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Showing posts from June, 2024

Happy Birthday to Me...

It was my birthday yesterday and Ben took me out for a lovely sunny lunch to celebrate today. I am, I am, I am.

Cellar Bards with The Wildsmiths: 12 July

Just a quick note to mark your diaries for 12 July 2024, Ben and I will be the guest features at the Cellar Bards in Cardigan and we'd love to see you there!  Our regular spoken word event with a double-bill of special guests -- Susie and Ben Wildsmith. Susie brings witty and heartwarming poetry, Ben irreverent journalism and incisive comment about politics and rugby. Diverse! Open mic as always, please sign up on the door by 8pm. £3 entry.   Here's the event page link... Susie x [Other delayed blog updates after my birthday, the election etc!]

Book Launch: This Common Uncommon by Rae Howells

It was a wonderful launch for Rae Howell's new poetry collection This Common Uncommon (Parthian Books) at Swansea Waterstones tonight! Thanks to all who came – so lovely to see you – and congratulations Rae! If you’d like to find out more about the campaign to save West Cross Common join the Facebook group 'We st Cross Common'.

London Grip Review: This Common Uncommon

Many thanks to Pat Edwards and London Grip for this wonderful review of Rae Howells' new poetry collection This Common Uncommon : ‘As we open this book we are straight away presented with a stark reminder that many things we hold dear – relationships, old buildings, institutions, and indeed wild places – can feel so ordinary, familiar, everyday, as to be easily taken for granted. Rae Howells cautions us to look, be present, fully experience these things and even fight for them, especially when suddenly their existence is threatened. […] This is glorious nature writing redolent with colour, texture, smell. […] Many readers of this book will undoubtedly know and love this common and fear for its survival. Many, like me, will not be so familiar with it. However, I suspect we all know threatened wild spaces local to us, and share the deep concern that our need for housing may one day overtake our perhaps greater need to conserve rare and special habitat. Howells has written something...

Western Mail Author's Notes: Rae Howells

Many thanks to Jenny White and the Western Mail for this lovely Author's Notes feature in the paper yesterday on This Common Uncommon by Rae Howells: 'A new poetry collection from Swansea’s Rae Howells conveys her love and deep knowledge of an area of common land – and her involvement in a campaign to save it, writes Jenny White 'Rae Howells’ latest collection of poetry evokes the wildness and beauty of an unspoilt corner of Swansea locally known as West Cross Common, part of a green corridor that runs from the tip of the Gower peninsula all the way to Swansea Bay. […] 'The resulting poetry collection, This Common Uncommon, describes the campaign to save the common but also stands alone as a richly evocative account of the land and its inhabitants including bats, rare mushrooms, butterflies and birds. […] 'This Common Uncommon is a reminder of the power of poetry to tackle important issues with directness and the power of personal connection.'

BookMate Picks of the Week: Unspeakable Beauty

Great to see that Unspeakable Beauty , the debut novel by Georgia Carys Williams , is in 'picks of the week' on BookMate!

Black Bough Poetry Party

Get along to this poetry marathon next month for a good cause, featuring poets with new and forthcoming collections with Parthian Books : Rae Howells , Natalie Ann Holborow and Tracey Rhys along many other great poets... and an open mic...

Yellow Flags

Today I went for a walk and the Yellow Flag Iris were flying. At home another peony burst into bloom. Mostly, I am reading.

Book Extract: Fox Bites by Lloyd Markham

Caleb’s mother, Gertrude, stands next to her grieving son, hands shaking, sharply inhaling, containing something violent inside. Her shark-fin quiff has gained new streaks of grey Read More on Nation.Cymru