In this episode, I (Meesha Williams) talk to Stuart Barnes about his book of poetry, Like to the Lark, which will be released by Upswell on the 2nd of February 2023.

We discuss Stu’s life experiences that fed into Like to the Lark, the safety of writing in strict forms, and the fun of rebellion and experimentation in poetry.

Given the extraordinary attention paid to different poetic forms displayed so thrillingly in Stuart Barnes’s forthcoming volume Like to the Lark (February 2023), he has added this note at the end of the book. You can read it in full here.

Look out for Part II of our conversation, which will be available shortly.

The music in this episode is Mark Isaacs’s composition “Have one more” played by Simon Tedeschi, for the ABC recording “Tender Earth”.

Preorder Like to the Lark here.