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BLOG  Gwen Davies NWR Issue 97 xx Minifestest of Women's Writing "Had a good time on Saturday at this new festival for the writing of women from Wales and beyond. It was excellently organised (despite a concurrent beer festival at Chapter) and publicised by the team of Penny Thomas, Carole Burns, Amy Wack and Susie Wild. The audiences were large and the evening 'Salon', featuring the short story with Roshi Fernando and Rachel Trezise, sold out. The main delight for me was chatting in the bookfair section to Roshi about balancing international gigs publicising Bloomsbury's edition of her integrated short fiction collection,  Homesick ,  Read about it in NWR's Online Interview, Roshi Fernando , with developing her debut novel,  The Elephant's Wife , an excerpt from which appeared last year in  NWR 92, The Elephant's Wife Extract . " Read the blog in full:  http://www.newwelshreview.com/article.php?id=380

Women's writing celebrated at the xx minifest Friday 26 October 2012, 12:04 Laura Chamberlain Share Facebook Twitter COMMENTS Tagged with: arts and culture ,  writing ,  poetry Writing by and for women will be celebrated this weekend as the xx minifest of women’s writing 2012 takes place in Cardiff. This inaugural festival will take residence at Chapter Arts Centre this Saturday, 27 October. It aims to publicise the range and diversity of writing by women from Wales in the English language, and encourages both men and women to attend and take part. This one day minifest will act as a "taster session", as a more extensive literary programme is already being planned for 2013. I put a few questions about the festival to Susie Wild, one of the co-organisers of the xx minifest. Wild is a writer, an editor at Parthian Books and she also organises the  Cardiff Literary Salon , and will be holding a special edition of the literary gatheri...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Published  Wednesday 24 October 2012  at  11:14  by  Susie Wild http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/37614/a-midsummer-nights-dream Shakespeare’s classic fairytale forest farce is transposed to the home front during the Second World War. Air raid sirens sound as we join the cast in watching a charming silent railway rescue film - Help! Help! - and then the real action begins. Mappa Mundi and Theatr Mwldan have been creating and touring accessible new co-productions annually since 2006. Together with guest director Peter Doran of The Torch Theatre, Milford Haven, they have conjured a moonlit multimedia show of shadowy uncertainty where dreams play within dreams and even night is confused. Most of the 13-strong cast are Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama alumni including a sweetly stubborn landgirl Hermia (Lisa Zahra), a haughty, snivelling Helena (Joanna Simpkins) and an American GI Lysander (newcomer Jack Brown)...

I guest edited The Western Mail's women's supplement WM today, which included contributing a column and an xx feature... Already snuggling up with a good book as the nights draw in – why not go out and see some of your favourite writers reading their work live this weekend? xx minifest is a celebration of women’s writing taking place at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff on Saturday, featuring readings, performances, book stalls and bookish discussion. WM caught up with three of the writers taking part... Read More  http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/showbiz/2012/10/23/an-all-women-s-writing-workshop-for-south-wales-the-writers-tell-us-what-to-expect-from-xx-minifest-91466-32081370/#ixzz2A80vtUoH

Gaza/Blaenannerch Published  Tuesday 23 October 2012  at  12:19  by  Susie Wild http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/37613/gaza-blaenannerch Gaza/Blaenannerch reveals Ladd’s personal reflections on the parallels between the disruption of nationhood and the disappearance of identity in the similarly sized countries of Wales and what used to be Palestine, and the ensuing dispersal of their people, scattering them well beyond their ancestral homeland. The idea for this sequence of expressive and intelligent dance pieces was sparked by the unmanned drones currently tested near the home of Ladd and the Welsh village of Blaenannerch. In front of a screen that moves from slate to blood red, Eddie switches continents and moods, from the contemplative, the impish and playful to the tortured, the lost, the flailing as she uses her body as both storyteller and teaching aid. She wriggles and writhes, she clambers and climbs, occasionally throwing in fac...

Grimm Tales Published  Wednesday 17 October 2012  at  14:40  by  Susie Wild Everyone knows that Grimm’s fairy tales are the best fairy tales, and as this year marks the bicentennial of their publication they are undergoing a resurgence of popularity assisted by Philip Pullman, who has recently released his Penguin Classic retellings of 50 of his favourite dark Brothers Grimm stories. For Grimm Tales production company Theatr Iolo has brought three of the better known folk tales - Hansel & Gretel, Ashputtel (the original Cinderella story) and Snow White - back into their original realm of oral heritage; staging them with Iolo’s usual blend of charm, verve, and playful humour. Erini Gregoriades’ set - a puzzle of wooden doors and picture frames - enabled the cast to conjure the scary shadowy forests for Hansel and Gretel to get lost in, and Snow White to escape to, and Jem Treays’ enchanting movement design created energetic dances and hilarious, swee...

Susie Wild examines a snapshot of the capital’s after-hours wrecked zone delineated by Caroline Street and St Mary Street October 13th, 2012  Polish-born, London-based photographer  Maciej Dakowicz  brings a sobering outsider’s eye to the night-life of central Cardiff, where he lived for seven years, co-founding the  Third Floor Gallery .  All the world’s a stage , but this photographer’s insightful gaze returns again and again to the performances of punters and pranksters on parade, imbibing on St Mary Street and then later stuffing faces and each other outside Tony’s. He conjures tales of cowboys and Casanova, cigarettes and regrets.  Cardiff After Dark  is a hyper-real world, fuelled by Jaeger shots, graffiti-scrawled emotions and outfits and lipstick with the contrast turned up. A melting pot of lust, fistfights, bawling and blood-spattered brawling. The flesh-flashing mating rituals and macho tomfoolery. The headrush fun of it...

Neville’s Island Published  Friday 12 October 2012  at  10:53  by  Susie Wild http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/37563/nevilles-island Black RAT have been striving to bring quality existing comedy drama to developing audiences in Wales, touring enjoyable productions of well-tested accessible scripts and actors in an attempt to pack out theatres in towns across the country. For this autumn season, they bring us Calendar Girls’ writer Tim Firth’s popular black comedy, Neville’s Island. Telling the tale of four middle-aged, middle-management males shipwrecked on a rocky island in the Lake District after a training day goes downstream without a paddle, we see their careers and relationships hit the rocks along with their boat as cold, hunger and paranoia kick in. The single-set production physically puts its cast to the test from the domino of visual gags in the first scene and the four men are drenched, starved, covered in mud, blood and at t...

I have a little gig as part of Made in Roath You can find me doing a short set at FForum @ Hand of Roath – Queens Arcade, Cardiff at 2.20pm on Sunday 14 October 2012. FREE ENTRY.

Hello Folks! I have a number of fun gigs and salons and bits and pieces coming up, which I thought I should tell you about. I shall be performing poems and stories at: 1. National Poetry Day is on 4 October 2012. I shall be assisting Rhian Edwards in her role as Poet in Residence at John Lewis in the day, writing poems about toasters and other homeware. I shall then be heading along to the Seren First Thursday Shindig at Chapter in the eve to read a poem or three at the open mic. 2. Birkenstock at Gwdihw in Cardiff on Sunday 7 October 2012. My awesome man Meirion is playing too. 3. Mozarts @ Do Not Go Gentle. I shall be doing a few poems in support of Rhian Edwards at Mozarts between 6 and 7pm on Sat 3rd November. Come along. I also have literary salons coming up at: 1. Cardiff Literary Salon xx special, as part of xx minifest of women's writing which I co-organise. This will be held at Chapter Arts Centre, Sat 27 October 2012, 7.30pm:...

I am on at 7pm, and awesome fellow poet David E. Oprava is performing 8.25 to 8.40pm. I'll also be performing poems and stories at Arts Exchange, Bauhaus, Bridgend on Saturday 1st September. Doors at 8pm, I'm on in the first half. Do come along :) https://www.facebook.com/ArtsExchange

I shall be performing poetry here on Monday 27 August 2012 at 2.45pm:

So I survived another birthday. Lovely mini holiday in West Wales with my beau, an intimate acoustic set from Patti Smith in Laugharne before I headed off to do a mini gig as part of the Jam Bones crew of Cardifferent poets at a blustery first outing of Dinefwr Literature Festival . We performed in a flappity tent on the Saturday, but many of the acts were forced indoors due to the bad weather . Still, I managed a walk in the woods and over marshes, spotting deer etc and dosed up on a fair bit of good country air. I also proved my poet credentials (bad at sport and coordination) in a game of boules with Nasty Little Press and was read a Revolting Rhyme by Mr Joe Dunthorne during a patch of sunshine. (He read this one:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5DS2DnsJ04 ). I also waved farewell to my trusted travelling companion - my starry tent - who had survived a decade of festivals, but finally snapped this weekend. Sob sob. I think I have to admit that me and camping are almost thro...

Happy International Short Story Day! I shall be celebrating by reading short stories this morning and working on a new short story this afternoon...  I hope you have a day of enjoying short stories and their writers, also. Gifts/ drinks most welcome.  Next week I am off to see Patti Smith play, frolick about in Laugharne for my birthday, and then hop over to Dinefwr festival to perform a few poems : Saturday, 1.00pm Jam Bones is the brain child of Mab Jones, and is a spoken word enterprise based in Cardiff. It has organised over 50 events, including: monthly  Manic Monday  poetry happenings in the capital city; the popular  PechaKucha Night  of mini-presentations at Chapter Arts Centre; various slams, including the Welsh heat of this year’s  National Team Poetry Slam ; the  Floralia Festival , a showcase of female creative and performance talent; the Welsh leg of Attila the Stockbroker’s 30th anniversary UK tour; and many, many more! ...

La Boheme Published  Wednesday 6 June 2012  at  12:01  by  Susie Wild Welsh National Opera’s La Boheme is a feast of the senses celebrating La Belle Epoque. Choosing to revive one of their best-loved productions with the alternative version of the opera is always going to run the risk of displeasing traditionalists and avid fans of the other production, however the beautifully contemporary visual spectacle they have created is guaranteed to win them many new admirers. Annabel Arden makes an assured debut with WNO as director with great attention to the nuances of character. Stephen Brimson Lewis has designed incredible, cinematic sets incorporating multimedia to great effect as the action switches from the shadows and starlight of Parisian garrett rooftops and the exuberant bustle of bohemian cafe culture in the Madcap years to the painterly winter tableaux of Act III. Extravagant diversive rather than outrageously distracting. Anita Hartig (Mimi) and A...

Sundays are meant for this: sunshine, a country walk, and then reading in a beer garden before watching Shakespeare in the sun, overlooking mountains with my handsome man... Here is my The Stage review of alfresco As You Like It : As You Like It Published  Monday 28 May 2012  at  13:11  by  Susie Wild “All The World’s a Stage!” proclaims the small, versatile cast of As You Like It, performing in their pop-up outdoor theatre against a stunning sun-drenched backdrop of Monmouthshire mountains. One of 66 dates in pretty locations, Rain or Shine’s adaptation of this classic scores decently on topicality. The first half centring on The People’s Games and including asking a random punter to deliver a flaming torch to the stage. The ensuing entertaining wrestling match also contains amusing, effective slowmo action and comical costumes. Pippa Meekings shines, playing a feisty and fun gender-swapping Rosal...

Rhian's poem is the Saturday poem in today's Guardian. I am going to frame it like a proud mum. You can read it here:  http://m.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/25/parents-evening-rhian-edwards-saturday-poem?cat=books&type=article Now go and buy her book!

Waterstones Cardiff wrote: WATERSTONE'S CARDIFF THE HAYES Thursday, 24 May 2012, 7:00PM Come and meet the brilliant James Sallis. He is joining us for a Question and Answer session about his new book 'Driven'. Hope to see you there. Further details: 02920 665606 Yes he wrote Drive too, the book that became THAT Ryan Gosling film. I went along to talk words and help drink the wine. Sallis is a lovely, kindly guy who encourages writers to enjoy themselves and remember that they are the lucky ones who get to make stuff up for a living. His new book examining a woman in peril years after the event sounds interesting too. Here is a picture of Sallis with Cult Books Waterstones Hero Bert: Also, tomorrow it Towel Day - go forth and celebrate the work of Douglas Adams .

It happened. The official launch of Rhian Edwards' debut full poetry collection Clueless Dogs at Gwdihw on Sunday 20 May. Only Rhian would have 15 people support her at her booklaunch gig - 14 ukulele players and myself. I sold out of my book too, and have more orders. It was fun. Well done Rhian! Pictures are from the night. Bardic babes below (L-R): Carole Burns, Me, Rhian Edwards, Ivy Alvarez