Wildlife

I wrote a little something for Wales Arts Review about a visit to Kyiv.  Already so much has happened in the days since I wrote it, but thinking of George Szirtes' post Despite Everything yesterday and Charlotte Shevchenko Knight's piece for the Poetry Translation Centre 'In Place of Memory' , I share it now... 'Notes of Solidarity is a series of reflections on the #Russian war on #Ukraine by some of Wales’s leading literary figures. Here, poet and critic @Soozerama remembers a trip taken to #Kyiv in 2005 which happened to coincide with the celebrations of the Eurovision song contest.' Read the piece on Wales Arts Review For more information on the Russia-Ukraine war, including ways you can help, please click  here. You can follow all contributions to Notes of Solidarity from  Wales Arts Review   here.

A lovely mention on The Friday Poem today, listen to Sophie and Jonathan's podcast series if you haven't already! ‘My journey into contemporary Welsh poetry started with Christina Thatcher (How to Carry Fire, Parthian) and Susie Wild (Windfalls, Parthian), two women who write about grief, pain, transformation; using modern forms to unsettle, a strong voice to reveal deep vulnerabilities. In those first weeks before Covid became a noun, reading Thatcher and Wild proved cathartic, like lifting a leaded curtain.’  — Sophie Buchaillard talks about developing the Writers on Reading podcast with author Jonathan Macho, how poetry can be a real conversation between writer and reader about the emotional topics of our day, and about the future of Welsh poetry