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Writer and composer Tim X Atack performs a brand new commission, a soundscape mixed live in the studio inspired by the role of the mentor. For Tim, the best advice and guidance often comes in the form of a question. Tim designed the sound for Chris Goode’s adaptation of Derek Jarman’s Jubilee, which will be performed at the , and is this year’s winner of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.

American stand-up comedian Margaret Cho tells us what she learnt from her mentor, Joan Rivers; about the rhythm of her language and how to use self-deprecating humour. She also celebrates the comedy of Richard Pryor and the way he used ‘words as weapons’. As Margaret says, ‘sometimes it’s better to be offensive, rotten and raw’.

Sarah Howe delves into the famous mentor/mentee relationship between the poets Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop, examining their detailed correspondence questioning the use of the word ‘rump’ in poetry. Sarah also considers the role of the the critic as gatekeeper, and discusses a new scheme which will mentor poetry critics from BAME backgrounds – to encourage diversity in the world of poetry reviewing. Sarah’s T.S. Eliot award winning collection ‘Loop of Jade’ is published by Chatto.

Hollie McNish has been at the receiving end of some rather odd mentoring advice in the past, and this week she introduces us to a poet whose mentor died over 80 years ago. Rosy Carrick was so fascinated by the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and his poem ‘Cloud in Trousers’ that she taught herself Russian so she could understand him in the original. Rosy also reads her poem ‘Pain Specific’, and shares the best writing advice she has had – that we should not to be afraid to make ourselves seem ridiculous.