Wildlife

JULY 2010:  Dates and Types… …etting. Yes folks. I have just seen The Art of Contraception in all its typeset loveliness. It looks LIKE A BOOK. Who’d've thunk it? I’m well chuffed. Which must mean it is nearly ready to get printed and actually be a book. Out there. In the big bad world. Where you lucky people can read it, or use it to fix that wobbly table. Or look at it on your iPad. Posh. I have more news. We are having several Bright Young Things book launches. In Wales and in London town. I don’t have the dates for all of them, but here are two dates for your diary: 17 th  September  SWANSEA . This is a three-pronged event of wonder that will begin with a book signing in a place I used to work, the beautiful Waterstone’s on Oxford Street, continue to another place I used to have an office, The Dylan Thomas Centre for the actual launch proper and finish off in an after party of some boisterous kind. 24 th  September  BANGOR .  That is all I know. We are ...

BY  SUSIE WILD   ⋅  JULY 25, 2010  ⋅   POST A COMMENT FILED UNDER    CERI RICHARDS GALLERY ,  SEAN TAYLOR ,  SWANSEA ,  TALIESIN ARTS CENTRE Ceri Richards Gallery, Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea 23 July – 21 August ★★★☆☆ Taliesin clearly like Sean Taylor. ‘Where the Sky meets the Sea’ is the contemporary marine painter’s second exhibition at the gallery. Inspired by St Ives, Cornwall, the 42 summer bright coastal scenes explore the vibrancy of seaside living using a bold colour palette. The landscape becomes a Hansel and Gretel fantasia; a patchwork of deck chair striped fields and rounded polka dot trees. To me, the works bring to mind waxy Batiks. A strong compositional style and clashing lollipop hues depict sea gulls and cats perching upon roof tops, boats bobbing in harbours, fisherman’s cottages, Mr Punch at the beach, mermaids taking a starlit dip.

BY  SUSIE WILD   ⋅  JULY 25, 2010  ⋅   POST A COMMENT FILED UNDER    ART GALLERY ,  SWANSEA ,  UPLANDS A new gallery/shop going by the name of  The Shed  has transformed the former Blockbusters in Uplands Swansea. Launch night, a little behind schedule, was on Friday and, saw many of the art scene movers and shakers sipping the sangria, devouring the tasty cakes and perusing the art and crafts on sale. Some people bought work, others spilled out onto the sunny pavement area outside and nattered. All had a good time. Artists, creatives and makers can hire out a display cabinet or bit of wall space to show for cheap and sell their work. If you’d like your work to appear in The Shed contact them with your proposals here: the_shed_gallery@yahoo.co.uk. For opening week they were offering half price rental rates to students. With the upstairs Noah’s Yard gallery also about to open across the road (it’s lovely, I’ve had a sneak peak) the...

JULY 2010 T-R-A-P-E-Z-E Wow! I had a trapeze lesson with the amazing NoFit State Circus. Read all about how I got on in next month’s  Buzz Magazine.  Until then, why don’t you… come to Milgi’s, Cardiff for the  Oxfam Readathon  from 6pm tomorrow. See you there 

Caroline Bird Happy Friday Ladies. In need of a new reading list? You can’t go far wrong with the third longlist for the now annual  University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize ; announced earlier this week. Rachel Trezise and Nam Le have taken the gong previously. Standards are high. This year the seven-strong panel of judges chaired by Hay Literature Festival founder Peter Florence has  selected 16 literary works , which includes poetry, novels and a play. The £30,000 prize is open to any published writer in the English language under the age of 30 and the 2010 longlisted writers span four continents with five hailing from the UK. I’m over the moon for English poet  Caroline Bird , now aged 23, who was shortlisted for the 2008 University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize, is once again in contention for the award with  her third collection of poems,  Watering Can  (Carcanet) . She has to be  one of my favourite poets  of the day — witty, acerbic and inv...

Tyler Keevil Terry Hetherington Awards I returned to Swansea from my travels around the South West just in time to attend the third memorial evening for the late Neath writer Terry Hetherington on Wednesday 7 July. The evening, hosted by the  Dylan Thomas Centre , saw readings and tributes from his friends, and doubled as the award night for the second Terry Hetherington Bursary to a promising young writer from Wales. I went along to support my  fellow Bright Young Thing Tyler Keevil  (mid-Wales) who was granted Joint Second Place for his short story alongside the poetry of  Anna Lewis  (Cardiff). Team  Parthian Books  were all absent on their summer holidays, so it seemed only fair. Plus I really enjoy Tyler’s readings and it was a shame to have to wrap up the night early, all winners at the mercy of train timetables. The judges, led by Terry’s long-time partner Aida Birch, were impressed by the quantity and quality of the entries. Jonathan Edwards ...

JULY 2010 Once Upon A Time… Hey BYT followers, how goes it? I am in sunny Cornwall visiting relatives, reading, writing, and indulging in some beach time post-Glastonbury. Much needed R&R and work backlog catch up. My nan is trying to triple my size with huge meals and clotted cream, but I’m yet to have a PROPER Cornish pasty, so shall have to venture into the village soon to remedy this. Yum. Glastonbury was a fantastic way to celebrate my birthday, not least because the sun shone for all 10 days that I was there and Stevie Wonder sang Happy Birthday just to me, honestly, he did… well me and the rest of the HUGE crowd! (Amazing, nonetheless). But also because I got to see some brilliant shows. Florence and the Machine was THE highlight for me, amazing outfit, heartfelt performance, much dancing and jumping up and down. Followed by her duet with Dizzie R. on the Pyramid Stage. I watched Steve Harley just for the Smile song, and he delivered which made me smile too. As a HUGE Kinks...

Hello Summer! After storytelling my way through a heat wave of a Glastonbury Festival  I’m now spending some time by the sea in Cornwall reading, writing and celebrating relative’s birthdays — we are a family of many cancerians — from my own, to my Film-Star-Glamourous Nan’s 80th. Wales must be missing me, but fear not readers, I am still in the loop of literary happenings there. Let me fill you in on the news… And the winner is… Philip Gross won Wales Book of the Year 2010 for  I Spy Pinhole Eye (Cinnamon Press), a collaborative work between poet (Gross) and photographer (Simon Denison)! Certainly a good year for the man on the prizes front. The poet was presented with the £10,000 prize by Minister for Heritage Alun Ffred Jones at a glitzy ceremony at the St David’s Hotel in Cardiff Bay on Wednesday 30 June. The runners up on the English-language Short List were Terri Wiltshire for her novel  Carry Me Home  (Macmillan) and Nikolai Tolstoy’s  The Compilation of ...