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Mona Arshi is our first ‘Podcast Poet’ in a brand new series available only on as an extra interview on the podcast Verb. Mona is the winner of the 2015 Forward Prize Best First Collection award for ‘Small Hands’ (Pavillion). Mona takes us deep inside the book, with a close examination of her poem ‘The Daughters’, and makes a case for the need to consider ‘form’ when writing poetry.

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Candace Bushnell, author of the ‘Sex and the City’ column which became an international phenomenon, shares her love for Evelyn Waugh’s darkly humorous ‘A Handful of Dust’, calling it the book that made her a writer. Candace was so immersed in English fiction when she was growing up, that she found herself longing to attend boarding school. Her latest novel is ‘Killing Monica’ (Little Brown)

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Although Christopher has been described as ‘part politician, part shaman, part sociologist, part healer….an entertainer ’ (Guardian) – Ìýhe is best known for his performances as characters such as country-singer Tina C and hip-hop pensioner Ida Barr. A virtuosic writer, Christopher Green shares a new song, commissioned especially for The Verb, in which he responds to the work of American poet Anne Sexton. The song is also inspired by the experience of rediscovering one of his own poems about Sexton, written when he was in his early twenties. The actor Melissa Sinden also joins Christopher for this performance. Christopher's new bookÌý'Overpowered! The Science and Showbiz of Hypnosis (British Library)Ìýis out later this monthÌý

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Joe White is a playwright, writer-in -residence at Pentabus, and one of this year’s ‘Writersroom 10’ (emerging, talented writers mentored by the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Writersroom in partnership with UK theatres). ÌýHe discusses ‘Temples’, the first in a new commissioned series of Verb short dramas, on the theme of ‘Revolution’ . Joe explains why he wanted to explore the language of spirituality in a supermarket setting.

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Will is a Next Generation Thinker and a regular on The Verb. In the first in a new series on the evolution of language in fiction, Will is looking at the idealists. He takes us through the writers who thought that language should run as efficiently as a machine, from Descartes to Tolkein. Will’s latest book is’ English Fiction and the Evolution of Language’ (Cambridge University Press)