This week Carcanet launches its latest podcast, an interview with Matthew Welton on his much-anticipated second collection. ‘We needed coffee but...’ has one of the – or the – longest book title of all times. Matthew Welton explains how he arrived at his unusual 101-word title and how his work has developed since his first award-winning collection, The Book of Matthew. Some of the work in his new book began as text pieces for art exhibitions or as song cycle lyrics. Here he discusses the influences on his inventive poetry, which include Raymond Queneau and Gyorgi Ligeti, along with his most recent work, writing an opera based on the life of Frank O’Hara with the composer Larry Goves.

Click here to listen to the podcast or follow along with the script by clicking the document below.