Wildlife

'Continuing with the themes of nature, the writer and poet Rae Howells wrote her poetry collection This Common Uncommon, as a response to the threat of a housing estate being built on a piece of common land near to where she lives, in West Cross, Swansea. We discover the creatures which make the common their home as well as the people that walk there and delight in the life they find. Life that may soon be covered by concrete. To me, the book is an example of how words can be a powerful tool of communicating these ever-present issues, how words can be used as an act of resistance.' Thanks to Gaynor Funnell for picking Rae Howells' poetry collection This Common Uncommon as a Cultural Highlight of 2024. available now from Parthian Books.

Ben’s new book has arrived, if you want it in the first post after Xmas and a video message for the day get in touch! Signed copies now available in Storyville Books, Pontypridd.

'The collection hopes to give the West Cross Common a voice, to speak to for it as it cannot speak for, or defend, itself. The poems themselves leap from the pages just like the sky larks and blackbirds and wrens and bats and frogs they so beautifully describe, all of whom are set to lose their homes. 'It is lyrical and whimsical and serious. Some of the more poignant poems use personification as a clever tool that implores you to empathise with the common by thinking of it as a mother, a woman, or to simply hear it speak as if it was able to.' Thanks so much to Rhian Elizabeth for this wonderful review of Rae Howells' second poetry collection This Common Uncommon on Nation.Cymru .

1996, Sam Adams’s ‘Letter from Wales’ column has been appearing in PN Review , one of the most highly regarded UK poetry magazines, offering insight and appreciation of Welsh writing, culture and history. Now out in paperback, Letters from Wales: Memories and Encounters in Literature and Life collects a quarter century of work and offers one of the most unique, independent and passionate critical voices on the writing and cultural output of Wales during this period. Turning 90 last week, Adams offers his reflections on a life in letters…

‘A good anthology is a fine buffet. A good anthology of poetry in translation is a buffet of dishes that are probably new to you. A good anthology of contemporary poetry in translation is a buffet of dishes that are new to everyone at the party. And Tempo: Excursions in 21st-Century Italian Poetry , published in 2023 by Parthian and edited by Luca Paci, offers a delectable overview of a specific literary scene that can’t be easily sampled elsewhere, at least not in one place. ‘Paci, a translingual poet and translator who teaches Italian Studies at Cardiff University, has an in-depth knowledge of the poetry world in both languages, making him a perfect guide and mediator. His selection of poets currently working in Italian is highly representative—these are well-established figures, most of them mid-career—yet covers a range of very different styles and subject matter. We find poems that are experimental, lyrical, written for performance, in prose form, in rhymed quatrains; about politi...

This Saturday - Writing for Wellbeing workshop for adults with poet and playwright Patrick Jones We have a couple of spare spaces for our next writing workshop - Saturday 7th December, 11am-1pm Cynon Valley Museum, Aberdare £2 or Pay as you feel Please phone 01685 886729 to book

It’s a bright, sunny morning in North Gower, and we’ve been invited down to a pulsing, tidal place: the daily walking route of poet Natalie Ann Holborow. On the salt marshes flanking the Loughor Estuary, while cockle-pickers clatter out on quad bikes, we discuss the importance of creative exploration: of getting out in nature, and out of comfort zones. We also talk about the safe places we come back to, full of familiar rhythms and memories, where we can breathe - and return to ourselves. Listen to This Place of Salt and Inspiration With Welsh poet Natalie Ann Holborow