Wildlife

I'm the featured artist in the new issue of Time to stand and stop and stare   this week, a place where artists and makers share their experience of isolation and creativity during the Coronavirus lockdown 2020: Hello and welcome to issue 9! Something a little different today as we’re joined by the very talented Cardiff writer Susie Wildsmith, hope you enjoy! Locked in to Lockdown with Susie Wild (AKA Susie Wildsmith) Are you ready? Here goes... Can you tell us a little about your creative practice - what attracted you to this particular art form; when and how did you begin? I couldn’t not write poetry. I have written it since I was a little girl, secretly, and then less secretly, and less secretly again as I have grown. I was rarely bored as I learnt poems off by heart and recited them in my head, I wish I could learn words quite so quickly now. My first collections of poetry and short stories concern themselves with relationships, human quirks and oddness, the strange and the ma...

I'm chuffed to have been shortlisted for this! ' It’s Pick of the Month time and the shortlist for August 2020 has a definite family feel about it. Are you drawn to either   John Grey   or   Sam Hickford   as they try to make connections in ‘To a Father I Never Knew’ and ‘Familiar Tissue’, or appreciate, and identify with,   Sunyi Dean  transforming into her mother in ‘Dust’. Is it   Susie Wild   with her husband ‘Nude, smoking, in the dawn doorway’ that captivates or   Frank Dullaghan , his sister singing him to sleep (past, present and future merging) in ‘How to Escape and Other Theories’, deserving your interest? Or does   Lucy Atkinson  pull at every parental instinct as you watch Persephone emerge from Winter in ‘Sunspot’?' 'All six of the shortlist have been chosen by Helen or Kate or received the most attention on social media.' Place your vote now!

I have a new poem ' Nude, smoking, in the dawn doorway ' up on the excellent UK-based webzine Ink Sweat & Tears today. Nude reclined, I watch these in-between hours, neither bed nor morning. We reject time, make our own routines.  Read it in full on Ink Sweat & Tears

I'm back to work part-time from furlough for August, and the Parthian submissions window has opened accordingly! Send me your words to read. Susie x

Ah, and the other poem 'The Key Worker's Wife' has gone up on Carol Ann Duffy's Write Where We Are Now pandemic project too, although the cans are strictly 7up Free and Diet Coke Lime these days  ;)  Ben likes this poem less than the other one.

Sustained – Fra Beecher I was recently commissioned to write two creative pieces for the artist Fra Beecher relating to her Body of Work looking at the experience of being an artist's model. Susie Wild Sustained Scars? I have many, but when I disrobe and stand before the horseshoe of easels for the first time I wonder which they will see. Some are obvious: the playground knees, the birthmarks, removed, that have grown as I have. One above my right breast fading beneath a new sticky-outy mole. One on my left temple, often hidden by a fringe or a side-parting. [...] You can read one of the pieces 'Sustained' and others by Christina Thatcher and Steven Kenwood online .

I'm delighted to have my poem 'The Cancelled Honeymoon'  up as part of Carol Ann Duffy's Write Where We Are Now project! Carol Ann Duffy and the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University have brought together poets from around the world to write new poems during the Coronavirus crisis. Our poets were invited to write directly about the pandemic or about the personal situation they found themselves in during lockdown. The collection features poems written from the earliest stages of the pandemic up until 30th June 2020. The poems are presented in date order and each includes a note about where it was written. They will remain online as a permanent creative, historical and sociological record of these extraordinary and challenging times.

Missing my voice? Hear me read a new poem from the latest issue of Poetry Wales here ... Warning: I swear. 

I am pleased to have placed as the second prize winner in the Welshpool Poetry Festival Competition. You can download my poem to read . Congratulations to 1st prize winner Jeanette Burton, 3rd prize winner Julia Forster and all of the highly commended poets especially Emily Cotterill. You can watch me read the poem from my garden here:  https://www.facebook.com/pat.edwards.106/videos/10216605661115837/ Prizes: 1st - £150. 2nd - £50. 3rd - £25. ‘ On the eve of my 40th birthday I watch a news report about a pet alligator ’ by Jeanette Burton. ‘ In this battle there won’t be many hugs’ by Susie Wild. ‘ At Nineteen I got a Tattoo to Inoculate Myself’ by Julia Forster. Poems awarded Highly Commended by Jonathan Edwards were: ‘Nan’ by Jan Westwood ‘It is difficult to write a poem with a dog on your kneen’ by Jeanette Burton ‘This Black Country Wenchn’ by Tina Cole ‘Motion, Emotionn’ by Alison Lock ‘Inconstant Gardenersn’ by Kathy Miles ‘Michael Sheen Ke...

Want a socially-distanced 1-1 poetry session with me? You can have one... if you donate to the new Young Poets crowdfunder to support young poets aged 10-17 in Wales here ... (Other poets are available).

Listen again to my husband playing original songs and covers on the lockdown Black Country radio the other night. I came back from the loo and was pulled to the sofa 1/3 through a song to do an unexpected, unrehearsed join in... 56 minutes in. He's on for 2 hours, and I recommend you listen to the whole show, I don't marry just anyone you know ;)

My two Cornwall-based poems from my debut collection 'Better Houses' in the current Cornwall/Wales issue of 'The Atlanta Review', available to read for free here:  http://atlantareview.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Atlanta-Review-Spring-2020-04.30.20.pdf

Look what just arrived! You’ll be able to hear me read it on their website at some point too.

It was so lovely to spot my name on the Highly Commended list for this year's Prole Laureate Competition. Judge Jonathan Edwards selected a poem about blooms and boxing called 'Wild Flowers'. You can now read the winning top three poems on their website.

I am pleased to have a poem 'The Carnivore Boyfriends' featured in the new Spring issue of Poetry Wales which is having a virtual launch this Thursday. Ben is hopefully helping me sort an audio recording of it for the website later today too. Tune in on the night for some great readings and the open mic , and keep an eye on the website for further featured poet musings and multimedia. Join us in May for our second virtual First Thursday which this month is a Poetry Wales magazine special! We’ll be joined by PW editor Jonathan Edwards and guest readers Alan Perry, Taylor Edmonds and Abeer Ameer. The readings will be followed by our usual open mic which you can sign up for in the chat during the event. This event will be hosted on Zoom. Find the details you need to join us below. Please email sarahjohnson@serenbooks.com for the meeting password.

From the NYPL Public Domain Collection I am pleased to have two poems from my debut collection Better Houses (Parthian) included in the Cornwall/Wales special Spring/Summer issue of The Atlanta Review , which you can download for free , or a small donation if you are able to, from their website.

Hello Lovelies, I hope you are surviving January, the cruellest month. I'm back out and about doing events next month! I recommend you book your tickets for the Seren Cardiff Poetry Festival on Valentine's Weekend, where I will be introducing you to some excellent new and emerging poets in the New Poetry Showcase on Saturday morning , at just £5 a ticket it's worth getting out of bed for... and the rest of the programme of readings and workshops. Take a look and book yourself a few poetry treats. I'm also heading to the Cellar Bards in Cardigan  on Friday 28th Feb to read with my dear poet Kittie Belltree as guest features (7.30pm). There's an open mic too and Ben is going to play you a few songs – so plenty of reasons to come and join us, it will be a real pleasure to see you. Warmest wishes on these cold nights, Susie Q Xx

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 ...