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Mae Martin is a stand-up comedian from Canada. In her Fringe show ‘Us’ she examines labels, both those given to us and the ones we give ourselves, and explores the way we remember the things that were said to us when we were growing up. Mae has been keeping an Edinburgh Fringe diary for The Verb, charting the highs and lows of a comedian’s life during the three weeks of the festival.

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American poet Mark Doty won the National Book Award for his collection ‘Fire to Fire’. His new book, ‘Deep Lane’ (Cape), features nine poems all called Deep Lane. The title came from a real street name that began to haunt him – Mark explains why he chose to give so many poems in the collection the same name. He also discusses the impact of an animal presence in a poem, Ìýparticularly that of his dog Ned.

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Crime writer Denise Mina has just published her latest DI Alex Morrow book, ‘Blood, Salt, Water’ (Orion). For Denise, the naming of her characters is very important; she tells Ian why ‘Alex Morrow’ has just the right number of syllables. Denise is passionate about Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov and she celebrates his novel Black Snow – with readings from Michael Bryher.

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Will Pickvance is a pianist, storyteller and composer. He’s been performing a version of his show ‘Anatomy of the Piano’ especially for children this year. Will shares with us the delight of the children’s heckle – and explains why touring for him can be like going on a series of blind dates.

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