Latest up from Spoken Label features making her debut is the wonderful Saira Anwar (Saira the Poet).
Saira Anwar is an educator, poet, author, content creator, and spoken word artist. Her debut poetry collection, The Death of a Beautiful Dream, was released in January 2014 and went on to reach Amazon’s Top 20 Bestsellers list.Saira writes about the beauty and struggle of life with themes like marriage, divorce, healing, self-love, and emotional resilience, to help others heal through poetry.Her poetry has been published in twelve anthologies, and she’s performed at events including MACFEST with Professor John McAuliffe, Poetry Bonanza with North-West Poets, and Word Central. She’s also been featured twice on BBC Upload with BBC Radio Manchester.Her second book, Rising From Despair: A Journey to Hope, is a powerful and long-awaited follow-up, combining poetry, personal reflection, and space for readers to begin their own journey of healing.
Bonus Podcast today for Spoken Label (Poetry Podcast) with the return of Amanda Nicholson and Courtney Ward assisting me interviewing the return of Lee McShane talking about his debut poetry book 'The House built from Shadows'.
Lee McShane is a Neurodivergent actor, filmmaker, and published writer and poet from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. His work often blends psychological horror with themes of mental health, creating emotionally charged and thought-provoking narratives. His writing has appeared in All Your Stories, All Your Poems, and the PoeticEdge Fantasy Anthology. He will appear in the next anthology by Black Eye Publishing. He headlined Spoken Word Online in July 2025 and is set to headline an online AccessAbility Arts event.Lee's book 'The House built from Shadows' can be found on Amazon
Latest up from Spoken Label (Author / Artist Podcast) making his debut is Steve Schlam.
Steve advises he first gained entry to the City of Words through the doors of the public library in Brooklyn, New York, where he was born and spent a good part of his childhood; and has maintained his residency ever since while living in cities and towns across the United States and in Mexico. An actor as well as an author, he has performed on stages in all the places he has called home, and earned a Master's Degree in Creative Writing and English under the tutelage of Joseph Heller, renowned author of "Catch-22." He lives currently in Southern California in a pretty little Craftsman bungalow with orange and lemon trees growing in the backyard, in the company of his wife, Liora. His debut novel, "The Harvesting of Haystacks Kane," was released in March 2024.
More about Steve can be found at:
https://www.steveschlam.com/
Latest up from Spoken Label (Spoken Word Podcast) features making his debut, Ray Whitaker.
Ray advises he has been writing both prose and poetry since he was seventeen. What Ray is writing now is very different from what he wrote those so many years ago. All writers and poets are writing out of "the Self" however there are directions that the self speaks into, that change. Now Ray is attempting to put foremost in his work, just who he is writing for. He intends on writing for the everyday man and woman. He firmly believes that poems need to reach into the everyday person's pictures in their minds, and engage with those. This is where he aims to make a difference in his creative writing. Ray does readings around the state of North Carolina [USA], and is a member or the North Carolina Poetry Society, the Winston-Salem Writers, and The North Carolina Writer’s Network. He has thrice been a ‘Writer-in-Residence” at the North Carolina Center For The Arts and Humanities, at Weymouth, in Southern Pines,NC. He is the father of two daughters. Originally from the South, he now lives in Colorado, where he is seeking venues.
More details can be found at:
https://raywhitakerblog.wordpress.com/
Latest up from Spoken Label (Author / Artist Podcast) features making her debut, Catherine Holland Bax.
Catherine is the Author of Little Viking House and the Badger Resistance Army.
Catherine lives in Shropshire with two cats, several chickens, and three Icelandic horses. She created EponaWise to support her writing and her desire for better leadership in the world.
Catherine has always loved telling stories and has never stopped believing that she can talk to animals. So when she began to write her stories down, they had animals at their heart.
A graduate of the prestigious Golden Egg Academy, Catherine published her first novel, Little Viking Horse, in October 2021.
Little Viking Horse is based on the character of Catherine’s Icelandic horse, Fleygur, her detailed observations of her horses, and the horse-human interactions she has witnessed, which, sadly, are notalways positive. Inspired by Black Beauty, Catherine hopes that LittleViking Horse will promote greater understanding and empathy towardshorses, and hopefully people too!
Catherine’s second book, The Badger Resistance Army, was published in June 2025. Badgers are an iconic but often controversial animal. In The Badger Resistance Army, Catherine explores the threat to our wild habitats through the eyes of a badger, lives her fantasy of being able to talk to animals, and imagines a world where space is made for all to live.
More details at: https://eponawise.com/
Crossing with the Writing Way Podcast, Andy N and Amanda Nicholson fresh off the release of their books 'Threads and other stories of isolation (Andy N under his real name A.E. Nicholson) and 'Under the Manchester Skies (Amanda as Alicia Nicholls), the pair of them invite Courtney Ward, author of the forthcoming poetry book (Out Spring 2026) 'Nights like this' to talk about all of their books, what lend to writing this and so much more.
Courtney is on:
https://www.instagram.com/courts_ward/
https://substack.com/@courtneywardpoet
Amanda is on:
https://iamnotcalm.substack.com/
https://nowriteway.substack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/AmandaNicholsonAuthor
Andy N is on:
https://www.facebook.com/andynstorytellerpoet
https://andynartist.substack.com/
https://www.instagram.com/andynpoet/
Latest up from Spoken Label (Author Chat Podcast) features Deborah Weitzman making her debut to talk about her debut novel ‘The Sinking of the Leonardo Da Vinci’.
“The Sinking of the Leonardo Da Vinci’ is described as “Itis 1976, in New York. Joanna, a dreamy and sensitive young woman, suffers deep loneliness and a sense of never belonging. The world of music, of songwriting,draws her toward something deeper, if only she had permission to enter that world.
When she meets Luca, onboard The Leonardo da Vinci, her wildest dreams come true. He-the young navigator of the ship, rebellious and passionate-gives her that permission. They fall hopelessly in love, and against all odds, shetravels to Rome to be with him. When she arrives, he has drastically changed.
Never knowing what turned him so callous, this dark seed contaminates the rest of her life.
Back in NY, she runs into her former professor, Stuart, avisionary environmentalist, and they marry. Older than Joanna, he is her anchor and benevolent father figure. To never be burned again, she vows to stay far from the rocky shoals of passion. To keep that vow, she buries her creativesoul, her real voice, and her music. When Stuart unexpectedly dies of a heart attack, her unlived self awakens with a vengeance. Hoping to heal, she travels to the walking trails of Cinque Terre, where she unexpectedly reawakens bothpassion and comfort in her relationships, finding herself along the way.
Her book is on Amazon etc
Substack link:
https://open.substack.com/pub/deborahjeanneweitzman
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/deborahjeanneweitzman
https://www.instagram.com/deborahjeannew/
Her website is:
Latest up from Spoken Label (Author Podcast) features making his debut is Craig Snelgrove.
Craig Snelgrove is a writer from Manchester and a PhD in Creative Writing. Craig is author of the short story cycle Young Mancunians, and the creator of The Existential Reader and The Subtext: The Art of Storytelling. (Both available on Substack).
Latest Podcast from Spoken Label (Author / Artist Podcast) features Toni Sidwell from 96 Degrees, a newish coffee cafe set Eccles, next to Salford who talks about the creative / community projects which she is running / co-running at 96 degrees which includes running litter picking, a spoken word / poetry open mic and a writing workship among other things.96 Degrees is based near Eccles Bus Station and the tram station.96 Degrees can be found on facebook - 96 Degrees Eccles(https://www.facebook.com/themalagadrift)Toni is on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/kidwithcactus/They can also be also be found on Instagram and Tik Tok.
Latest up from Spoken Label, features making her return is the wonderful Julia Webb.
Julia advises "I was born in London but grew up on a council estate in Thetford, a small town in rural Norfolk surrounded by pine forest. Thetford is known for being the home of The Iceni tribe, the birthplace of Thomas Paine, the place where they filmed a lot of Dad's Army and (in the 1960s) as a London Overspill town.My ambitions to be a writer started when I was six-years-old and read The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton. I can trace my interest in magical realism, surrealism and love of language right back to the things read as a child - Dr Seuss, Enid Blyton, A.A. Milne, Tolkien and fairytales. However I left school (and home) at 16 with no qualifications and went to live in a commune. I continued to write short stories and poetry over the years, but with no real writing community I didn't really know how to improve them, and after my son was born I gravitated more towards art and printing while working as a pre-school supervisor. When I was 40 I had an epiphany of sorts and realised that writing was my first love. I quit my job and did a degree in creative writing at Norwich School of Art and Design (now known as NUA). After that I went on to do an MA in poetry at the University of East Anglia."Her website is: https://juliawebb.org/
Her new book - Grey time can be found at all of the usual places including - https://ninearchespress.com/publications/poetry-collections/grey-time
Latest up from Spoken Label (Author / Artist Podcast) features making her debut is Caroline England.
Known as the ‘Duchess of Dark Domestic Noir’, Caroline England is the author of seven psychological suspense thrillers, BENEATH THE SKIN, the bestseller MY HUSBAND’S LIES, BETRAY HER, THE SINNER, THE STRANGER BESIDE ME and THE RETURN OF FRANKIE WHITTLE. Her next thriller, BEHIND HER SMILE, will be published in November 2025. She also writes gothic-tinged psychological thrillers as CE Rose, namely THE HOUSE OF HIDDEN SECRETS, THE HOUSE ON THE WATER'S EDGE, THE SHADOWS OF RUTHERFORD HOUSE and THE ATTIC AT WILTON PLACE.
Caroline writes ‘scarily brilliant’, dark twisty stories that delve into complicated relationships, secrets and the moral grey area. Drawing on her career as a criminal and divorce lawyer, she creates characters who get caught up in extraordinary situations, moral dilemmas and crime. She guarantees a jaw-dropping ending!
To find out more about Caroline, visit her website or follow her on social media:
Website: https://carolineenglandauthor.co.uk
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4aC9BGe
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CazEngland1/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cazengland1/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cazengland.bsky.social
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cazengland1
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/carolineengland1
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-england-35888064/
Latest up from Spoken Label (Poetry / Artist Podcast) features Lee McShane.
Lee McShane is a Neurodivergent actor, filmmaker, and published writer and poet from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. His work often blends psychological horror with themes of mental health, creating emotionally charged and thought-provoking narratives. His writing has appeared in All Your Stories, All Your Poems, and the PoeticEdge Fantasy Anthology. He will appear in Rise of the Badger and the Great Shrubbery by Black Eye Publishing.
Latest up from Spoken Label (Poetry Podcast) features Mark Quinn.Mark is described as "I’m a poet, writer, and performer based in Manchester. My work blends humour, honesty, and heart — sometimes thoughtful, sometimes cheeky, always real. Whether it’s on the page or the stage, I’m here to connect with people through words."Mark's books can be all be purchased on Amazon and his website is https://markquinn.uk/
* Containing topics not suitable for everybody *
Latest up from Spoken Label, and the second part of a full length two part Podcast is with LKN.
LKN is a poet who won the UK's Wordplay Awards 2023. He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize (2023, 2024), T. S. Eliot Prize (2024) & Forward Prize (2025). He was part of A Given Grace by Squircle Line Press, winning the gold medal, both at America's eLit, and the Independent Book Publishers Awards 2022. LKN has been featured at literature festivals in Toronto, Nottingham and Singapore. His poems were showcased at History Channel's HistoryCon, Weiner Holocaust Library & the Poetry Society of New York, HCE Magazine's Fire & Dust and the Polyglot Magazine.LKN was 1st runner-up at 2019 Singapore Poetry Slam and a finalist at the 2020 Toronto Poetry Slam. He has performed as a busker and street performer in Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.https://heylink.me/thelknpoetry
Latest up from Spoken Label, and the first part of a full length two part Podcast is with LKN.
LKN is a poet who won the UK's Wordplay Awards 2023. He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize (2023, 2024), T. S. Eliot Prize (2024) & Forward Prize (2025). He was part of A Given Grace by Squircle Line Press, winning the gold medal, both at America's eLit, and the Independent Book Publishers Awards 2022.
LKN has been featured at literature festivals in Toronto, Nottingham and Singapore. His poems were showcased at History Channel's HistoryCon, Weiner Holocaust Library & the Poetry Society of New York, HCE Magazine's Fire & Dust and the Polyglot Magazine.LKN was 1st runner-up at 2019 Singapore Poetry Slam and a finalist at the 2020 Toronto Poetry Slam.
He has performed as a busker and street performer in Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
https://heylink.me/thelknpoetry
Latest up from Spoken Label features making his debut is Andy Farhan.
Andy Farhan is a Manchester Based Stand Up Comedian, Theatre Actor and Poet. Been a Theatre Actor for 3 years now. Been on the Radio 4x. Been doing stand up comedy for over 1 year and runs his own Stand Up Comedy Open Mic in Manchester.
Latest up from Spoken Label (Poetry/Spoken Word Podcast) features the return of our friend Anthony Doyle in a full length Podcast.Anthony Doyle was born in Dublin and raised in Wicklow, Ireland. He has been living in São Paulo, Brazil, since 2000, where he works as a translator of fiction, non-fiction and film scripts from Portuguese. In addition to short stories and poems, he published the children’s book O Lago Secou (Companhia das Letrinhas, Brazil, 2013) and the novel Hibernaculum (Out Of This World Press, USA, 2023). He is a member of the Old Scratch Press short-form collective.This Podcast talks primarily about his new book Jonahs Map of the Whale and other poems which is described as "Dive into the mythic in Jonah's Map of the Whale and Other Poems, a daring and dazzling collection from Anthony Doyle (author of Hibernaculum). In the submerged world of Flounder- part everyman, part flatfish-shipwrecked longing, philosophical wit, and lyrical precision converge.Doyle's sea-born metaphors shimmer with heartbreak, absurdity, and revelation across the tide pools of memory and myth. From underwater boathouses to data-streamed cubicles, Doyle threads ancient voices through postmodern pulses. Featuring Flounder, Blundra, Alex Iden Gray, and more, this collection drifts between high poetry and sly humor, from trenches of despair to flickers of grace. Jonah's Map of the Whale and Other Poems is a poetic deep-sea dive into the soul accessible to poetry and literature fans alike.
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