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.