ABL 141: Richard O’Brien on The Dolphin House, Poet Laureateship, Music, and Form

Richard O’Brien discusses his new collection, The Dolphin House, a poetic exploration of “a failed NASA research project to teach a dolphin the English language in a flooded apartment on a Caribbean Island.”  He introduces us to this strange and compelling story and the people involved, and reads from the collection, while also discussing his other poetic hats, including his tenure as Poet Laureate of Birmingham (2018-20), which features the first public reading of his poem written for Warstone Lane Cemetery.  We also hear about the benefits of poetic forms, the relationship between indie music and poetry, and visual and material elements of printed poetry pamphlets (by way of Broken Sleep Books and the Emma Press).