A Break in the Waves

  1. Aug 20

    The Shore Poets

    Recorded live at Push the Boat Out Festival 2025, this episode welcomes The Shore Poets - an informal but enduring Edinburgh poetry collection that has been creating a platform for poets, musicians and audiences since 1991.   Hosted by poet Christine De Luca, this special festival takeover features the brilliant eco-poetry of Karen Soli and Tim Cresswell, with live music from The Self-Righteous Brothers and in true Shore Poets tradition, the legendary lemon cake raffle.   Settle in and enjoy this celebration of poetry, music and community recorded live at Push the Boat Out Festival 2025.   Presented in partnership with The Shore Poets.

  2. Jul 23

    Top Doll - Karen McCarthy Wolf and Karensa

    Recorded during Push the Boat Out Festival 2025, this scratch performance took Karen McCarthy Woolf’s novel-in-verse Top Doll as its starting point. Described as ‘weird, wild’ and ‘unstoppably inventive’, Top Doll follows the story of a reclusive millionaire heiress, travelling from modern-day Park Avenue to the slave plantations of Virginia and the palaces of Imperial Japan via the addictive hedonism of 1930s queer LA – all told from the perspective of her vast collection of dolls. The performance marked the debut of a brand new collaboration between Karen and multi-instrumentalist and performer Kerensa, whose work moves fluidly between genres, including opera-inspired pop. Created as a scratch performance, it offered audiences at Push the Boat Out Festival 2025 an early glimpse of this exciting new creative partnership.

  3. May 21

    In Conversation with Len Pennie

    In this episode, recorded live at Push the Boat Out in November 2025, Len Pennie joins Festival Director Emma Collins to discuss her acclaimed collection poyums annaw, exploring themes of patriarchy, gender-based violence and social injustice through poetry and humour. Featuring readings from the collection and reflections on the power of Scots language, this episode offers a fierce, funny and deeply personal conversation.

  4. Feb 12

    The Mythic and the Familiar: Fiona Benson and Pascale Petit

    In this special episode, recorded live at Push the Boat Out in November 2025, two of the most compelling voices in contemporary poetry come together for a haunting and illuminating conversation, chaired by Jenny Niven, Director of Edinburgh International Book Festival. Pascale Petit and Fiona Benson – shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize seven times between them – read from and discuss their darkly beautiful latest collections, offering insight into the creative forces that shape their work. In Midden Witch, Fiona Benson enters a world of familiars, fables and hedge-magic, allowing the women accused of witchcraft to speak back across the centuries. Her poems give voice to artists, dreamers and outcasts, confronting the deep-rooted fears that surface in the face of the unknown. Pascale Petit’s Beast, meanwhile, roams through landscapes both mythic and familial, peopled with creatures that are at once intimate and untamed. Even as they question the possibility of survival, her poems insist on art-making as an act of defiance and hope. Together, in conversation, they explore myth, memory, wildness and the transformative power of poetry.

    The Mythic and the Familiar: Fiona Benson and Pascale Petit

  5. 09/10/2025

    On Fatherhood with Raymond Antrobus and Niall Campbell

    Becoming a father is not an easy process: the sleepless nights and burden of new responsibilities can weigh heavily. But amidst the challenges, there’s an untold joy that comes with meeting your child and discovering a new kind of love that can reshape your world. Raymond Antrobus and Niall Campbell have written extensively about fatherhood, love, and masculinity. Antrobus’s most recent collection, ‘Signs, Music,’ reflects on imminent fatherhood and stepping into this role, while Campbell’s collections ‘Noctuary’ and ‘The Island in the Sound’ are filled with the discoveries of what it is to become a father. Recorded at Push the Boat Out 2024. Recording by EHFM.

    On Fatherhood with Raymond Antrobus and Niall Campbell

  6. 06/27/2025

    Double Bill: Sasha Dugdale and Oksana Maksymchuk

    Contemporary poetry can challenge, explore uncomfortable truths, and bear witness to unimaginable experiences. In Sasha Dugdale’s new collection, The Strongbox, recent history and Greek mythology meet. Her varied cast of characters are abducted to foreign lands, travel through war zones, and are haunted by conflicts. Oksana Maksymchuk’s Still City reflects life in the wake of extreme and unpredictable violence. Beginning as a poetic journal kept from her hometime in Ukraine, 2021-22, it chronicles events as the poet, her family and community prepare for airstrikes, as well as nuclear, chemical and biological warfare. As part of Push the Boat Out in 2024, Sasha and Oksana discussed what it was to write poetry in times of conflict. The event was chaired by Alice Eaves through the ConVERSE Emerging Chairs Programme with the University of Edinburgh.

    Double Bill: Sasha Dugdale and Oksana Maksymchuk

  7. 04/29/2025

    Titans of Poetry: Caroline Bird and Ella Frears

    In partnership with the Forward Prizes for Poetry, Push the Boat Out brought together two poets who released razor sharp collections in 2024 to discuss their work. Caroline Bird’s Ambush at Still Lake shows us the ambush of real life that occurs in the stillness after the happy ending while Ella Frears’ Goodlord: An Email is a genre-defying book that takes the form of one long email, addressed to an estate agent. Chaired by Push the Boat Out Festival Director, Emma Collins.

    Titans of Poetry: Caroline Bird and Ella Frears

  8. 03/05/2025

    Behind Disrupting the Narrative

    Disrupting the Narrative opened Push the Boat Out in 2024 with a theatrical performance exploring Edinburgh’s heritage from the perspective of its colonial past and uncovering stories of the city that haven’t always been acknowledged. Behind Disrupting the Narrative is a discussion based on the performance that further explores how art can contribute to the decolonisation of our heritage and the importance of doing so. Curator of Discomfort at the Hunterian Museum Zandra Yeaman, founder of the Edinburgh Caribbean Association Lisa Williams, and poet and anti-racist campaigner Shasta Ali, join the former Edinburgh Makar Hannah Lavery to discuss Disrupting the Narrative and the decolonisation of Edinburgh’s past. Part of the Edinburgh 900 Anniversary programme.

    Behind Disrupting the Narrative

  9. 08/02/2024

    Songwriters Circle with Hamish Hawk, Karine Polwart and Inua Ellams

    Our latest podcast episode was recorded at our 2023 festival. Three hugely talented lyricists – rising indie star Hamish Hawk, Scottish folk legend Karine Polwart and celebrated cross-disciplinary artist Inua Ellams – come together to offer rare insights into the processes behind creating a song. What inspires the vivid imagery and metaphor in their work and how do they bring this into conversation with music? What do poetry and songwriting have in common? What is music able to communicate that words can’t?

    Songwriters Circle with Hamish Hawk, Karine Polwart and Inua Ellams

  10. 05/06/2024

    Poetry For the Many with Jeremy Corbyn and Len McCluskey

    Listen to our new podcast episode recorded from our 2023 festival. This month, Jenny Niven talks with Jeremy Corbyn and Len McCluskey as they read some of their favourite poems from their co-published anthology Poetry for the Many. This beautiful new anthology features wide-ranging poems that have moved and enlightened them and, they hope, go some way to democratising poetry. William Blake, Bertolt Brecht, Maya Angelou and Linton Kwesi Johnson are included, with contributions by Maxine Peake, Michael Rosen and Ken Loach, to name some. Expect heartfelt readings and conversation on socialism, language and love poetry.

    Poetry For the Many with Jeremy Corbyn and Len McCluskey

  11. 03/04/2024

    Marjorie Lotfi And K. Patrick

    Hear work from two new stunning debut collections from Scotland-based poets K Patrick and Marjorie Lotfi recorded at our 2023 festival. K Patrick’s poetry has appeared in Poetry Review, Granta and Five Dials, and was shortlisted for The White Review Poet’s Prize in 2021. Their debut novel, Mrs S was selected as an Observer Best Debut of the Year, and K was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelists for 2023. Their forthcoming collection Three Births manoeuvres through marriage and divorce, nature writing and 20th Century literary figures, culminating in the subtle but powerful message that we should be able to inhabit the body we want to and love freely within this. Marjorie Lotfi’s award-winning debut collection The Wrong Person to Ask is a book of two halves, each a meditation on home, both the places where we begin and end up in our lives. From a childhood in Iran dislocated by revolution to life in America and then Scotland, these poems ask what it means to come from somewhere else, what we carry with us when we leave, and how we land in a new place and finally come to rest.

    Marjorie Lotfi And K. Patrick

  12. 02/14/2024

    IONA LEE AND KIM MOORE

    To tell your story is to create it. In this double bill, Kim Moore and Iona Lee both share poems and lyrical essays firmly written from the female gaze. In All The Men I Never Married, Kim Moore reckons with the harms and coercions of being female in a male-dominant world. Moore’s 2023 collection of lyric essays, Are You Judging Me Yet? Poetry and Everyday Sexism, turns the spotlight onto poetry and performance itself. Reflecting on responses to All the Men I Never Married, Moore examines the dynamics of performing in public as a female poet. Iona Lee’s debut collection Anamnesis charts a descent into adulthood, exploring truth and taletelling, art and artifice. Characterised by a deep love of language, its music and its magic, Anamnesis reflects on memory, the future and other hauntings. In a world still set to undo and unmake the experiences of women, these precise and honest works are as welcome as ever.

    IONA LEE AND KIM MOORE

  13. 08/01/2023

    Double Bill - Alycia Pirmohamed And Eduardo C Corral (1)

    Eduardo C. Corral is a poet of many honours, awards, and residencies across America. A current teacher in the MFA programme at North Carolina State University, Corral is globally recognised for his harmonious blending of English and Spanish. Corral’s poetry is a tender exploration of history and sexuality, ensuring him a well-earned place on an international stage. Alycia Pirmohamed’s debut collection, ‘Another Way to Split Water’, reflects on so much: longing and loss, heritage, identity, and faith. Like the water which features so vastly in the collection, Pirmohamed’s voice flows and tumbles across the page. The winner of the Edwin Morgan Award, 2020, this poet is one ready to make a mark on the contemporary poetry landscape.

    Double Bill - Alycia Pirmohamed And Eduardo C Corral (1)

  14. 07/03/2023

    A Poetry Feast For Mythical Beasts

    Push the Boat Out Festival 2022 commissioned seven innovative poets to reimagine some of Scotland’s most famous and infamous mythical beasts for this event, A Poetry Feast of Mythical Beasts. Continuing a rich, global tradition of new writing which retells traditional tales of old, these fresh and dynamic perspectives pull our selkies and fairies into the twenty-first century. With Hollie McNish, Dave Hook, Katie Ailes, Ceitidh Campbell, Anita Mackenzie, Julie Rea and Calum Rodger, expect poetry which challenges the old stories, refreshing rap, and maybe even some dance. Each poem was supported by illustrations from our partner artists Neil and Charley from design company Púca Printhouse, creators of the beautiful map, ‘The Mythical Beasts of Scotland’. This event has been supported by the Gaelic Books Council, the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund, delivered in partnership between VisitScotland and Museums Galleries Scotland with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery players.

    A Poetry Feast For Mythical Beasts

  15. 06/01/2023

    Zaffar Kunial & Andres N Ordorica

    The amazing Zaffar Kunial and Andrés N. Ordorica perform live at Push the Boat Out 2022, in Summerhall's Anatomy Theatre. Produced in collaboration with EHFM. Zaffar Kunial has long been established as one of the UK’s most essential voices in contemporary poetry. A guide across countries and cultures, histories and memories, Kunial is a Faber poet who not only anchors his readers to the earth, but sets them flying high, too. Andrés N. Ordorica’s poetry has exploded into the Scottish literary scene. His graceful debut collection, ‘At Least This I Know’, is a journey through grief and love to find belonging: both as an immigrant person in new countries and as a queer person searching for a found family.

    Zaffar Kunial & Andres N Ordorica

  16. 05/02/2023

    Leyla Josephine

    The amazing Leyla Josephine performs live at Push the Boat Out 2022, in Summerhall's Anatomy Theatre. Produced in collaboration with EHFM.

    Leyla Josephine

  17. 05/31/2021

    Break In The Waves Kevin MacNeil

    Poet, novelist, screenwriter, essayist and editor Kevin MacNeil reads 'On a Plane That Is Like a Finger Pointing at The Moon', in Gaelic and English. 'Fleeting, physical, boundless...' Kevin's poetry transports.

    Break In The Waves Kevin MacNeil

  18. 05/15/2021

    Break In The Waves Rachel McCrum

    Welcome to A Break in the Waves, a moment of poetry brought to you by Push the Boat Out. Rachel McCrum is a poet, performer, and educator originally from Northern Ireland. During her 6 year stay in Edinburgh, before moving to her new home of Montreal, Rachel was BBC Scotland’s first Poet-in-Residence, a recipient of a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, and one half of the much loved poetry duo, Rally and Broad. Winner of the 2012 Callum Macdonald Memorial Award for her first pamphlet, The Glassblower Dances, Rachel’s first collection, The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate, is now available in both English and in a bilingual French-English edition. In today’s A Break in the Waves, Rachel brings to us an excerpt from her longer suit of poems, Clean Sheets.

    Break In The Waves Rachel McCrum

  19. 04/26/2021

    Break In The Waves Solareye - Recycling

    Break In The Waves Solareye - Recycling by Push the Boat Out

    Break In The Waves Solareye - Recycling

  20. 03/22/2021

    Break In The Waves Nadine Aisha Jassat

    Break In The Waves Nadine Aisha Jassat by Push the Boat Out

    Break In The Waves Nadine Aisha Jassat

  21. 03/08/2021

    Break in the Waves Esa Aldegheri

    Esa Aldegheri's poem 'Tone', recorded and posted to celebrate and acknowledge International Women's Day.

    Break in the Waves Esa Aldegheri

  22. 02/10/2021

    Break In The Waves Andrew McMillan

    Arresting visceral poem about sex and male desire from award winning poet Andrew MacMillan for Push the Boat Out, Edinburgh's International Poetry Festival

    Break In The Waves Andrew McMillan

  23. 01/20/2021

    Break In The Waves Roger Robinson

    Roger is a writer who has performed worldwide. He is the winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize 2019 and the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2020, shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry 2020 and shortlisted for The OCM Bocas Poetry Prize , The Oxford Brookes Poetry Prize, highly commended by the Forward Poetry Prize. His latest collection ‘A Portable Paradise’ was a Newstatesman book of the year. He was chosen by Decibel as one of 50 writers who have influenced the black-British writing canon. He is an alumnus of The Complete Works and he has toured extensively with the British Council.

    Break In The Waves Roger Robinson

  24. 01/07/2021

    Break In The Waves Janette Ayachi

    Janette Ayachi reads 'Adriatic Sea' for our series, Break in the Waves.

    Break In The Waves Janette Ayachi

  25. 12/14/2020

    Break In The Waves Tony Birch

    A new poem from award winning indigenous Australian poet Tony Birch's forthcoming collection (2021), Whisper Songs.

    Break In The Waves Tony Birch