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WAR Best Poetry Collections of 2023: Hymnal

  Thrilled to see Julia Bell's Hymnal on WAR's ' Best Poetry Collections of 2023 ' list! Late in the 1960s, before Bell was born, her father and mother visited Aberaeron, a small fishing town on the west coast of Wales. Here, her father heard a voice – which he knew to be God – directing him to minister to the Welsh. Six months after she was born in the early 1970s, they moved to Aberaeron where he took up his first curateship. Over the next eighteen years they would move to various parishes within a forty mile radius: first to Llangeler a predominantly Welsh-speaking parish in the Teifi valley, then back to Aberaeron where Bell’s father became vicar, and then to a larger and more Evangelical church in Aberystwyth. This unique memoir in verse offers a series of snapshots about religion and sexuality. In verse because it’s how Bell remembers: snapshots in words strung along a line, which somehow constitute a life. Snapshots of another time from now, but from a time whic

MS: Naked Librarians & Laugharne Literati (Part 1)

A pile of books in the courtyard of Shelf Life This is a blog of two parts… Part One I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a most wonderful weekend. A lovely weekend. A Laugharne Weekend, and many laughs were to be had at Laugharne. Yet the fun began early, as my weekends frequently seem to these days, kicking off with the press night for  Shelf Life  at The Old Library in Swansea on Thursday, the second of twelve new productions being put on across Wales this year by the so-far-so-damn-good  National Theatre of Wales . They continue to set the standard high. After nibbles and natters upstairs in the Old Police Station where an exhibition of wire works by Swansea artist  Debbie Evans Quek  graced the walls, we were ushered down to the sunny courtyard for the start of the evening’s innovative often-improvised acts. The site-specific promenade performance screams Volcano Theatre, who here combine their groundbreaking talents with the  Welsh National Opera (WNO).  This time their chosen

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