Since I came to LeftLion 2/3 years ago, I’ve been delighted with how well the literature element of the magazine has expanded and how receptive Al Needham and Jared Wilson, the co-editors, have been to developing this particular area. At one point the magazine was music heavy and had, in my opinion, a rather biased view of what constituted ‘arts and culture’. You got the occasional author interview and an odd book review but generally speaking, wordsmiths were conspicuous by their absence. Now we are guaranteed one literature interview, three book reviews and three quarters of a page devoted to poetry from our forum, each issue. The lost teeth and bruises were well worth it!

Now that the magazine is more evenly balanced between the genres, the next natural progression has been to expand into podcasts. Our literature based one is aptly named the WriteLion podcast. These and others will correspond with the publication of the magazine. This way there is less pressure on me to keep churning them out and it also means we are able to promote and market them in the magazine and get maximum exposure. I’ve never really seen myself as a ‘voice’ and much prefer the anonymity of the written word, but it is a format that our audience evidently prefer given how many have downloaded so far. And of course, they may simply not like my writing…

One thing that the podcasts do offer that really appeals is the opportunity to talk to more people, particularly given the obvious space restrictions in the magazine. There is nothing worse than trying to choose between ten or so local authors for the one elusive slot, when so many, if not all, deserve a place. Pragmatics aside, there are other reasons for embracing this medium. Poetry, for example, is so much better suited to the ear than the eye because it enables the poet to emphasise particular phrases or words. This is often lost by readers who do not have a degree in punctuation and can lead to misinterpretation of works. Poems, by nature, are a lot smaller than stories and so perhaps benefit from the dramatics that speaking them aloud, allows.

You can listen to my first WriteLion podcast here Apparently I’m a cross between Alan Partridge and David Brent. Others say I should be presenting Classic FM. What can I say, it’s the first one and I’m doing it for the authors, man…See below for guestlist

• Jamie Rhodes discusses the screenwriting process at Donkey Stone Films
  Hhymn – ‘These Hands’.
• Ian Collinson announces the winners of the Nottingham Poetry Society performance competition.
• Rosie Gardner, Louise Ashley and Michelle ‘Mother’ Hubbard read their winning poems.
• Four fledglings from the Write Lion forum discuss all things literary
  Hymn – ‘Paper Trail’.
• Jared Wilson of LeftLion discusses poetry and hip-hop.