Wildlife

BY  SUSIE WILD   ⋅  SEPTEMBER 15, 2010  ⋅   POST A COMMENT FILED UNDER    BANGOR ,  BOOK LAUNCH ,  BOOKS ,  CARDIFF ,  LITERATURE ,  LONDON ,  PARTHIAN ,  PARTY ,  SHORT STORIES ,  SWANSEA Parthian is proud to introduce four debuts from rising literary stars. It’s September, which means Parthian are publishing four fantastic books by up-and-coming new writers. These books, by Susie Wild (YES, that would be ME!), Tyler Keevil, JP Smythe and Wil Gritten are being celebrated with readings and general merriment across Wales and in London. Tyler and James  both had their books reviewed in the current print edition of Buzz. Wil wrote a short piece for the books page too. My debut collection of short stories, The Art of Contraception will be reviewed in next month’s magazine. We’ll be reading and chatting and drinking at our many launches though. Come along. Here are the dates for your diaries… THE BYT 2010 ...

SEPT 2010 Date With The Night(s) Wowzer. It is the week of the first launches. Can you believe it? Me neither. Wil is even flying over from the Land of Oz to join us for some of them. Magic, magic. The last few days have been spent flyering, getting people to put posters up in their shop/ bar/ launderette/ home, trying to squeeze time in to read the other BYT books and shopping for new We Have Launch Off boots and party dresses. We really will be acting up to the  Bright Young People  part over the coming weeks. TODAY I have the launch dates and some other dates for you. Diaries at the ready, go go go: THE BYT 2010 LAUNCHES THURS 16 SEPTEMBER:  Waterstone’s  The Hayes, Cardiff (7pm) FRI 17 SEPTEMBER: We will be signing books at  Uplands Bookshop  (12 noon) and Waterstone’s , Oxford Street (3pm) before our LAUNCH PROPER at  the Dylan Thomas Centre  (7pm) and Afterparty at  The Vault  (underneath No Sign Wine Bar on Wind Street, 9.30pm)....

SEPT 2010 Sex, Wales & Anarchy Hello World. I performed at  Sex, Wales & Anarchy  at The Coal Exchange, Cardiff yesterday. I’m sad to say I didn’t see much of any of these in the event but I did see plenty of corsets and heaving gothtastic bosoms once I’d fought through the herd of goth/punk/metalheads smoking outside. The Coal Exchange is a great venue, but fo some reason this year the spoken word had been shifted from the main stage area to a small room down a long corridor that usually works as The Dressing Room. ‘You have to see this,’ says fellow poet and performer of the day Jack Pascoe. ‘It’s like my Nan’s living room!’ and minus the signed, framed band posters it probably is. For my 20 minutes of the spotlight I focused on the SEX aspect of the festival and rather appropriatelt read some extracts from  The Art of Contraception  spliced with poems about sex and drinking and boys sat in an easy chair holding the stand-less mic. I read to a full small ...

Deborah Kay Davies I urge you to get hold of a copy of  True Things About Me . I read it in one sitting and adored its deliciously dark and twisted pages. The author, Deborah Kay Davies  was kind enough to send me one of her personal copies in the post as we have got to know each other over the last couple of years through sharing a publisher ( Parthian Books ) and reviews I have written about her work including the incredible Wales Book of the Year winning short story collection  Grace, Tamar and Lazlo the Beautiful . Last night I attended the Cardiff launch of the novel, out now through Canongate , at Waterstone’s, The Hayes. Upon arrival Deborah and her partner Norman were both delightful and arty kisses, well wishes and drinks were passed between us. Deborah looked stylish as ever in a shimmering, long mint green gown. The bookshop soon filled up to standing room only, packed with family, friends and fellow writers (Philip Gross, Jon Gower) and Norman took to the st...

SEPTEMBER 2010 5-4-3-2-1 THE BYTs HAVE LIFT OFF! ‘Hello September 2010. How are you doing? I do hope you are going to be good to us Bright Young Things. What with our books being launched this month and all.’ ‘You are? How marvellous!’ Yes that’s right folks, all four titles in the Parthian Bright Young Things range launch this month, starting on Friday 17 th  at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea. So dust off your glad rags, and get yourselves some new dancing shoes. The BYT party season is upon us, and I for one, can’t wait. Clink, clink. What other news do I have for you? Let me see. GREEN MAN FESTIVAL Photo by Rosie Reed Gold (2010) Mother Nature tried damn hard, but I did not drown at  Green Man 2010 . Also, considering my general dislike of being cold and wet, I didn’t moan that much either. In fact I fear I may have had rather a fun time.  Get me. With my performer pass. And my guest tickets. And my seeing  Wayne Flaming Lips  under a tree backstage and ...

AUGUST 2010 My latest blog on Mslexia “ I don’t know about you, but Summer is turning out to be pretty hectic for me. What with going to festivals as a journalist, going to festivals as a performer, editorial work and preparations for the  Bright Young Things book launches , I’ve got very little time for working on The Novel or slobbing about watching iPlayer. Let alone ploughing through my review pile of books. I did make time to  write a short poem that was selected by Bugged though , yay, and I thought I ought to make time to blog here because I have some Literary Wales news… ” Read my latest Mslexia Blog in full In other news, I now also write for theatre bible  The Stage  and ace literary magazine  The Raconteur  have asked me to be a regular blogger for them on their all new digital edition website, so look forward to that from September. It is  Green Man festival  this weekend. I’m reading poems with Patrick Jones, Mab Jones and Rhian Ed...