Wildlife

There's a lovely review of Windfalls in the new issue of Poetry Wales ...  ‘Windfalls, Wild’s second collection, delivers another deft, witty, and heartwarming series of poems… Wild writes of overgrowth, decay, and the curious beauty and distraction of these things, as a neighbour’s overgrown fruit tree bombards the speaker's garden… This contrast between the fascination of the untamed and the mundane – bills, meals, old relationships – is a golden thread that passes through the poems within Windfalls.’ – George Sandifer-Smith Get your hands on a copy from the Poetry Wales website Submissions are also open until the end of the month, so send some poems in if they fit the theme!

  A thanksgiving meeting of editors! ☔ I am so glad I braved all the weather for a gorgeous catch up with these two poets, stars and editors while Zoë is over from the States...  and I received my first festive gift of the year. A lovely time had by all!🎄 ID: Zoë and Peter on one side of a restaurant table, Rhian and Susie on the other.

I had a wonderful time in Tenby this week, where the weather was less storm, more showers and double rainbows. This allowed me to stroll along the shore some of the time without being blown away, to explore the fort, and to do some research and scribbling with a wild-mood-swings sea view. As well as launching Celine's Soho Salon anthology by reading some poems at Tenby museum.  You'll find a few more photos on Instagram, but this one is a favourite from my mini-creative-getaway!

In this brand new interview episode , poets George Sandifer-Smith and Mari Ellis Dunning join Sophie and Jonathan to discuss their latest collections, Empty Trains (Broken Sleep) and Night Travel at the Right Speed (Infinity Books) from George, and Pearl and Bone (Parthian) from Mari, and how they were able to process their lockdown experiences through their work. As Mari's editor, I have worked on both her full collections with Parthian, so I recommend you listen for wonderful readings from Pearl and Bone and also for George who talks about not one but two poetry books that he has recently released.  George was also very kind, giving Windfalls a shout out. He's recently reread the collection in his capacity as the new Reviews Editor at Poetry Wales and a piece about it will appear in the new winter issue. He said: ‘Also, recent things that I’ve read that I loved ...  Windfalls was just spectacular, so musical in its use of free verse, and so much colour in it, such a wond...

  … and my last gig of the year (probably)! Come along to Storyville Books in Pontypridd on the 30th for the next instalment of Voices on the Bridge where I’ll be reading with other great people and there will also be wonderful music from Ben.

 

 Thanks to Tracey Rhys for these two lovely photos from The Swansea Fringe where I was hosting an event with Emily Cotterill and Mari Ellis Dunning on Sunday at COPR Bar, and I also read a few poems... Thanks also to all who braved the weather and came along and to Joe and the rest of the festival team and to Lee at COPR Bar for having us! Here are some of my favourites who stayed for a catch up after... Also, the weather meant my hair was firmly under a hat / in plaits for most of the weekend, but it did start out looking nice... so as I photographed this rare good hair day... here's evidence! I'm a right curlylocks again at the moment... which means it is rare they tame themselves nicely...

If you missed Celine's radio show, giving a sneak preview of this Thursday's Tenby launch of the new Celine's Soho Salon anthology, you can listen again here  ... my two poems are about 18 mins in.