Wildlife

I  have been collaborating with my dear friend and artist Beth Greenhalgh and we have two performances coming up in Cardiff this autumn. First up our show Sex Change Disco will be at Made in Roath... Sex Change Disco: Beth Greenhalgh and Susie Wild Visual Art / Performance / Spoken Word / Disco pin Pet Shop, 2 Diana St Roath Cardiff CF24 4TS Friday 14th October, 6.30 - 8.30pm Free entry, all welcome  An image is burnt to the retina. A flash of something that lingers in my memory. It is playful, holds beauty, holds power. I will not forget it. Chocolate guns melt into fondue and singing, speaking mouths burst with colour. Things are revealed upon our bodies, words spoken to stillness and, in the end, everyone will dance. At the Sex Change Disco, the menagerie are mothing about the kaleidoscope lights, dazzled – flitting here a whirligig bearded lady, flitting there a boy with a girl’s arse – and, Fanny, sitting at the...

Hello Lovelies! So, I'm back from my time on the Mothership artist residency in Dorset and I thought I'd tell you all about my wonderful writing week. I'm grateful to have been given the space, views and time to reflect on current / new work and future longer projects. I arrived at Bridport Station on the Saturday afternoon and artist and residency organiser Anna Best kindly collected my mobile library and I and showed us to the studio space that would be our home for the week. After tucking my books, notebooks and laptop in, I tagged along with Anna for the Force 8 evening film screening that she runs (with Hester Schofield) in a chapel in charming West Bay, Bridport . Afterwards we walked the dog around the harbourside and then went on to another little art disco event afterwards, before returning to Copse Barn so that I could turn in early to get up and on with things the next day. Returning to the workspace in the darkness I was struck by the silenc...

DATE:   24.08.16    WRITTEN BY:   SUSIE WILD    POSTED IN:   ARTICLES ,  RECOMMENDED ,  VISUAL ARTS Tom Banks  is the winner of the 3rd Beep Wales International Contemporary Painting Prize 2016, for his oil on canvas ‘Meta Vita II’. The exhibition is on display at Swansea College of Art until 3 September 2016 and then touring to Wrexham and Cardiff. Curated by Jonathan Powell, the director of the artist-led elysiumgallery and studios in Swansea, it features the commended work of the 49 national and international contemporary painters selected from all the entrants to the prize.   Here Tom explores his craft, his influences, and the winning painting . Read the article in full on Wales Arts Review

Hello lovelies! I hope you are having a splendid summer and managing to fit some adventures into the pockets of sunshine. 2016 has been throwing all sorts of horribleness at us (collectively and personally), but I'm beginning to feel more myself again after a quick succession of bad news including losing my dear Nan Sylvia while I was away in Istanbul in May followed by all the awfulness of Brexit.  Recently I've been finding more occasions... or more need, perhaps... for joy with picnics (with my excellent new birthday gifts of a picnic basket and blanket) and time in green spaces and Ikea purchases to cosy up the not-so-new-now house. The snails may have eaten all my edible plants in the not-so-new-now garden but weeding has been achieved. From my office window I can admire the thistles, and the parade of cats from the other terraced houses that box in our little plots. Still, I don't think I'll be returning from Greece this year to a bumper crop o...

You can now download a free 32 page PDF sampler of Issue Four of The Lonely Crowd ,  Spring .  Spring  contains over 240 pages of short fiction, poetry and photography from some of the most exciting writers and artists at work today, including  Kate Hamer, Joe Dunthorne, Susie Wild, Polly Atkin, Robert Minhinnick, Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, Valerie Sirr, Alan McMonagle & many, many more.  Download the preview here and you can read the first page of my short story 'Looks Like Rain': The Lonely Crowd – Issue Four A great journal to support!

I wrote a new little story called 'Birdie' for Wales Arts Review, you may have had enough fiction fed to you lately, but it may distract you briefly from this dark day... it may not. 'Usually when I passed, Birdie would be crouched, rocking on his haunches – forwards, backwards, forwards, back. He sometimes had a smile to flash, sometimes didn’t, not-quite-sat upon the threshold. Neither in nor out.' Read my flash fiction 'Birdie' in full on Wales Arts Review Join Wales Arts Review throughout June for a month-long celebration of t he flash fiction form. They will be publishing stories by the finest writers, a new story every day, in this online festival of flash fiction. Tomorrow is also National Flash Fiction Day and I'll be reading a piece at the Cardiff event Imagistic at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff at 5pm, the event is free entry, do join us (more in the blog below about this and on Facebook ). Otherwise, today, I feel like this: ...

I'm reading flash fiction here this Saturday – I'm on first or early at least. Come buy me an early birthday drink, or get  Rhian Edwards , who is also reading, a belated one... Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Sat 25th June, 5pm This year's Imagistic features six writers, including Rhian Edwards, Tyler Keevil, Ivy Alvarez, and Susie Wild, along with six artists, including Robert Harding, Keith Bayliss and Maja Spasova, in collaborations in which the writers respond to artists with new work – or for the first time in Imagistic, vice versa.  In the first set of collaborations, three writers have chosen an image by one of the artists as an inspiration for a new short story, up to 1,000 words.  Rebecca Smith will work from a painting (above) by Medina Hammad; Tyler Keevil will respond to a painting by Magda Kozarzewska; and Sarah Hayden has chosen a work by sculptor Robert Harding.  In the second collaborations, we are flipping this relationship, so that the...

The lovely folks at Ink Sweat and Tears have selected my poem 'In case' as one in a shortlist of six up for the May 2016 Pick of the Month. If anyone deserves a gin tomorrow, they do. Voting is open until Tuesday 14 June. Read my poem 'In case' and the rest of the shortlist on Ink Sweat and Tears Vote for my poem on surveymonkey for Ink Sweat and Tears ' May Pick of the Month. Enjoy World Gin Day! And, while we're talking voting, don't forget to vote (to stay) in the EU Referendum on 23 June. Susie x

While I've been away on my ITEF Fellowship in Istanbul there's been a little flurry of my writing appearing in the world.  This means that you can now read two of my new poems for free online. 'Yolk/White' has been published in The Lampeter Review 's Issue 13 ( Exit ) which can be read online here for free . 'The estate agent posts written requests  to air the space between us before public viewings.' 'In case' has been published by Ink Sweat & Tears and can be read on their website for free : Ink Sweat & Tears May 11 at 9:17am  ·  Susie Wild tickles our fancy today on  www.inksweatandtears.co.uk In case of fire exit building before tweeting about it... You can read my new story 'Looks Like Rain' in the Spring issue of The Lonely Crowd (Issue 4) which is out now. Buy it from the website or pop along to the launch at Little Man in Cardiff on the 20th of May where I'll be re...

' It began with the opening image. I usually start stories or poems with an image, a line or a character. I’m a visual learner, an introvert observer of others. Knowing I’d agreed to write this piece I’ve been racking my brain and notebooks for the seed that planted the first page.' Read the article in full on The Lonely Crowd  website. My story 'Looks Like Rain' is in the new Spring 2016 Issue, out now. I'll be reading it at the Little Man launch in Cardiff on 20th May.

I am so looking forward to this next month. Today I went back to my old teaching campus of Francis Close Hall, Uni of Glocs to talk about the creative process, writing stories and poems and working as an editor with my fellow Bright Young Thing Tyler Keevil, his bright and erudite students, and the talented Rebecca F. John. It was lovely to be talking about my next book, finally, out next spring! I also discovered that Rebecca is a basher and Tyler and I are swoopers / leapers:  https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/632571-swoopers-write-a-story-quickly-higgledy-piggledy-crinkum-crankum-any-which-way I've a few bits and pieces coming up... out now, the Spring issue of The Lonely Crowd includes a new story from me called 'Looks Like Rain': The Lonely Crowd  ‏ @ thelonelypress     10h 10 hours ago 10 hours ago 'When the woman was a girl she was afraid of the weather...' Read @Soozerama in our new issue. I've also written an e...

I hope you can join me for this event of loveliness: An evening of readings from the Spring Issue of The Lonely Crowd , featuring Robert Minhinnick, Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, Leila Segal, Bethany W. Pope, Susie Wild, Marie Gethins & more tbc shortly. The Little Man Coffee Co , Ivor House, Bridge Street, CF10 2EE  Cardifff, United Kingdom Facebook Event Page Also, I decided, as my old Literature Wales profile mentioned MySpace, I  was  due for a 5 year update 

I'm looking forward to this trip to Istanbul next month , one of the lucky 21 chosen to be a fellow from hundreds... flights booked: " The Fellowship Programme starting in year 2011 has hosted 63 international professionals in İstanbul until now in the field of publishing and contributed to the promotion of Turkish literature and publishing. This year 21 professionals from 14 different countries, such as publishers, literary agents, translators, literary fund managers and directors of literary festivals are meeting in İstanbul. Professionals working in the field of literature and translation are going to visit publishing houses with their Turkish colleagues during the 3-day program, share their knowledge and experience in one-to-one meetings, participate in the Programme which creates a ground for development of joint projects and provide common market for the copyrights. See here  for more information."

You can now pre-order the new, spring issue of The Lonely Crowd here:  http://thelonelycrowd.org/the-lonely-store/ Featuring: Fiction / Kate Hamer, Valerie Sirr, Leila Segal, Robert Minhinnick, Marie Gethins, Charlie Hill, Bethany W. Pope, Catherine McNamara, Neil Campbell, Alan McMonagle, Siân Melangell Dafydd, Armel Dagorn, C. G. Menon, Susie Wild, Laura Windley, Iain Robinson, Giles Rees, Diana Powell, Pia Ghosh Roy, Nigel Jarrett / Poetry / Joe Dunthorne, Polly Atkin, Zelda Chappell, Scarlett Sabet, Carol Lypsc, James Aust, Sarah James, Katharine Stansfield, Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch / Photo Story / Seamus Sullivan / Editing & Design / John Lavin / Advisory Editor / Michou Burckett St. Laurent / Front & Back Photos / Jo Mazelis

Thrilled to let you know that I'll be reading poems at The Tin Shed Experience as part of the Free Fringe at the Laugharne Weekend this year. Catch me on stage at 8.15pm Sat 2nd April. I look forward to seeing familiar and unfamiliar faces around town that weekend. In other news, I'm on holiday! Susie x

Ziggy / Daffs Today is a Leap Day and so it feels appropriate to leap forward but also to look back, to catch up, to update. March arrives tomorrow and daffodils are everywhere, on banks and in vases, on Six Nations pub bars in ice buckets, in hats and buttonholes, all ready for St David's Day. They bob their daft sunshine heads and make me smile.  Tuesday will also bring our appointment to cross t's and dot i's for our next house and I feel like I am unfurling, blooming... full of news and newness, full of poems and stories, after a time of hiding beneath the soil. Our garden, in this house we love but have to leave early (for the landlord wants it back to live in or sell we are not sure)…  is neglected now, but the sky is brightening and the gentrified neighbourhood cats still visit, paw at windows, hope for feeding. We are deciding on the ethics of stealing our favourite (Ziggy)– and we are hoping for other funny Bowie-named feline visitors on our new str...