Okay, hello, how are you? Welcome to the Other People Show. I'm Brad Listy in Los Angeles. It's nice to be with you. This is a Sunday episode. I hope you're having a good weekend. My guest today is Rachel Long. She has a new poetry collection, her debut poetry collection,

out in the United States of America from Tin House. The book is called My Darling from the Lions.

And it was published in the UK by Piccador and was named a best poetry Book of 2020 by The Guardian.

It was also shortlisted for the Rathbone's Folio Prize,

the Costa Poetry Award, and the Forward Felix Dennis Prize

for Best First Collection.

My Darling from the Lions is about coming of age.

It's about femininity and divinity and black identity. Do you see what I did there?

It's about love. It's about relationships. It's about men behaving badly. It's got everything.

My Darling from the Lions by Rachel Long.

Rachel is from London, born and raised, and she is the founder of the Octavia Poetry Collective for Women of Color, which is housed in the South Bank Center in London.

It was delightful meeting her.

We had fun talking.

I think I kept her up late because of the time difference, but she was a good sport, and I'm

excited to share that conversation with you in just a moment.

Today's episode is made possible by Harper Books, publisher of Snowflake, the debut novel by Louise

Neeland, an international bestseller. Roddy Doyle calls it, quote, mad and wonderful.

This is a powerful and haunting debut by a very talented young writer from Ireland. Snowflake is a novel about love and family

and depression and joy and coming of age in the 21st century and I loved it. I read it. It is a delightful

book. It made me feel like I was in Ireland. It made me feel like I knew these people.

I was kind of on vacation in some way. It's a wonderful book. Snowflake by Louise Neeland,

available now from Harper.

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