Gig Alert: Roberto Pastore at Ponty Poetry

The first Ponty Poetry of 2026 is on Wednesday January 14th from 7.00 - 9.00pm in the Cwtch Café at the YMa Arts Centre in Pontypridd, with the usual open mic and featuring the excellent Cardiff poet Roberto Pastore as the special guest!

'There is a sense of imminent doom and ferocious hope, resplendent even in despair. His use of language is beautiful, elegiac, yet never overwrought' – Jenny White, Western Mail

'Bert’s poems make the reader aware of other worlds, other planes of existence; how heavy night hangs, whispers overheard in dreams and waiting rooms, what is sheltered within our bodies. Profound, darkly funny, and deeply human.’ – Joshua Jones

Come early if you would like to read - or you can just listen, of course.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME! Hope to see you there - https://www.ymaonline.wales/

Please “Pass It On!”

PS The Gas Road free car park is nearby CF37 4TH, the Bus Station is across the street, and Ponty Train Station is 10 mins away!

Comments

GIG ALERT: Natalie Ann Holborow at Uplands Poetry Night, Swansea

BOOK REVIEW: 'It deserves to be read far more widely.'

In her engaging review essay 'Fantastical Doubles and Split Selves' in the latest issue of New Welsh Review , author of The Word, JL George, looks at responses to trauma in three recent novels including Fox Bites by Lloyd Markham . Here are three of our favourite snippets: ‘Lloyd Markham’s first full-length novel Fox Bites , set in early-2000s Zimbabwe, takes a similar tack, colliding social upheaval – as viewed through the sometimes-uncomprehending eyes of a young, neurodivergent boy – with smaller, more personal disruptions. The young protagonist, Taban, suffers bullying and isolation among his peers after his family splits apart: his aunt, uncle, and beloved cousin Caleb moving away to a farm which will later be seized during land reforms.’ ‘Taban must resist the temptation to become part of a cycle of abuse, thereby becoming a conduit for the destruction of his world. Although the stakes of the book eventually become world-threatening in the expected way of science fiction...

BOOK REVIEW: 'one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Welsh writing in English'

There is a wonderful extended review essay 'Ecological Literacy' by Steven Lovatt in the latest issue of New Welsh Review exploring recent books that seek to restore natural and cultural ecologies and recognise how the cultural nature of our landscapes is preserved in language. It offers an in-depth look at This Common Uncommon by Rae Howells, and here are three of our favourite snippets: "Rae Howells’ new poetry collection, This Common Uncommon , is a fierce and loving affirmation of the local, exemplifying the sort of care-full attention to the interdependence of people, other animals and plants that will be required if anything worthwhile is to be saved from the present ruin." "Howells confirms the evidence of her first collection, The Language of Bees, that she is a highly adept poet, possessing one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Welsh writing in English." "If West Cross Common is developed for housing, nobody can now claim ignoran...

Wildlife

Search This Blog