Michael Laskey, Michael Schmidt, Michelle Penn, Rachel Douglas-Jones

Michael Laskey has produced six collections of poetry since his first pamphlet in 1988. That was also the year he co-founded the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. His career in poetry which has seen him teach, edit, and publish and has resulted in him becoming this year's recipient of the King's Gold Medal for Poetry. As his Collected Poems is published, he looks back on charting his life in poetry.

When Michael Schmidt met Elizabeth Jennings, he was a student and she was a celebrated poet. As managing director of Carcanet Press he become her publisher. A relationship that endured until her final collection in 2001. In her centenary year, he talk about her distinctive qualities as a poet and shares his favourite poem of hers.

Michelle Penn takes inspiration from the Latin American iteration of the retablos art form for her new book - Retablo for a door. The poetry collection in part explores the female experience, but also turns its attention to subjects as varied as the first atomic bomb test, and Leonardo da Vinci's drawing, Vitruvian Man. She discusses why she found retablos such a useful creative aid for her poetry.

In Redacted: Writing in the Negative Space of the State, academic Rachel Douglas-Jones reflected on the poetic power of redaction to interrogate and understand the General Data Protection Regulations. She explains why redaction, currently in the news for its power to obscure, can also lead to revelation.

Presenter: Ian McMillan
Producer: Ekene Akalawu