Wildlife

I'll be doing a Wildsmiths gig with Ben, Andrew and friends to kick the new decade off in style. Join us! Picking and singing with Ben & Susie Wildsmith and Andrew Hawkey. If you fancy playing feel free, otherwise wind down listening to some righteous tunes on the first day of the '20s! The Mount Inn, Llanidloes 4-7pm

We all have days when we need to hear words like these, keep them close to your heart, and strive on lovelies... x John is shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Prize this year and, until Sunday, his third book Reckless Paper Birds is available for the bargain £4.99 instead of the usual £9.99 from his excellent publishers Penned on the Margins.

Representatives from the Cardiff poetry scene, Literature Wales and the British Council were at St Canna's in Cardiff yesterday to welcome the Turkish poet and writer Haydar Ergülen to Wales and share a cultural exchange with readings from his new selected poems  Pomegranate Garden  as well as poetry about Cardiff, about Wales, about place and about love. All with a bonus buffet and wine! It was a superb way to spend a Sunday lunchtime. Featuring tanslator, editor and poet Caroline Stockford alongside Cardiff-based poets Topher Mills, J. Brookes, Kate North, Roberto Pastore, Luca Paci, Mab Jones and myself. Thanks to British Council Wales and Literature Wales for their support, to all the poets who took part, all who came along, and to the team at St Canna's Ale House for helping to make it run smoothly.  Haydar's UK tour concludes in Oxford at 5pm today (Board Room, the Middle East Centre, St Antony’s College, Oxford University, 5pm, Monday 25 November ...

Hello Dears, I hope you are all having a fantastic summer! Good news, my second poetry collection Windfalls , is coming out in October 2020. While I iron out the creases I've a few gigs coming up, some poetry straight as Susie Wild, some mixing it up with some songs with my partner in crime and creativity as Susie Wildsmith / Ben Wildsmith / The Wildsmiths, alongside many more of his own songs, fingerpickin' genius and well-chosen covers...  Listen to Ben's 1998 album  The Lowest Form of Folk  for free on Soundcloud . AUGUST Fri 9 – The Barn, Ledbury, 7pm, (reading some poems and joining the husbear Ben Wildsmith on some of his songs ), free entry. Sun 18 – The Wildsmiths: In Concert, Brown's Hotel, Laugharne , 3-5:45pm, (reading some poems and joining the husbear Ben Wildsmith on some of his songs), free entry Mon 26 – The Wildsmiths, Katie Fitzgeralds, Stourbridge , 5pm, (reading some poems and joining the husbear Ben Wildsmith on some of his songs)....

" Thanks again to all the terrific authors who came along to read their poems from our Seren Cardiff anthology pamphlet. Can you spot them?! @serenbooks @chaptertweets  — with  Peter Finch ,  Susie Wildsmith ,  Clare Potter ,  Mab Jones ,  Kate North ,  Bob Walton ,  Sarah Rowland Jones  and  Jonathan Edwards ." – Amy Wack

I'm looking forward to reading at the launch for this at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff on Thursday! " Hello Everyone, including new members - one more week until First Thursday of the Month at Chapter Arts Centre. We will be featuring a number of the famous contributors to the Cardiff poems pamphlet! Media Point, 7:30, £3 entry as usual and please bring along your own 'Cardiff' poems for our open mic." –  Amy Wack   Chapter Arts Centre

We love a good wedding at IS&T and want to wish all the very best to  Susie Wild  and Ben who are getting married today! 'How Much Sickness Are We Talking, Exactly?' from Susie, for Ben, and on  www.inksweatandtears.co.uk  now!  ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ For we’ve already had more than our fair share, fevered and sweaty in our whirlwind love, and are you sick of me yet, darling? Anyway as I fall over, fall further into this, as a date is set, as our goose is cooked, love? Read the poem in full on the Ink Sweat & Tears website.

I'm kicking off St Canna's 2nd Birthday Party  in Cardiff today with Parthian authors and pals reading including Tristan Hughes, Lloyd Markham, Matthew Scott, Ben Smith and yours truly. Come along and see us between 4 and 5.30pm. There's music and street food after, and the bar is open until midnight.

You are cordially invited to join Parthian Books at the Poetry Cafe for the launch of Kate Noakes' latest poetry collection. The Filthy Quiet has attracted early notices as follows: "Kate Noakes’ new collection is a trove of rich materials – rare minerals, sharp sense-impressions and resonant myths. It makes you want to touch… and when you do, it burns. There’s a fire beneath that surface, all the fiercer for keeping just out of sight, licking up through the cracks." - Philip Gross  Kate Noakes’ The Filthy Quiet is a collection aloud with every imaginable sensation - poems that teem with soundscape, texture and detail, are lithe and lusty, full of movement; timed and poised precisely, sprung like clockwork mechanisms, knowing the exact weight and measure necessary in the poem’s discrete making. Noakes’ poetry brings forward an electrifying premise - “its charged promises / its dance of light” - full of sparks and campfires, wakeful nights and miracles, and bold...

I'm looking forward to hosting this event with some excellent new and emerging poets in Cardiff a week Saturday. Come along and find your new favourite poetic voices... Sat 9 Feb 10.30am Stage: MEZZANINE Parthian Editor and poet Susie Wild introduces six authors, all poets who live and work in Wales. Our showcase aims to give you a sampler of these varied voices, all who have made an impact with their new collections: Mab Jones, Ailbhe Darcy, Rhys Owain Williams, Christina Thatcher, Nia Davies, and Mari Ellis Dunning, will each read for ten minutes from recently published books. Tickets for this event are also available on the door (£7.50) https://www.facebook.com/events/282609819124366/

I'm pleased to hear that I was longlisted in the Mslexia Women's Poetry Competition 2018, selected by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy... and in pretty good company too! Thanks. Lots more poetry news and events for the Parthian brood here... Susie x

I'm talking writing, poetry and publishing on class act panels in two far flung UK locations this autumn! This month, come see me on Thursday 20 September in Southampton: Then, next month, I'll be on the panel of the More Poetry is Needed session at Swansea Fringe Festival (2-4pm, Sunday 7 October: Submitting your poems to a publisher can be intimidating, but The Swansea Fringe is here to help! Three of Wales’ leading poetry editors – Emily Blewitt (New Welsh Review), Nia Davies (Poetry Wales) and Susie Wild (Parthian Books) – join The Crunch’s Adam Sillman for a panel discussion focused on the world of publishing and poetry.  What do these three editors look for when they open up submissions? Are there any pitfalls to avoid when sending your work for consideration? And has being an editor changed their approach to submitting their own poetry to magazines and publishers? All of these questions and more will be answered during ...

Find out more via Scott Tyrell's twitter

Oh Literary Death Match at Green Man was such fun, thanks to the 1000+ audience for coming and watching at Babbling Tongues on Saturday afternoon, and to Adrian, Laura and Fiona for inviting me along, it was so, so very close... Here's the LDM post about it all: August 18, 2018 — In our first foray into an event at a National Park, Literary Death Match headed to the Green Man Festival in Brecon Beacons, Wales for an afternoon delight that saw  Rebecca Tantony   narrowly outduel  Susie Wild  in sudden death during a One Star Wonder finale, winning Tantony the LDM Green Man, Ep. 1 crown and literary immortality to go with it.  Here's the lineup from the event:  JUDGES:  Literary Merit:  Anita Sethi , award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster Performance:  Johnny Lynch , a.k.a.  Pictish Trail , a Scottish musician for the ages Intangibles:  Horatio Clare , critically-acclaimed author and...

Oh I've just read a lovely joint review of Brood by my dear friend Rhian Edwards and Better Houses by me me me in the new issue of Planet . Thanks Elizabeth Edwards. Some snippets for you... On Better Houses : "The collection begins on a riotous note in 'Build the Table First', invoking fire, broken glass, flamingos and fake blood, in worlds made, destroyed and remade through outnumbered 'house moves'. But (as the fake blood may suggest) nothing comes to serious harm here, ultimately looking towards physical and emotional forms of steadiness: 'nothing is broken betwee n us / for long'. It's a fitting introduction to the collection as a whole, which contemplates big life shifts throughout but is ultimately a gentle and conciliatory work. [...] 'Carcharodon Carcharias, Cariad', reels gorgeously from a restaurant to the seashore to the night sky [...] Finding (the way) home is of course a key theme for this collection full of threshold...

'He felt again the dizzying weight of all the mystery of the earth and everything in it and beyond it. He felt the resurgence of his curiosity and his yearning, and at the same time felt more and more afraid that he would never find what he'd come for, that the monsters, after all, might not be here.' Insomnia and the railway-line night work beyond my garret window means I have just re-read and line-by-line dissected West by Carys Davies . Already a huge fan of her short stories, I can't recommend this enough – the best debut I've read so far this summer. A beguiling, page-turning American fable seeped in desire and devotion, devastating grief, and the search for wonder beyond life's comfort zone all written with a deft economy and a simmering, shimmering 'coal and salt' humour.

I'm looking forward to taking part in Literary Death Match at Green Man Festival on Sat 18 August (4pm) this year, come along! Literary Death Match, now in over 60 cities worldwide, was called "the most entertaining reading series ever" by the LA Times. The live show brings together four authors to read their most electric writing for seven minutes or less before a panel of three all-star judges. After each pair of readers, the judges take turns spouting hilarious, off-the-wall commentary — in the categories of literary merit, performance and intangibles — then select their favorite to advance to the finals. The two finalists then compete in a vaguely literary competition to determine who takes home the Literary Death Match crown. LITERARYDEATHMATCH.COM

This review of Better Houses has made my holiday, thanks Jonathan! ‘Susie Wild’s Better Houses announces a new […] and exciting poetic voice. […] The author’s balance between opening the door for the reader, and then hitting them with the poem’s highly original approach to language and a slightly slant way of looking at the world, make these poems highly entertaining and rewarding.  […] ‘like all the best collections, it leaves the reader wanting more. The marriage of clarity and accessibility with the highly distinctive voice which is evident in these poems, excitingly and genuinely all this author’s own, make this an accomplished and auspicious debut, and make this poet’s future work something to greatly look forward to.’ Read the review in full on Ink Swear & Tears

Proud Editor Moment: Congratulations to Lloyd Markham,  Bad Ideas\Chemicals  is one of six debut novels by writers under 35  shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize 2018 , announced today. The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are presented for a first novel by a writer under 35. ​Past winners include Zadie Smith, David Szalay, Hari Kunzru and Sarah Waters. Total prize and award fund is £26,250.  The Authors’ Awards, presented by Stephen Fry, will take place at RIBA on the evening of Thursday 19 July. Read more on the Parthian blog The 2018 shortlist: Mussolini’s Island  by Sarah Day (Tinder Press) All the Good Things  by Clare Fisher (Viking) Strange Heart Beating  by Eli Goldstone (Granta) The City Always Wins  by Omar Robert Hamilton (Faber and Faber) Bad Ideas/Chemicals  by Lloyd Markham (Parthian) The Reactive  by Masanda Ntshanga (Jacaranda) The Trask shortlist is always very strong, very original, and thi...