Latest up from Spoken Label (Poetry Podcast) features the return of our friend Sarah James (also known as Sarah Leavesley ) talking about her new poetry book 'Darling Blue'.

Darling Blue interweaves ekphrastic poems with a book-length fictional poetry narrative of love, lust and letting go. The poems inspired by Pre-Raphaelite artworks include QR codes, which readers can scan to view the pieces after or alongside their reading. Blue here is more than a colour or inspiration; it is desire, secrecy and sorrow – the essence of ‘feeling / really alive’, yet ‘distance’s illusion’.

“A fascinating creative hybrid weaving ekphrasis and cohesive narrative, Darling Blue deftly balances its fictional speaker’s personal response to various Pre-Raphaelite artworks, with rich descriptive hints that resonate way beyond the mere visual. Exploring the complex tensions between the public sphere and private activities, this collection is a gallery tour of the narrator’s unfulfilling relationship with an unattainable partner, through to the ultimate redemption of self-worth and new love. James’s finely crafted and intelligently controlled poems brim with vivid imagery and lush sensory detail, reminding the reader ‘how brightly sunlight shines through // when freed from a cracked mirror’.”
Sarah Doyle, Pre-Raphaelite Society Poet-in-Residence

“James uses the lyric and ekphrasis to create a profound and moving collection on the cost of love; what endures and how we survive its wake. As vivid and emotive as its pre-Raphaelite sources, Darling Blue is also startlingly direct, eloquent and consoling on the things we find hardest to put into words. An unmissable collection.”
Luke Kennard

More details about said book can be found here;

https://www.sarah-james.co.uk/?page_id=17191

Latest up from Spoken Label features making her debut, Suzy Aspell.

Suzy is a Bedfordshire poet, living and writing in Luton. Curious about world cultures, she has worked in the travel industry for many years including repping in Spain and teaching ESL in Taiwan. Her poems are published in numerous anthologies, online and print magazines. Suzy also tutors GCSE English students struggling with ADHD and Dyslexia. She is passionate about art, politics and the planet and has a very pampered cat full of mischief and brio.

Her debut book 'Webstrung' is now out.

More details here:

https://poeticedgepublishers.com/

OR

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1917408056?ref=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_TTZ92CBDFTX850KXECZ5_1&ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_TTZ92CBDFTX850KXECZ5_1&social_share=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_TTZ92CBDFTX850KXECZ5_1&bestFormat=true

Happy New Year all folks!

Back with a bang, the first Spoken Label (Spoken Word Podcast) Podcast of the year features the Hongwei Bao.

Hongwei Bao (he/him) is a Nottingham-based queer Chinese writer, translator and academic. He is part of the Fifth Word Playwrights, GOBS Spoken Word Collective and Nottingham Playhouse Writers’ Room. He is also a Middle Way Mentee for writing fiction and a New Earth Theatre theatremaker. His work explores queer desire, Asian identity, diasporic positionality and transcultural intimacy.

Hongwei is the author of Dream of the Orchid Pavilion (poetry pamphlet, Big White Shed, 2024), The Passion of the Rabbit God (poetry collection, Valley Press, 2024) and Queering the Asian Diaspora (nonfiction, Sage, 2024). His short story ‘A Postcard from Berlin’ was a runner-up for the Plaza Prize for Microfiction in 2023.

Hongwei has performed poetry at Bad Betty Live, City Arts Nottingham, Dandelions Poetry, DIY Poetry, ESEA Authors LitFest, ESA NE Newcastle, Five Leaves Bookshop, Fluent in Both, Lighthouse Bookshop Edinburgh, Kif Kif Antwerp, Nottingham Central Library, Nottingham Poetry Festival, Nottingham Playhouse, Notts Poetry, Nowhere Netherlands, Paper Crane Poetry, Prague Pride, Shaded Writers, Speech Therapy, and The Common Press London.

Instagram: @patrickbao123

Bluesky: @queercomrades

Self-Portrait as a Banana can be purchased from here - https://amzn.eu/d/0GOtbOo