Latest Spoken Label (Author / Writer Podcast) session features from Platt Bridge, Gareth Ellis. Gareth is from Platt Bridge, Wigan and his bio says "Gareth started writing a few years ago. Initially, it was a means to get a story that was in his head down on paper, but quickly found that he enjoyed the process of writing and creating a world. It also helped him cope with some of the ups and downs involved in his bipolar. He is a multi-genre author so far releasing books relating to horror and sci-fi. When he's not writing, he enjoys reading, gaming and Lego." His Website is - https://garethellis.co.uk/
Latesty from Spoken Label (Author/Artist/Poet Podcast series) features the return of our wonderful friend, Leila Ziari talking about her second poetry book "Seaside Serenades: The Ocean in Haiku" The book is described as "Seaside Serenades: The Ocean in Haiku" is the poetic chronicle of an intense love affair with the ocean, the secret lover and source of inspiration for many artists. Leila Ziari’s collection of haikus will transfer you through the rivers of time, love, and passion while you bear witness to the ocean’s ever-changing, awe-inspiring nature. With her soothing, resonating poems, Ziari will remind you of your own memories of the ocean and make you long to reunite with it. Do you remember how far the ripples of the water extend? What’s beneath lies the surface of such immaculate depths? " More about Leila can be found at: https://leilaziari.com/
Latest up from Spoken Label (Author / Artist / Poet Podcast) features the wonderful Rebecca Phythian. Rebecca is a actor, singer, poet and co-founder of Blue Balloon Theatre among other things. She also has a collection of poetry due out from Bent Key Publishing 'Perfect Mess' at the start of 2023. More about Rebecca can be found at the following links among other things: linktr.ee/RebeccaPhythian?fbclid=IwAR2M7yJf59kok6T_v1OHPPTAq-QKMxrVlEL_ur3P8fse8z3PETZiU5HTWs4 www.spotlight.com/9813-5643-0220 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfz3l_K3VH2KorpnqYsfRJsSpHuKhu3nfKG8JCeN9wC_EBokg/viewform www.blueballoontheatre.com www.facebook.com/RebeccaPhythian16/ www.instagram.com/rebeccaphythian/ www.instagram.com/blueballoonmcr/
Latest up from Spoken Label (Our Poet/Artist/Writer Podcast) features our returning friend, Sarah James also known as Sarah Leavesley to talk about her latest poetry collection from Verve Poetry Press "Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic" The book is described as "Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic is award-winning poet Sarah James’s exploration of 40 years living with type one diabetes, a life-threatening autoimmune condition that is now treatable, but remains incurable. The collection tracks her personal journey from diagnosis, age six, to adulthood, including the high and the low points, as well as the further long-term health risks lurking in the background. These are poems of pain, but also of love and beauty, taking in motherhood, aging and establishing self-identity in a constantly updating world. The route to some kind of acceptance and belonging may be troubled by ‘trying to escape’ but it also ‘holds | more light than your eye | will ever know’ ‘Sarah James’ Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic compellingly conveys the journey of a life pervaded by type one diabetes and the myriad struggles of that hidden disability. It’s a world of sunlit fields and night sweats, “doorstep birdsong” and pricked fingertips, at once arduous and munificent. Always engaging and often moving, James’ poems deftly immerse as well as inform, urging a deep appreciation of life’s plenty, “breath[ing] in the sky.’ – Carrie Etter “These poems speak with such urgency and humanity that we take the deeply researched science (and magic) in our stride, then get pulled up short by its failure to ‘make sense of unfairness’. It’s an exhilarating, poignant collection combining raw honesty with impressive craft. The way ‘the world shrinks’ in personal hardship and the sheer and constant work it takes to open it up again. I feel more awake and alive for reading it.” – Luke Kennard “Sarah James’s fine poems are wonderfully abundant in experiment, energy, and expression. She has a remarkable sense for how the self-discipline of illness—like art—can release and shape the language of wonder, wisdom, and love.” – David Morley" More about Sarah can be found at: https://www.sarah-james.co.uk/ NB. As a P.S. and recorded after the poetry session of the Podcast - there is a bonus poem recorded - "How to become your own worst friend".
Returning to Spoken Label after a long break are two dear friends (off) ours the wonderful Chelsea Tadeyeske and Edie Roberts who we met in Manchester years back (speaking to us from the Gamli Skoli Residency on Hrisey Island) in Iceland Chelsea Tadeyeske is a poet, performer, and bookmaker from and currently based in Milwaukee, WI. She is the founding editor of pitymilk press where she publishes short-run chapbooks and edits both online and print journals. Edie Roberts is a multi-disciplinary genderqueer performer and curator living in Detroit, MI. More about both can be found at: https://edieroberts.wordpress.com/ https://chelseatadeyeske.wordpress.com/
Latest up from Spoken Label features a special Podcast with Kimberley Goldie aka The Lancashire Wellness Witch. In this very special Podcast we talk to Kimberley about her work in the NHS and how it has now led to her work as the Lancashire Wellness Witch where in her own words about the services she offers "to help people be happier, healthier and take charge of their own wellbeing. And I aim to do this as naturally as possible, with just a little sprinkle of Lancashire magic!" More about the Lancashire Wellness Witch can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/lancashirewellnesswitch/ She also has a website at: https://the-lancashire-wellness-witch.sumup.link/ and a instragram page at: https://www.instagram.com/the_lancashire_wellness_witch/
Latest Spoken Label session (Spoken Word / Poetry / Author) session features the wonderful Nick Toczek. Born in Yorkshire in 1950, Nick has been writing since he was a child, began getting his poetry published in his mid-teens, did his first public readings when he was nineteen, and had his first collection of poetry published when he was twenty-one. Since then, he’s done more than fifty thousand performances and presentations, has worked in more than forty countries, has published more than forty books, and has never had a ‘proper job’. More about Nick can be found at: https://www.nicktoczek.com/
Latest up from Spoken Label features newcomer to the spoken word scene, previously from Stafford but now based Manchester, flash fiction writer Scott Hall. More about Scott Hill can be found at: https://www.instagram.com/hozart_heron/
Latest Episode from Spoken Label (Author/Poet/Storyteller Podcast) features the storyteller Mark Jackson. Mark's bio says "In 2010 Mark started writing. After the initial euphoria of finding an outlet for that creative fire burning within since childhood, he soon realised that the world wasn't quite ready for his tales of Ian Brown drinking piss, cocaine induced paranoia, The Stockholm Monsters, the inner workings of a massage parlor, of pretending to be Norman Whiteside in Las Vegas, selling snide football programs outside the Nou Camp, of being arrested wearing someone else's jeans and one about an auntie who looks a bit like Clint Boon. He’s written non-fiction pieces for Vice website (which were really fiction - but they don't know that), a regular contributor to United We Stand Fanzine and occasionallyy reads at spoken word events around Manchester and Liverpool" His website is: https://www.keithsbrother.com/ His Pod Play 'Sunday Morning Coming Down' can be accessed via his website or found on Spotify, Itunes/Apple or Google Podcast.
Latest up from Spoken Label (Poetry / Author / Artist) Podcast features Melissa Sussens (she/her). Melissa is a queer South African veterinarian and poet. Her work has appeared inCapsule Stories,Horse Egg Literary,Kissing Dynamite,SFWP QuarterlyandAnti-Heroin Chic, among others. She was runner up for theNew Contrast National Poetry Prize. By day she works as a small animal veterinarian and whenever she’s not doctoring animals, she assists in teaching Megan Falley’sPoems That Don’t Suckinternational online writing course. Melissa lives in Cape Town with her wife and their two dogs. Find her on Instagram @melissasussens and on Twitter @girlstillwrites.