Wildlife

I didn't win. It doesn't matter. It was fun. Patrick Jones won. Possibly because he was wearing a leather kilt. Amazingly I only went over time by 1 second. Judge Taylor Glenn said I was 'fantastic.'

There are some hot pictures of me at Laugharne here:  http://www.stclearstimes.com/section496736.html and you can see and hear me in this little Laugharne film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2xqqbF0peQ&feature=player_embedded

Congrats to Michele, Graham, Helen, Polly and Tom! What a lovely shortlist. Two of my favourite short story collections of last year on there (Michele and Graham). Thanks to the prize for being nice enough to longlist me too. EDGE HILL SHORT STORY PRIZE SHORTLIST : Graham Mort,  Touch,  Seren Michele Roberts,  Mud, Stories and Sex and Love , Virago Polly Samson,  Perfect Lives,  Virago Helen Simpson,  Inflight Entertainment , Random House Tom Vowler,  The Method and Other Stories , Salt Publishing [/Good loser face, Take one]

Todd Zuniga , creator of Literary Death Match, tells us about an event which marries literature and comedy coming to Cardiff tonight. Sound good? Read on. Nine months ago, Mab Jones — the dazzlingly talented John Tripp spoken poetry audience prize winner — started to follow the Literary Death Match  twitter feed.  Next to her Twitter handle was the word "Cardiff." Then the endlessly-talented  Susie Wild  (author of The Art of Contraception) started following. Two was more than enough, and I fired off an eager 'hello', saying I'd love to bring  Literary Death Match  to Wales, a country with a seriously rich literary history (the  Hay Festival , Laugharne Weekend, Dylan Thomas). They both wrote back saying it was a must. Fast-forward nine months:  Tuesday night (10 May)  at Cardiff Arts Institute marks the first-ever Literary Death Match in the City of Arcades. And if our five-year history has taught me anything: it'll be a can't-miss night t...

Time: Tues, May 10 · 8:00pm - 10:00pm Location: Cardiff Arts Institute 29 Park Place Cardiff, United Kingdom Created By: Literary Death Match More Info: Cost: £5 preorder at www.literarydeathmatch.com ); £6 on the door. Literary Death Match is coming to the City of Arcades! We've teamed with the Cardiff Arts Institute to bring together some top Welsh literary talent, to be judged by a band of humorous geniuses, for a literary night like none other. The four readers (performing their own work for seven minutes or less) include Cardiff-born, John Tripp Spoken Poetry Audience Prize champ Mab Jones (who represented Wales at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC), author/journalist/editor Susie Wild (author of The Art of Contraception, winner of the Fiction Book of the Year in the Welsh Icons Awards), self-described poet/ranter Patrick Jones, and expat-poet David Oprava (editor of Grievous Jones Press). They'll be judged by our all-star trio of arbiters ...

Hello. I had a lovely package of poetry joy in the post from Nasty Little Press today. I ordered all their books. Yes all of them. They are not expensive and they are great. I know John Osborne and Salena Godden, I've seen Byron perform quite a lot, I like Luke Wright's stuff and I've been wanting to see Molly Naylor live for ages. The other two I decided to risk. I'd like it if they published a poetry pamphlet of mine. This is a blog love letter of sorts to them. I'll write more if I have to. These are the pamphlets/ books I bought. You should buy them too. Also sign up for their mailing list, they send you Ration Books of poems in PDF form. I got one today. It had an ace poem by Rising/ Donut Press superstar Tim Wells . He once published one of my poems. I really should send him some more. WHENEVER I GET BLOWN UP I THINK OF YOU MOLLY NAYLOR Writer and performer Molly Naylor tames her hit edinburgh show for the page in this touching and funny coming of a...

Time Sunday, May 8 ·  8:00pm  -  11:00pm Location Kama Lounge Created By Kai Lena More Info After last month's success with the Woodland Tea Party Sessions, The Folk Collective is back for the month of May presenting the 'Tea Party Poets' An evening of acoustic music and poetry with the relaxed atmosphere of the beautiful Kama Lounge in Newport. There'll be cakes and cocktails, candles and incense and generally ace vibes for all who attend :D (and for any that don't too, you just may miss out on the cake! And who wants  to miss out on cake?) Joining us for the evening we have: Kai Lena - Pixie hosting and giving some tunage.  www.myspace.com/kailenamus ic Susie Wild -Susie is a multi talented individual, from journalist to film maker, to festival organiser to spoken work artist. She joins us with some poetry to entertain all you wonderful people  www.myspace.com/soozerama Rhian Edwards - local to south Wales, Rhian's poetry reflects h...

The poignant and subtle novella 'Arrivals' unfolds slowly, revealing a mother and daughter in opposite corners of the planet, both experiencing their own personal revelation. My Kindle Single Arrivals costs just £2.39 including VAT and free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet. Buy from Amazon: http://amzn.to/lEmkC6

> REVIEWS THE PASSION | STAGE REVIEW BY  SUSIE WILD   ⋅  APRIL 27, 2011  ⋅   POST A COMMENT FILED UNDER    MICHAEL SHEEN ,  PORT TALBOT ,  THE PASSION **** Various locations, Port Talbot Fri 22 – Sun 24 April Cast includes: Michael Sheen, Matthew Aubrey, Nigel Barrett, Francine Morgan and Matthew Woodyatt. Michael Sheen became a Messiah of his home town over the Easter weekend with his leading role in a 72-hour epic retelling of The Passion, yet is was Port Talbot that was the real star of the show. For the sheer numbers in the audience (6000+), and national and international press attention  The Passion  is an ambitious event sure to go down in folklore. Two years in the planning and several months in community build up,  National Theatre Wales  joined forces with Cornwall’s  WildWorks  to create a multi-platform delivery of an age-old tale co-directed by local-boy-done-good  Michael Sheen  and the...

I've been quiet on the blog front. Mainly because I was having a blast at Year Five of Laugharne  (interviewing Molly Parkin, Niall Griffiths, Richard Gwyn, Deborah Kay Davies and more), performing at In Chapters with Richard James and Dan Rhodes, and then Poems & Pints in Carmarthen with Owen Sheers, Rhian Edwards and John Osborne, and catching Michael Sheen's eye at The Passion (see left, photo as seen in  Bethan Elfyn's blog ). I got to see the Manics play at The Last Supper too. Back to the novel now.

'The Art of Contraception', Susie Wild The Art of Contraception,  Susie Wild 'The Art of Contraception' is a collection of eleven short stories and a novella. These stories are linked by themes of relationships, sex and procreation. The first story 'Aquatic Life' is available to read online (see link below). Replete with watery imagery, it is a story of loneliness, secret desires and exotic holidays taken in the bath. Wild has a talent for writing about human oddness, hence the use of the word 'quirky' in so many of the descriptions of this collection. 'Pocillovy' is a story about a missing egg cup which suddenly becomes 'essential to the health and survival' of Alice's relationship, while 'Waxing, Waning' takes the reader on an altogether more unpleasant journey to Thailand with Natalie, who has a 'childlike need to believe in wishes coming true.' My favourite stories were 'Pica', in which a pregnant woman i...

I am reading from The Art of Contraception at the Laugharne Weekend tomorrow 1pm Tin Shed (appearing alongside fellow Bright Young Thing and Wales Book of the Year long-listed novelist Tyler Keevil). I am also chairing sessions with Deborah Kay Davies, Anna Richards, Niall Griffiths, Richard Gwn, and Molly Parkin. Come and hear my new short story at In Chapters on Sunday too. Twitter: @Laugharne2011 www.thelaugharneweekend.com

...or rather the newly branded shiny fabulous people that are behind Literature Wales and the fabulous panel members for Literature Wales Writers’ Bursaries 2011-12: Katie Gramich (Chair), Catrin Beard, Catherine Fisher, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Amanda Hopkinson and Idris Reynolds. Thanks very much all. Yes the clever people at  Literature Wales have awarded me money to take time off from all the other pay-the-rent journalism, PR etc. work I do to immerse myself in writing The Novel.  My very first novel. I began their funded time off on Friday 1 April 2011. I shall be posting updates of what I am reading and thinking about and how all the writing process is going or not going on my new process blog Ink Splott . All other news and attention-grabbing will continue to be posted here, in Wildlife. Otherwise, in social networking and journalism terms I shall be much quieter than usual for a spell. You will still see me performing here and there but otherwise enjoy the peace.

'Some of the biggest names in the literary world have entered their works in the prestigious Edge Hill University's Short Story Prize 2011.' 'The unique accolade, now in its fifth year, is the UK's only literary award that recognises a published collection of short stories and has attracted entries from a number of distinguished writers and newcomers all competing for the winning title.' I'd be one of those newcomers then. Yay! http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/news/2011/03/big-names-revealed-in-edge-hill-short-story-prize Literature Wales ran a story too: Three Welsh Writers longlisted for Edge Hill Short Story Prize Three Welsh Writers on Long List for Prestigious Award Welsh writers  Vanessa Gebbie ,  Susie Wild  and  Martin Bax  are on the long list for the prestigious Edge Hill University's Short Story Prize 2011. The unique accolade, now in its fifth year, is the UK's only literary award that recognises a published collection of short storie...

Radiohead made a newspaper? So did I. The Soozerama Daily:  http://paper.li/Soozerama

TUNE IN TO The Arts Programme on Radio Tircoed 106.5fm Friday 25th March Live @ 11am with music in conversation with the Writer, Poet and Critic Susie Wild ... on the wild side www.radiotircoed.com

FILM INTERVIEW | RICHARD AYOADE BY  SUSIE WILD   ⋅  MARCH 20, 2011  ⋅   POST A COMMENT FILED UNDER    FILM ,  JOE DUNTHORNE ,  RICHARD AYOADE ,  SUBMARINE ,  SWANSEA ,  WARP FILMS Submarine , the film based on Joe Dunthorne’s Swansea coming of age novel of the same name, is out now. Buzz caught up with Writer and Director Richard Ayoade at the Welsh premiere. WORDS: SUSIE WILD With his afro and geek-gangly height Ayoade is instantly recognisable off screen. It is not especially surprising that the 33-year-old got mobbed by fans when filming the school scenes of  Submarine  in Swansea. As a comic actor he has starred in a string of hit TV comedies including  The IT Crowd ,  The Mighty Boosh , and  Nathan Barley . A chance meeting with Warp Films saw him directing music videos for the Artic Monkeys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Super Furry Animals, Kasabian and Vampire Weekend and then taking on Submarine, his first...