Rippling Pages: Interviews with Writers

Rachel Mann and Eleanor Among the Saints

"Wounds, whilst they open us to the world...they can be points of infection." 

Welcome to 2024 and a new episode of the Rippling Pages. Rachel Mann is a poet, scholar, novelist and Anglican priest. She is Rachel Mann is here to talk about her new collection, Eleanor Among the Saints (Carcanet), which takes inspiration from the life of Eleanor 'John' Rykener. A trans woman, seamstress, embroider, and sex worker who lived in medieval England.

More info about the book here

This is Rachel's second collection after Kingdom of Love (also Carcanet - and which I reviewed here!)

The book is a Poetry Book Society recommendation and you kind find tickets to her launch here.

Tickets to the Carcanet launch of the book here: https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/events?showpage=913


This show comes with a content warning - we do talk about some sensitive topics, such as domestic violence, so please do take care of yourself when listening.

Rippling Points
5.05 - Poetry and embroidery
8.03 - What Eleanor's story,  and Rachel's poetry, tells us about embodiedness
11.45 - Society and Eleanor's story
14.54 - How details about Eleanor's life helped in writing the collection.
18.30 - 'Violence' in craft and the writing process.
21.45 - How themes of violence and the body converge in Rachel's poems.
28.20 - 'Fear' of working with heavy and sensitive topics

Reference Points

Gilles Deleuze
Umberto Eco

Jo Scott-Coe on the Life and Death of Kathy Leissner Whitman

"Kathy had a documentary impulse that is teaching us now."

Jo Scott-Coe returns to the Rippling Pages to talk about her latest book, UNHEARD WITNESS: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KATHY LEISSNER WHITMAN (University of Texas Press)

Jo is a previous guest of the podcast, joining us in Series 2 to discuss MASS (Pelekinesis), an account of Charles Whitman, the Texas Tower Shooter. 

Listen to that episode here: https://ripplingpages.podbean.com/e/jo-scott-coe-on-mass/

Now she returns to discuss a follow-up to that book, the story of Whitman's wife, Kathy Leissner Whitman.

This show comes with a content warning - we do talk about some sensitive topics, such as domestic violence, so please do take care of yourself when listening.

Rippling Points

• Returning to the story: where the last book left us (2:30)
• How Kathy's letters tell the story: Being with Kathy's 'intimate testimony' to tell her powerful and painful story (19:30)

Reference Points

• Sylvia Plath
• Evan Stark
• Jane Monckton-Smith
  
  

If you've enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop

 

Charlotte 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

Baron Wormser on Silence, Solitude and Shakespeare

"There was a lot of solitude quiet and silence, and I believe poetry exists in relation to silence."

Baron Wormser, a former National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim Fellow, is here to talk about his eleventh collection of poetry, THE HISTORY HOTEL, and THE ROAD WASHES OUT IN SPRING , an account of a poet living life off the grid. 


Tickets to Tom Branfoot launch that I'm hosting here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/boar-book-launch-tickets-733576425837

Rippling Points

• The rhythm of poetry, the poetry of jobs: how the different rhythms of the jobs Baron undertook in rural Maine influenced his poetry 
• A chance of tragedy: Baron's philosophy of tragedy, chance, and, ultimately, life

Reference Points

Charles Taylor - A Secular Age (Harvard University Press)
Baron Wormer - Teach us That Peace (Piscataqua Press)
Baron Wormser - Tom O'Vietnam (New Rivers Press)

Emily Dickinson
Robert Frost
William Shakespeare
Walt Whitman

Leslie Smolan and the Life and Work of Rodney Smith

"it took a lot of courage to keep going and channel that sadness and melancholy into pictures of such joy and exuberance "

Leslie Smolan, widow and creative partner of the photographer Rodney Smith is here to talk about a new book celebrating his life and work. 

A LEAP OF FAITH, with essays from Paul Martineau, Rebecca Senf, and Graydon Carter, is also packed full of Rodney's iconic images. It's published by Getty Publications (available here )

Leslie is a founder and director of the Carbone-Smolan agency. She met Rodney in the 90s and worked with him on his most iconic shoots. 

There's a whole host of events going on this week to celebrate A Leap of Faith:

David Campany and Paul Martineau will be in conversation at the Fashion Institute of Technology on the 27th September - But your tickets here

The first NYC exhibition of Rodney's work will be held at the Staley Wise Gallery, with a book signing launching the exhibit on the 28th September. More info here.

Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop

Rippling Points

In fashion: how Rodney transcended the genre to create timeless images
Hang on to your hats: Enduring and iconic motifs 


Reference Points
Ansel Adams
Wes Anderson
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Walker Evans 
Federico Fellini
René Magritte
Cary Grant
Alfred Hitchcock
Edward Hopper
Irving Penn
Tom Wolfe

Nii Ayikwei Parkes and Azúcar

"We live in a world where we increasingly want to control everything...I hope that in fictional spaces, the effort of trying to keep up becomes so much you eventually say, hey, let's go."

Nii Ayikwei Parkes is here to discuss his second novel, Azúcar, published by Peepal Tree Press.

How do we grow in...

Fictional spaces: understanding when we're not in control
Real spaces: understanding control and conditioning

Enjoyed this episode - why not send a small donation to support with the running costs! Thank you! - https://ko-fi.com/liambishop

Nii is also director of poetry publisher, Flipped Eye publishing. We featured Samatar Elmi and Katherine Lockton back in series one of the Rippling Pages for their new pamphlets. You can listen to those episodes here:

Samatar Elmi: https://ripplingpages.podbean.com/e/samatar-elmi-and-a-portrait-of-colossus/

Katherine Lockton: https://ripplingpages.podbean.com/e/katherine-lockton-on-paper-doll-flipped-eye-anniversary-part-1/