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Showing posts from May, 2025

Tonight: Tracey Rhys on the BBC Radio Wales Arts Show

Tune in to the Hay Festival Special of the BBC Radio Wales Arts Show at 8.30pm tonight featuring Tracey Rhys & Tristan Hughes among the guests...

POETS ON THE RADIO: Tracey Rhys on the BBC Radio Wales Arts Show at Hay Festival

Back up in Hay today for lovely literary chats… with Tracey Rhys and Tristan Hughes among the guests for the Hay edition of the BBC Radio Wales Arts Show. You can tune in this Friday!

POETS ON THE RADIO: Natalie Ann Holborow on The Verb at Hay Festival

About last night… The Verb featuring the fantastic Natalie Ann Holborow will be broadcast on radio 4 in August… Ian McMillan with Natalie Ann Holborow , Len Pennie, Michael Rosen and Alex Wharton Friday 23 May 2025, 7pm – Exchange Marquee The Barnsley Bard Ian McMillan is joined by a veritable paean of poets for a special edition of BBC Radio 4's The Adverb: Michael Rosen has been praised for his “ability to address the most serious matters of life in a spirit of joy, humour and hope”; Len Pennie has won acclaim and admirers for her muscular use of the Scots language; Alex Wharton is currently Children’s Laureate Wales but he writes poems for everyone and his fans include racing driver Sir Lewis Hamilton who had one of Alex’s poems stitched into his Met Gala suit last year; and Natalie Ann Holborow who describes poetry as “a powerful and precious thread that runs through the tapestry of our lives”. With three poetry collections under her belt, the thread is strong in this one. Jo...

ESCAPE: Cornwall

  We escaped to Cornwall for a long weekend and it was good to us...

The More Than Human Perspective in Environmental Poetry: A Poem and Interview with Susie Wild

Interview by Zoë Brigley Welcome back to our series on writing the #MoreThanHuman. We offer a set of interviews with poets and writers on how they approach writing about the environment. The more-than-human is a phrase that seeks to side-step traditional nature-culture dualisms and draw attention to the unity of all life as a kind of shared commonwealth existing on a fragile planet. It also reminds us humans that there is more to life, that there is more world, than the human. It relocates us in relation to the mystery. This week we meet Susie Wild , author of the poetry collections Windfalls and Better Houses , the short story collection The Art of Contraception listed for the Edge Hill Prize, and the novella Arrivals . She tells us she lives in Rhondda Fach “with a TBR pile almost as high as Llanwonno”.

GIG ALERT: Poetry Showcase with Natalie Ann Holborow, Rae Howells and Christina Thatcher

 

GIG ALERT: Christina Thatcher, Tracey Rhys and Rhian Elizabeth

Poetry line-up of the summer, anyone? Enjoy brand new work from Christina Thatcher, Tracey Rhys and Rhian Elizabeth on Thursday 19/06 at Central Library Hub! Tickets are free at  https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/cardiff-hubs-libraries They’ll be reading from their books Breaking a Mare, Bathing on the Roof, and maybe I’ll call gillian anderson. Congratulations also to Rhian for reaching the new Wales Book of the Year shortlist for girls etc, her 2024 collection.

Buzz Review: Breaking a Mare and Bathing on the Roof

Two wonderful reviews up on Buzz for Breaking a Mare and Bathing on the Roof , thanks Mab Jones ! ' Visceral and unflinching, Christina Thatcher’s exploration of girlhood, silence, and the raw edges of rural life is powerfully affecting... The poet’s unflinching gaze and lyrical prowess give these poems flint and flame: their stories are shaped by adversity, but lit up by insight.' – On Christina Thatcher's Breaking a Mare 'Tracey Rhys’ debut collection is a bold and evocative reimagining of the Biblical character of Bathsheba, transforming her with intelligence and imagination into an everywoman navigating the complexities of modern life... As well as offering up a fascinating exploration of femininity, power, and identity, it is Rhys’ adept use of language and innovative perspectives that make this collection, for me, a standout.' – On Tracey Rhys's Bathing on the Roof https://www.buzzmag.co.uk/new-poetry-may-2025-emily-jungmin-yoon-pascale-petit/

On the Radio: Natalie Ann Holborow on BBC Radio 4: The Adverb at Hay Festival

  BBC Radio 4: The Adverb Ian McMillan with Natalie Ann Holborow, Len Pennie, Michael Rosen and Alex Wharton Friday 23 May 2025, 7pm  – Exchange Marquee The Barnsley Bard Ian McMillan is joined by a veritable paean of poets for a special edition of  BBC Radio 4 's  The Adverb : Michael Rosen has been praised for his “ability to address the most serious matters of life in a spirit of joy, humour and hope”; Len Pennie has won acclaim and admirers for her muscular use of the Scots language; Alex Wharton is currently Children’s Laureate Wales but he writes poems for everyone and his fans include racing driver Sir Lewis Hamilton who had one of Alex’s poems stitched into his Met Gala suit last year; and Natalie Ann Holborow who describes poetry as “a powerful and precious thread that runs through the tapestry of our lives”. With three poetry collections under her belt, the thread is strong in this one. Join the audience for this Hay Festival edition of  The Adver...

Wales Book of the Year Shortlist 2025: Little Universe

We're absolutely delighted for Natalie Ann Holborow , today shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year Award 2025 for her third poetry collection, the stellar Little Universe . Thanks to all the judges and huge congratulations to all the other wonderful writers on the shortlist! If you'd like to get involved, you can vote for your favourite book on the shortlist. ‘Poems of true wonder, mystery composed with precision. Natalie Ann Holborow is a custodian of beauty in the ordinary and the fragility of experience. The lyric moments of her Little Universe made me lift my eyes from the page and consult the stars.’ – Oliver James Lomax ' Little Universe presents an intense voyage through a recognisable Welsh landscape of family, hospital wards, homes, beaches, love, and new life. The poems encompass mythology, the joys of the everyday and the personal inevitability of illness and grief. This is a poetry acutely aware of the specificity of vocabulary and of the unconstrained p...

Nation.Cymru Interview: Christina Thatcher

In her most recent collection of poetry, Christina Thatcher captures a series of vivid snapshots of life on a farm, in tune to the needs of animals and the natural world but not entirely free from the pressures of modern life. From the very first poem, she guides you step by step into the barn, down the stalls to the horses, as if to encourage you to gently place your hand on the horse’s mane. Interview: Imogen Davies Read more on Nation.Cymru

Rae and Ness in The Guardian

Lovely to see Rae Howells , Vanessa Owen and Arachne in The Guardian today . I picked up a copy of Afonydd at Free Verse on the 26th... I recommend you get one here: https://arachnepress.com/books/poetry/afonydd/ or from your favourite bookshop!

PHOTO BLOG: Day / Night

River Wye, Ross-on-Wye and waiting for The Pogues to start, Birmingham:

'irresistibly brilliant' – Tôpher Mills on Tracey Rhys

' When I first bumped to Tracey Rhys (twenty odd years ago, apparently she was just a teenager) she was reading and writing stories. They were so good I suggested she should think about a book. After about 15 years she produced a pamphlet of poems and now, 9 years on, this fabulous collection that mixes the dramatic and the hilarious to show how irresistibly brilliant she can be. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait as long for her next book.' – Tôpher Mills