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Africa Oyé, Queer Poetry, Maggie Shipstead

Africa Oye, the free festival celebrating African music, turns 30. Maggie Shipstead, author of Great Circle, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. And 100 Queer Poems.

Africa Oyé, the UK's largest festival of music from the continent of Africa, celebrates its 30th anniversary in Liverpool's Sefton Park this month. Its Artistic Director, Paul Duhaney, discusses the festival's history and chooses three tracks of music that reflect Africa Oyé's growth and reputation.

What is a queer poem? Poets Mary Jean Chan and Andrew McMillan talk to Nick Ahad about how they explore that question in their new anthology, 100 Queer Poems - poems from across the twentieth century to the present day. It reflects the burgeoning range of recent queer poetry, and includes poets whose work is familiar, their queerness less so – Wilfred Owen, for instance.

Plus, Maggie Shipstead. In the latest of our interviews with authors shortlisted for the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction, Nick talks to the author of Great Circle - the imagined life of a freedom-seeking woman pilot who embarks on a flight around the globe in 1950. It was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Photo: Africa Oyé, 2014. Credit: Mark McNulty

Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

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42 minutes

Last on

Mon 6 Jun 2022 19:15

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  • Mon 6 Jun 2022 19:15

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