In 2014 we chatted to the editors of Far Off Places, a young literary magazine, brave in its outlook and willing to seek connections between genres and art forms. Editors Annie Rutherford and Ceris Aston, and contributing poet Niall Foley, talk about submissions, creepy poetry tastes and the lure of merchandise.

Far Off Places was a magazine featuring creative writing and illustration which ran from 2013 to 2018.

In this podcast Jennifer Williams talks to Ilyse Kusnetz (1966—2016) who was visiting Scotland during the StAnza Festival 2014. They talk about when to put the poem in the closet, feminism and politics in poetry and what the Scottish Referendum looks like from across the Atlantic. Before her death in 2016, she taught English and Creative Writing at Valencia College in Orlando, where she lived with her husband, the poet Brian Turner. Ilyse Kusnetz was the winner of the 2014 T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry for her collection Small Hours.

Music by James Iremonger.

This podcast was recorded in association with StAnza, Scotland’s International Poetry Festival.

This podcast was recorded at-and in partnership with-the 2014 StAnza International Poetry Festival. Jennifer Williams talked to Jacob Polley about meaning and lack thereof, about resisting the idea of ‘home’ and about remaining open to possibility when you’re writing and much more.

Jacob Polley is the author of three acclaimed poetry collections, The Brink, Little Gods and, most recently, The Havocs, as well as a Somerset Maugham Award-winning novel, Talk of the Town. Born in Cumbria, he lives in Scotland where he teaches at the University of St Andrews.

Many thanks to James Iremonger for the music in the podcast.

Image: Mai Lin Li.