Wildlife

Rhys Davies Winner Siân Preece (centre) with judges Niall Griffiths and Stevie Davies (Copyright: Academi / John Briggs) One more entry from me this week: On Tuesday night I put on my new boots and nipped over to Cardiff’s  Wales Millennium Centre  for the announcement of the winners of the  Academi Rhys Davies Short Story Competition . I’ll let slip now – First Prize went to a woman. In the  upstairs balcony bar  the pre-notified winner and 10 runners up milled about with friends and loved ones, grazing on wine and canapés. Author, artist, musician and runner up Jeb Loy Nicholls  chatted to a behatted  Richard Gwyn  in one corner, while in another nook childhood friends Joâo Morais (another runner up) and rising Cardiff art star  John Abel observed the room. I grabbed a glass and caught up with one of the judges for the evening,  Niall Griffiths . He’d just been to see  The Road : ‘Harrowing but brilliant.’ At a sighting of...

Blog 2: In which the Welsh literary It girl takes a daytrip to London in the name of char-it-teeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, dahlings! This week I have mostly been  in awe at the power of poetry , not only to move hearts and minds but to move people to take action. Words matter. They can hurt and they can heal, they divide and they unite. Words did not cause the Haiti earthquake but words can help rebuild lives for the survivors. Between 100,000 and 200,000 people are thought to have died in the devastating earthquake which struck the island of Haiti on 12 January. The natural disaster has left approximately 1.5 million people homeless and vulnerable with the hurricane season just a few months away.   The Poetry Live fundraiser  for the devastated population of Haiti united a humanitarian band of 22 of the country’s leading contemporary poets and a diverse audience of well over 1,000, sardined in rows of fold-up chairs under the ornate dome of Central Hall Westminster on Saturday ...

BY  SUSIE WILD   ⋅  JANUARY 24, 2010  ⋅   POST A COMMENT Chapter | Thurs 21 January I like chapters. And  Chapter . And stories. And poems. And music. And good nights out. As such new monthly event,  In Chapters , featuring unique thematically-linked collaborations between writers and musicians, was guaranteed to please the likes of me. Especially because it is organised by some of the people behind one of my favourite literary festivals:  The Laugharne Weekend . Those people include top novelist and festival director  John Williams  ( The Cardiff Trilogy )  and Laugharne’s musical curator  Richard James  (Gorkys Zygotic Mynci). The theme for the first instalment of In Chapters was trains but luckily attracted a room full of trend – rather than train – spotters . For just over an hour the crowded non-geeky theatre audience was taken on a journey from the  valley lines  of South Wales to  the London Undergr...

Croeso. Welcome. As self-appointed literary It girl of Wales, my  Mslexia  blogging mission is to write about glitterati parties, book launches, live events, competitions and award ceremonies, festivals and where to get the best coffee/ champagne cocktail on the right side of the Severn Bridge. I thought I’d start by blogging about my weekend, namely the opening of a new exhibition – The Silent Village, based on the 1943 film of the same name and the Nazi eradication of the Czechoslovakian village of Lidice, and featuring a new short story by my good mate  Rachel Trezise  on Friday –  and Poetry on Tap with  Susan Richardson  and yours truly ( Susie Wild ) on Sunday. It ticks all the right boxes: Women/Writing/Wales. I knew you’d approve. Gawd knows I was ready for a party :  the snow had prevented many a New Year catch up from happening, and there’s nothing like  a big art opening  for an excuse to don a party dress and have a good ti...