Wildlife

Tuesday, March 27, 2012 7:00pm  until  10:00pm Another amazing line-up. Another fantastic evening of the Absurd! One of the UK’s finest comic poets, Luke Wright, brings his own unique blend of satire, biting wit and original verse to our stage. His most recent show, Cynical Ballads, completed a sold out run at the Ed inburgh Fringe in 2011. “The best young performance poet around.” The Observer “One of the funniest and most brilliant poets of his generation.” Johann Hari, The Independent Mslexia's 'Literary It Girl', writer, journalist, editor, poet and film-maker, Susie Wild is taking the Welsh literary world by storm. Amongst other things Susie hosts the Uplands and Cardiff Literary Salons, is Associate Editor of Parthian Books, and the author of The Art of Contraception: long-listed for Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2011.    Chester-based poet, musician and troubadour Chris Ingram has a wealth of poems whose performances are enriched by a...

' ARMINTA WALLACE IS 2012 THE year of the short story? It certainly looks that way; as winter turns to spring, story collections are blossoming all over the place. One of the UK’s biggest publishing houses, Bloomsbury, is bringing out a book of short fiction every month from now until May; at the other end of the publishing scale, the tiny Irish publisher Arlen House has a whopping six collections in its spring pipeline. Already you can find Éilis Ní Dhuibhne’s  Shelter of Neighbours  and Adrian Kenny’s  Portobello Notebook  in the shops. Kevin Barry’s new book of stories,  Dark Lies the Island  , is due in April, Joseph O’Connor has a new book of stories on the way and, to top it all, the Dublin City Libraries One City: One Book choice for this year is James Joyce’s Dubliners  . So what’s the story? Is it all just a coincidence or is something new in the literary air?' Read More:  http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0225/12...

I’m right on trend, me. The Guardian’s Book Blog has an open thread about Performance Poetry this week that has tips for websites, places to perform and people to look out for:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/feb/21/performance-poetry-your-reviews?newsfeed=true Who do you rate?

I find I have been having a one step forward two steps back kind of time since blog one. Usually when I have an idea to do something, relating to events, I just go ahead and do them and then realise that I could have got funding, or pay, of free beer, or some help with setting up the stage/ sound/ lights. Useful stuff like that.

Beatrice and Benedict Published  Monday 20 February 2012  at  10:36  by  Susie Wild Berliotz’s last opera is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s playful comedy Much Ado About Nothing and, sung in English, is perhaps one of the more accessible starter operas around. The story focuses its attentions on the bickering lovers Beatrice and Benedict. In the introduction, it was explained that Robin Tritschler (Benedict) was recovering from a head cold. However, his ill-health did not adversely affect his vocal performance.

A new breed of radical publisher has emerged in recent years, with writers responding very quickly to current events. Here, some of their authors explain what marks them out http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/17/radical-alternatives-conventional-publishing

'After the phone hacking scandal it might be a bit perverse to suggest 2012 will be a good year for journalism. But this prediction focuses on a new type of journalism that's defying the decline of the printed press: data journalism. Like many innovations, the early adopters have been plugging away for some time - the Guardian newspaper's pioneering datablog is almost three years old. But as the first data journalism awards get underway, 2012 could mark its coming of age.' http://www.nesta.org.uk/news_and_features/12for2012/assets/features/the_rise_of_the_new_reporter

La traviata Published  Monday 13 February 2012  at  11:58  by  Susie Wild Originally to be called Amore e morte - Love and Death - La traviata (The Fallen Woman) was first performed at Teatro La Fenice, Venice, in 1853. Verdi’s ever-popular opera in three acts tells the story of hedonistic Parisian courtesan Violetta Valery as she falls first for the unobtainable Alfredo Germont, and then fatally ill with consumption. For 2012, Welsh National Opera has revived David McVivar’s careful, moving, traditional 2009 staging to take on tour. There are a number of firsts for the company here. Conductor Julia Jones, who works more often in Europe, returns home to Wales to make her first, elegantly effective guest appearance with WNO. Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury makes a decent debut with the company as Violetta, and a last-minute cast change owing to the indisposition of Mexican tenor Carlos Osuna sees Italian-American tenor Leonardo Capalbo step into the rol...

' A disturbing but fascinating precedent was set last June, when the New York magazine  Village Voice  "let go" of its distinguished critic  Deborah Jowitt , apparently on the grounds that she didn't write enough bad reviews. For four decades, Jowitt's coverage of the New York dance scene had been almost unequalled in its breadth and detail, yet the Voice decided her descriptive, essentially non-judgmental style was no longer suited to the times; most readers now want and expect star-rated verdicts on every show.' http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/feb/12/critics-notebook-judith-mackrell

Adam Mars-Jones, winner of the first Hatchet Job award for a book review in the Observer, reflects on his craft ' A book review is a conversation that excludes the author of the book. It addresses the potential reader. A reviewer isn't paid to be right, just to make a case for or against, and to give pleasure either way.' ' It always seems a good idea to quote freely from a book, to back up points with solid evidence. The only "bad" review in my book is one whose writing is soggy, its formulas of praise or blame off the same stale shelf. A reviewer and a critic play different roles, though the same person can take them on at different times. A critic has some sort of authority, a claim to long experience or deep immersion, a marination in a certain class of literary product. A reviewer has no necessary knowledge, even of other books by the same author – there's no shame in flying blind. If a book isn't rewarding to read in isolation, then there...

Bookish bits and bobs and other odds and sods I have read today, some are from the tail end of last week as I was playing in London town in So ho ho and the Groucho rather than at my desk. Linkage: Jonathan Franzen: Screen idol Novelist Jonathan Franzen, in conversation at the Hay Festival in Cartagena, explains his problem with e-books and reveals that he is writing a TV adaptation of his acclaimed work 'The Corrections’: ' Books are a bad business model.' Ebook sales are being driven by downmarket genre fiction Publishers face secrecy over sales and an absence of industry-wide data to help them plot strategy Self-published author society prepares to launch A non-profit body representing the interests of self-published authors will launch this spring. Author and former literary agent Orna Ross is readying the The Alliance of Independent Authors for launch internationally, with its website set to go live within weeks. She said: "We will be speakin...

Feb 02 Hello. Good Evening. Welcome. 0 Comments Posted by  Susie Wild  in  events , literature , poetry Greetings Readers. I have returned to the friendly familiar fold of the  Mslexia  blog for three months only. Roll up. Roll up. Read all about it. Some of you may remember me from a year of blogging as  Mslexia ‘s Literary It Girl (2010-2011). This time, instead of blogging about launches and literati parties, I shall be blogging about penning my first very own One Woman Show to take on the road, and hopefully to Edinburgh Festival. I went to Edinburgh Festival for the first time this year where I performed a few poems at a friend’s fringe gig and crammed in seeing as many shows as I possibly could. I loved it. I want to go back. Living in Cardiff, although there is a thriving literary scene, there has been a lack of spoken word solo shows and of big names including a stop in Wales on their UK tours. Lately, though...

People reviewing on TripAdvisor are incredibly petty, although mostly truthful. But is this what we want from all criticism?  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/01/tripadvisor-furore-criticism