Poetry, music and identity with Sarah Howe, Emmy the Great and Solomon OB – books podcast

The winners of the TS Eliot prize and the National poetry slam explore the territory between lyric and music with singer-songwriter Emmy the Great

In this week’s podcast we investigate how words can be pitched between the page and the ear with three rising stars.

Sarah Howe, who won the TS Eliot prize earlier this week with her debut collection, explains how Loop of Jade was inspired by her search for identity as the daughter of a Chinese mother and English father. Singer-songwriter Emmy the Great explores her sudden rediscovery of her own Chinese heritage, and gives us an exclusive preview of her latest song, Yi-Fen Chou, which examines the controversy over the inclusion of a poem by Michael Derrick-Hudson in the 2015 Best American Poetry anthology after he adopted a Chinese pen name. And Solomon OB, winner of the National poetry slam, explains how slamming occupies the space between music and poetry.