This week I chat to Newry-mawn and leading light of the Irish poetry world James Conor Patterson! James and I first met when I made "The Divil's Own" and he was kind enough to take part and recite a poem for us. We speak about criticism, politics, Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, mentors, aaaaaand I learned that poetry and comedy are much closer than I had imagined.James has won an Eric Gregory Award for bandit country in 2019, and his work has appeared in publications including Magma, The Moth, New Statesman, Poetry Ireland Review, The Poetry Review, The Stinging Fly, Poetry London and The Tangerine. A selection of his poems was recently shortlisted for The White Review Poet’s Prize. bandit country, his debut collection, was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2022 and the 2023 John Pollard International Poetry Prize, and longlisted for the 2023 Michael Murphy Memorial Prize. Conor Patterson’s journalism and non-fiction have been widely published in The Guardian, i-D and The Irish Times among others. He is editor of the anthology The New Frontier: Reflections from the Irish Border, published by New Island.