Writing Durham

Pat Barker And Benjamin Myers

For the first episode of Writing Durham, Laura McKenzie is joined by two of Co. Durham’s leading literary figures, Pat Barker and Benjamin Myers. Booker Prize winner Pat Barker has lived in Durham for the past forty years, while Myers – who won the 2018 Walter Scott Prize – grew up in Belmont, a suburb of Durham City. Listen in as they discuss place, memory, and what calling Durham home means to them as writers.

Anne Stevenson

In episode two Laura McKenzie talks to Anne Stevenson, a major voice in British and American poetry. Born in Cambridge, UK, and brought up in New England, Stevenson lived a variously transatlantic life before settling in Co. Durham in the 1980s. Laura joined Anne in her home to talk about Durham’s shifting nature, and the different ways in which County and City have worked their way through her

Gillian Allnutt And Kayo Chingonyi

Gillian Allnutt has authored nine major collections and was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2016. She was born in London but spent half of her childhood in Newcastle upon Tyne. Kayo Chingonyi is a poet and critic whose collection Kumukanda won the 2017 Dylan Thomas Prize. Like Gillian he spent some of his childhood in Newcastle, and in this episode the two poets discuss how their shared experience of leaving and then returning to the North East has shaped their work.

Mim Skinner

In this episode Laura is joined by Mim Skinner, author of the poignant and darkly funny  Jailbirds and co-founder and director of Chester-le-Street’s multi-award winning community interest company REfUSE, which works to intercept food that would otherwise go into landfill. Mim has spent years delivering arts courses in prisons throughout the North East, and talks here about the women she met, their stories, and the systemic problems that underpin their experience. 

DBC Pierre: A Writing Durham Podcast

We are delighted to present The Long Cascade, an exclusive commission from Booker Prize winning author DBC Pierre.

Read the essay here.