Capildeo has always been...2023-06-1517 min
BIC TALKS200. What Makes an 'Indian' Poet | Featuring 9 PoetsThe Penguin Book of Indian Poets, the definitive anthology of Indian poetry in English for the next decade and more edited by Jeet Thayil, returns the forgotten figures of Indian poetry to the centre where they belong. Jeet compiled the work of 94 poets for this anthology, the oldest born in 1924 and the youngest in 2001. With the aim of giving readers a deeper understanding of a vast and fluid poetic tradition, this collection brings together writers from across the world, a wealth of voices that present an expansive, encompassing idea of what makes an ‘Indian’ poet. This...2022-10-271h 21
Scottish Poetry Library PodcastVahni Capildeo
‘I write because I must,’ says Vahni Capildeo, winner of the 2016 Forward Prize for Best Collection for Measures of Expatriation (published by Carcanet). ‘I think poetry,’ she says, ‘is a natural expression of humanity that has not been brutalized – which is able to take time and concentrate.’
In this podcast, Capildeo discusses the impact studying Old Norse at university had on her poetry, how women’s voices are silenced, and why she objects to the word ‘migrant’.
2022-08-1237 min
The Writing LifeJulian of Norwich & biscuits with Vahni Capildeo and Jeremy Noel-TodWriter Vahni Capildeo stayed with us in a virtual residency back in February and is joined in this week's episode by Jeremy Noel-Tod, editor, critic and Senior Lecturer in Literature at the University of East Anglia. Together they discuss Vahni's work, the inspiration found in places like Norwich and Edinburgh, the influence of Julian of Norwich and much more besides - all while enjoying an imaginary afternoon tea at the Maid's Head Hotel.
We recommend reading Lighthouse and Anchorage by Vahni before listening to this episode: https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/lighthouse-and-anchorage-journal-entries/
Vahni stayed with u...2021-04-2955 min
London Review Bookshop PodcastComic Timing: Holly Pester, Vahni Capildeo and Rachael AllenHolly Pester's debut collection, Comic Timing (Granta), is disorienting, radical and extremely funny; Pester has a background in sound art and performance, having worked with the Womens' Library, the BBC and the Wellcome Collection, and is an unmissable reader of her own work. She read from Comic Timing and was in conversation with Vahni Capildeo, whose most recent collection is Skin Can Hold (Carcanet, 2019), and Rachael Allen, poetry editor at Granta and author of Kingdomland (Faber, 2019). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-04-071h 05
AuralitiesAuralities - 11 November 2020 - Poetics of Place and Displacement: Poetry Reading and DiscussionSpeakers
Vahni Capildeo (Trinidadian British poet)
Xasan Daahir 'Weedhsame' (Somali poet)
Martin Orwin (Linguist and Translator, University of Naples "L'Orientale")
Abstract
This session will explore the poetics of place and displacement through the poetry of Vahni Capildeo and Xasan Daahir Ismaacil ‘Weedhsame’. Vahni, a Trinidadian-British poet, and Weedhsame, a Somali poet based in Hargeysa, will each read from their recent work, with a translation by Martin Orwin. The reading will be followed by a discussion of the intersection of sound, listening, migration and place (including in translation), as well as ample time for questions and conversations with the poets.
About the...2020-12-1045 min
The Shaking Bog PodcastEpisode 1: AutumnA gentle meander through the world where art and nature meet. As the seasons turn towards autumn and the swallows prepare for their great migration, Catherine Nunes, Director of Wicklow’s Shaking Bog Festival leads us through the countryside with an interwoven tapestry of conversations, readings and reflections.
This episode features poet Sean Hewitt, memoirist & farmer Selina Guinness, Trinidadian/Scottish poet Vahni Capildeo, historian and tree enthusiast Thomas Pakenham, and artist Gráinne Cuffe in conversation with botanist Prof. Jane Stout. 2020-09-2238 min
The Poetry Exchange51. Spring and Fall By Gerard Manley Hopkins - A Friend To Vahni CapildeoIn this episode, Forward Prize-winning poet Vahni Capildeo talks with us about the poem that has been a friend to them – 'Spring and Fall' by Gerard Manley Hopkins.Vahni joined The Poetry Exchange online, from their family home in Trinidad, as part of City of Literature - a week of conversations, reflections and connections presented by the National Centre for Writing and Norfolk & Norwich Festival.www.nnfestival.org.ukwww.nationalcentreforwriting.org.ukVahni Capildeo is a Trinidadian Scottish writer inspired by other voices, ranging from live Cari...2020-09-2125 minThe Poetry Exchange51. Spring and Fall By Gerard Manley Hopkins - A Friend To Vahni CapildeoIn this episode, Forward Prize-winning poet Vahni Capildeo talks with us about the poem that has been a friend to them – 'Spring and Fall' by Gerard Manley Hopkins.Vahni joined The Poetry Exchange online, from their family home in Trinidad, as part of City of Literature - a week of conversations, reflections and connections presented by the National Centre for Writing and Norfolk & Norwich Festival.www.nnfestival.org.ukwww.nationalcentreforwriting.org.ukVahni Capildeo is a Trinidadian Scottish writer inspired by other voices, ranging from live Cari...2020-09-2125 min
Uncanny LandscapesUncanny Landscapes #2 - JR CarpenterAn interview by Justin Hopper with writer and artist JR Carpenter.
We spoke about her project This Is a Picture of Wind - a digital exploration of wind and language, now in book form from Longbarrow Press; about weather, climate change and imperialism; about mapping invisible systems, and about Vahni Capildeo's poetic response to Picture of Wind.
Links:
JR Carpenter's This Is a Picture of Wind (digital version)
This is a Picture of Wind from Longbarrow Press
JR's website
(Host Justin Hopper has a website, too; twitter...2020-07-1948 min
The Poetry Magazine PodcastA Conversation with Vidyan Ravinthiran and Vahni CapildeoDon Share speaks with Vidyan Ravinthiran and Vahni Capildeo about Ravinthiran’s essay on Capildeo’s work in the May 2020 issue of Poetry.
2020-05-2538 min
Two Minute Stories with Chris Neilan & Helen MortLockdown Episode 4: Vahni Capildeo & Michelle GreenTrinidadian-British poet Vahni Capildeo's poetry collections include No Traveller Returns (2003), Undraining Sea (2009), Dark and Unaccustomed Words (2012), Utter (2013), Measures of Expatriation (2016), which won the 2016 Forward Prize, and Venus as a Bear (2018).
Michelle Green's multi-award nominated short fiction collection, Jebel Marra, about her time as an aid worker in Darfur, is published by Comma Press. Her work has also appeared in the Comma Press anthology Protest! Stories of Resistance, on BBC Radio 4, and in Short Fiction Journal, with poetry appearing in numerous anthologies.2020-05-2400 min
Southbank Centre: Think AloudA fly’s-eye-view of Among the TreesJoin poet Holly Corfield Carr, exploring human and non-human ways of looking at and listening to trees, in this podcast from Hayward Gallery's Among the Trees exhibition.
Holly considers artworks by Giuseppe Penone, Robert Smithson, Roxy Paine and Mariele Neudecker, and interweaves her own words with poems by Vahni Capildeo, Emily Dickinson, Sasha Dugdale and Alice Oswald.2020-04-2100 min
Southbank CentreA fly’s-eye-view of Among the TreesJoin poet Holly Corfield Carr, exploring human and non-human ways of looking at and listening to trees, in this podcast from Hayward Gallery's Among the Trees exhibition.
Holly considers artworks by Giuseppe Penone, Robert Smithson, Roxy Paine and Mariele Neudecker, and interweaves her own words with poems by Vahni Capildeo, Emily Dickinson, Sasha Dugdale and Alice Oswald.2020-04-2121 min
Arts & IdeasWhen TV & the information superhighway were newNam June Paik made art with TV sets and imagined an information superhighway before the internet was invented. John Giorno organised multi-media and dial-a-poem events. Poet and New Generation Thinker Sarah Jackson joins Matthew Sweet to look at the visions of the future conjured up by these artists who were both interested in the influence of mass media and Buddhism. She's joined by artist Haroon Mirza and Tate curator Achim Borchardt-Hume. We dial a poet Vahni Capildeo and hear from Vytautus Landbergis, former Lithuanian Head of State and former comrade of Nam June Paik as a Fluxus artist.2019-12-0344 min
ProlesoundVahni Capildeo & Vivek Narayanan at St. Mark's (7.16.11)Vahni Capildeo writes both poetry and prose. Her fourth book, Dark & Unaccustomed Words, is due out this year. She is a Lecturer at Kingston University (UK) and Contributing Editor for the Caribbean Review of Books.
Vivek Narayanan’s first book, Universal Beach, will be published by ingirumimusnocteetconsumimurigni this spring; his second, Mr. Subramanian, is forthcoming. Narayanan is co-editor of Almost Island, and was a coordinator of the fellowship network at Sarai. His work appears in The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poetry and Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Be...2019-10-101h 40
Staying Alive: Poetry and CrisisEpisode 7: Living AbsencesIn this conversation with Trinidadian Scottish poet Vahni Capildeo, author of Venus as a Bear (2018), we explore the layered, polyphonous histories of the places we pass through and inhabit. Capildeo, who studied at Oxford, opens their collection with a series of ekphrastic poems inspired by items in the Ashmolean Museum’s permanent collection, part of the book's rich investigation into the material and immaterial persistence of the past. Last December, I met with Capildeo in London to talk about these poems and history as a reckoning of erasures, translation, and roses.
This episode features the poem “Heirloom Rose, for Maya” from C...2019-06-0732 min
Two Minute Stories with Chris Neilan & Helen MortTwo Minute Stories Sheaf Poetry Festival 2019 SpecialA special episode in conjunction with the Sheaf Poetry Festival 2019, featuring Vahni Capildeo, Warda Yassin, Ian Humphreys, Rebecca Tamas, Young Poet-in-Residence Georgie Woodhead and Rachael Allen.
Co-hosted by Mark Pajak.2019-05-1700 min
Scottish Poetry Library PodcastHappy 100th Birthday, Muriel Spark! With Rob A Mackenzie and Louise PeterkinMuriel Spark's 100th birthday was celebrated in 2018 in several ways honouring her status as arguably the greatest Scottish novelist of the twentieth century. One of the more imaginative ways came late in the year with the publication of Spark: Poetry and Art Inspired by the Novels of Muriel Spark, which was edited by poets Rob A Mackenzie and Louise Peterkin and published by Blue Diode. With contributors including Tishani Doshi, Vahni Capildeo and Sean O'Brien, the anthology does Spark justice. Mackenzie and Peterkin came into the SPL to talk about Spark and her career as a poet, from her...2018-12-1834 min
Faber Poetry PodcastEpisode 1: Emily Berry & Momtaza MehriIn the first episode, Rachael and Jack discuss talismans, teenage crushes and gateways to poetry with their studio guests Emily Berry and Momtaza Mehri and play audio postcards sent to them by Ocean Vuong, Natalie Shapero and Vahni Capildeo.
Here are the episode links and show notes.
The Faber Poetry Podcast is produced by Rachael Allen, Jack Underwood and Hannah Marshall for Faber & Faber. Editing by Billy Godfrey at Strathmore Publishing. Special thanks to Emily Berry, Vahni Capildeo, Momtaza Mehri, Natalie Shapero and Ocean Vuong.
Listen to this episode and subscribe now so...2018-04-1944 min
Waves BreakingInterview with Nat RahaThis month(ish) I got to interview Nat Raha! Nat Raha is a poet and trans / queer activist, living in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her poetry includes two collections countersonnets (Contraband Books, 2013) and Octet (Veer Books, 2010); and numerous pamphlets including ‘de/compositions’ (Enjoy Your Homes Press, 2017), '£/€xtinctions' (sociopathetic distro, 2017), '[of sirens / body & faultlines]' (Veer Books, 2015), 'radio / threat' (sociopathetic distro, 2014) and 'mute exterior intimate' (Oystercatcher Press, 2013). She's performed and published her work internationally. Nat co-edited the Radical Transfeminism zine, and is currently finishing PhD in on queer Marxism and contemporary poetry at the University of Sussex. http://sociodis...2018-03-2048 min
London Review Bookshop PodcastCambridge Literary Review 10: Vahni Capildeo, Drew Milne, Luke Roberts and Eley WilliamsFour of the most interesting poets working today read at the bookshop, to mark the publication of Cambridge Literary Review 10: Vahni Capildeo, Drew Milne, Luke Roberts and Eley Williams. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2017-10-1057 min
Tower PoetryTower Poetry 2017Peter McDonald, Vahni Capildeo and Sarah Howe discuss the 2017 Tower Poetry competition. Tower Poetry started in 2000 when a generous bequest to Christ Church, University of Oxford was made by the late Christopher Tower to stimulate an enjoyment and critical appreciation of poetry, particularly among young people in education, and to challenge people to write their own poetry.2017-05-1700 min
Seriously...Late ReturnsThe writer Nicholas Royle is a passionate supporter of libraries and a devoted bibliophile. As a young man his passion for books was so strong, in fact, that some of the books he borrowed from libraries didn't manage to find their way back to their homes on the library shelves. Now, over three decades on, Nicholas is finally doing the right thing and returning the books to the places he first encountered them - Manchester, Paris and London - hoping to avoid any hefty fines in his attempt to straighten his accounts. Along the way he considers his evolving...2017-02-1030 min
Scottish Poetry Library PodcastVahni Capildeo‘I write because I must,’ says Vahni Capildeo, winner of the 2016 Forward Prize for Best Collection for Measures of Expatriation (published by Carcanet).
‘I think poetry,’ she says, ‘is a natural expression of humanity that has not been brutalized – which is able to take time and concentrate.’
In this podcast, Capildeo discusses the impact studying Old Norse at university had on her poetry, how women's voices are silenced, and why she objects to the word 'migrant'.2017-01-2637 min
Medicine UnboxedWONDER - Vahni Capildeo - OTHERVahni Capildeo has published four poetry collections including Undraining Sea (2009), Dark & Unaccustomed Words (2012) – longlisted for the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature – Utter (2013) and Measures of Expatriation (2016).2016-11-2822 min
London Review Bookshop Podcast'Prac Crit' Poetry Launch: with Howe, Capildeo, Waldron, Villanueva and McLaneListen to this podcast of poetry 'up close' with 'Prac Crit' founding editor and winner of the T.S Eliot Prize, Sarah Howe. Four recently featured poets – Vahni Capildeo, Mark Waldron, R.A. Villanueva and Maureen McLane – read and discuss their latest work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2016-09-131h 13
Start the WeekLanguage and ReinventionOn Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe talks to the violinist Edward Dusinberre about interpreting Beethoven's string quartets. The sixteen quartets are challenging to play and appreciate alike, and have been subject to endless reinterpretation. The director, Mariame Clément, puts her own spin on the rarely performed comic opera L'Etoile, introducing two actors - one English, one French - to comment on the action. A missing interpreter is at the heart of Diego Marani's new novel, which combines the author's promotion of multilingualism with an interest in the relationship between language and identity. While the poet Vahni Capildeo, who m...2016-02-0141 min
London Review Bookshop PodcastCarcanet New Poetries VIOver the past two decades Carcanet’s New Poetries anthologies have been discovering the best new poets in English, and have provided readers with their first taste of authors such as Sophie Hannah, Patrick McGuinness, David Morley and Sinéad Morrissey. To celebrate the publication of New Poetries VI we hosted an evening of readings by some of the featured poets; Jee Leong Koh, Rebecca Watts, Joey Connolly, Vahni Capildeo and (our very own) John Clegg. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2015-07-0745 min