MS: The Long and Short of it

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 inventive. Multi-award winning New Zealander Eleanor Catton (The Rehearsal, Granta) and Desmond Elliott Prize winner Ali Shaw (The Girl With The Glass Feet, Atlantic Books) are also in the running.

The shortlist will be announced in September.

Forward? Me?

Another good week for Cinnamon Press. How to Pour Madness into a Teacup by Abegail Morley has been short listed for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. The title has been a winner from the outset – first winning the Cinnamon Press Poetry Collection Award. The collection is described as ‘a compelling first collection from a poet whose exploration of mental illness is acutely observed, wry, poignant, dark and humane.’

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I'm on the Edge Hill Short Story Prize long-list

'Some of the biggest names in the literary world have entered their works in the prestigious Edge Hill University's Short Story Prize 2011.' 'The unique accolade, now in its fifth year, is the UK's only literary award that recognises a published collection of short stories and has attracted entries from a number of distinguished writers and newcomers all competing for the winning title.' I'd be one of those newcomers then. Yay! http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/news/2011/03/big-names-revealed-in-edge-hill-short-story-prize Literature Wales ran a story too: Three Welsh Writers longlisted for Edge Hill Short Story Prize Three Welsh Writers on Long List for Prestigious Award Welsh writers Vanessa Gebbie , Susie Wild and Martin Bax are on the long list for the prestigious Edge Hill University's Short Story Prize 2011. The unique accolade, now in its fifth year, is the UK's only literary award that recognises a published collection of short storie

Gig Alert: Bad Ideas\Chemicals Cosmic Relaunch

I'll be reading a few poems at Lloyd Markham's event at the Full Moon with other performers and musicians... Come along! Here's the poster: Following that I will be giving a lunchtime reading at Can Openers in Bristol on 1 December, and then hosting and reading at Brown's Poems & Pints in Laugharne on 7 December... Then I'm taking a little festive season break before returning with gigs in Carmarthen, Bristol, Cardiff, Newport and more in 2018. Susie x

Buzz Blog: The Passion | Stage Review

> REVIEWS THE PASSION | STAGE REVIEW BY SUSIE WILD ⋅ APRIL 27, 2011 ⋅ POST A COMMENT FILED UNDER MICHAEL SHEEN , PORT TALBOT , THE PASSION **** Various locations, Port Talbot Fri 22 – Sun 24 April Cast includes: Michael Sheen, Matthew Aubrey, Nigel Barrett, Francine Morgan and Matthew Woodyatt. Michael Sheen became a Messiah of his home town over the Easter weekend with his leading role in a 72-hour epic retelling of The Passion, yet is was Port Talbot that was the real star of the show. For the sheer numbers in the audience (6000+), and national and international press attention The Passion is an ambitious event sure to go down in folklore. Two years in the planning and several months in community build up, National Theatre Wales joined forces with Cornwall’s WildWorks to create a multi-platform delivery of an age-old tale co-directed by local-boy-done-good Michael Sheen and the innovative Bill Mitchell . In this version of The Passion, poet and author Owen S

Wildlife

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