Poems as Friends

The Poetry Exchange is an award-winning podcast and project that celebrates the role poetry plays in people's lives. In their first anthology, Fiona Bennett and Michael Shaeffer draw on ten years of archival material to bring together a collection of poems chosen by readers that know them as friends, presented alongside their personal stories of connection. Featuring Brian Cox on John Clare, Andrew Scott on George Herbert, Maxine Peake on Tony Harrison and many more, in this gathering of poems you can reacquaint yourself with old friends, perhaps make some new ones, and enjoy the companionship poetry can offer us.

Friends that offer connection and solidarity.

Friends that help us wrestle with difficult things.

Friends that name our experiences.

Friends that comfort and help us move forward.

Friends we admire.

Fiona L Bennett is founder of The Poetry Exchange. She has been working in theatre and poetry for over 30 years and has an MA (distinction) in poetry from Newcastle University/The Poetry School. Her own poems have been featured on BBC radio and in journals and anthologies across the UK and USA. Her track record of curating and directing text includes collaborations with The National Theatre, The Barbican Centre and The Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently creating the poem score for Then or Now, Ballet Black, featuring the poetry of Adrienne Rich.

Michael Shaeffer has worked as an actor across theatre, film, television and radio for nearly 30 years. In the theatre he has been increasingly drawn to working alongside writers on new pieces, and is frequently called upon to help develop new plays from the earliest workshop stages, originating leading roles in London Road; Girl From the North Country and most recently Grenfell: in the words of survivors. In television Michael has appeared in some of the major series of recent years including The Sixth Commandment; Bodyguard; Chernobyl; Game of Thrones and Black Mirror.

Together Fiona and Michael are the co-creators of the award-winning Poetry Exchange podcast.

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