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Poet, novelist and independent publisher Andy Croft champions poetry and the work of poets and reads some of his verse.

Croft runs Smokestack Books, an independent publisher of radical and unconventional poetry. He champions the unfashionable, the radical and the plain left-field. His list includes John Berger, Michael Rosen, Katrina Porteous, Ian McMillan, Kate Fox, Martin Rowson, Alison Fell, Sebastian Barker, Gerda Stevenson and Steve Ely. Croft is also author of seven novels and 42 books for teenagers, mostly about football. His verse play, Smoke!, about the history of Middlesbrough Football Club was shown at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His poetry collections include Nowhere Special and Headland, and he has given poetry readings across the world.

Here he talks to senior lecturer in American literature and director of the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre, Dr Niall Munro.

Presented by Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre.