Wildlife

It was so lovely to end the year with the news that Wales Arts Review named Pearl and Bone , the second poetry collection from Mari Ellis Dunning as Best Welsh Poetry Book 2022  and to have another of our titles, the debut Strange Animals by Emily Vanderploeg on the shortlist .  Clearly, I think all our 2022 poetry books, poets and editors are wonderful or I wouldn't have picked them, if you've had a backlog of great books to read, it did feel like 2022 was a bumper year for releases, then why not catch up with our 2022 list: The language of bees – Rae Howells Tempo: Excursions in 21st Century Italian Poetry edited by Luca Paci (bilingual Italian/English hardback) Pearl and Bone – Mari Ellis Dunning Strange Animals – Emily Vanderploeg All available from Parthian Books and your favourite bookshops on and offline. You can also catch Mari offering her writing tip as part of Jo Bell's Writers Advent for Day 18 .  I was also pleased to see another book I worked on at P...

There's a lovely review of Windfalls in the new issue of Poetry Wales ...  ‘Windfalls, Wild’s second collection, delivers another deft, witty, and heartwarming series of poems… Wild writes of overgrowth, decay, and the curious beauty and distraction of these things, as a neighbour’s overgrown fruit tree bombards the speaker's garden… This contrast between the fascination of the untamed and the mundane – bills, meals, old relationships – is a golden thread that passes through the poems within Windfalls.’ – George Sandifer-Smith Get your hands on a copy from the Poetry Wales website Submissions are also open until the end of the month, so send some poems in if they fit the theme!

  A thanksgiving meeting of editors! ☔ I am so glad I braved all the weather for a gorgeous catch up with these two poets, stars and editors while Zoë is over from the States...  and I received my first festive gift of the year. A lovely time had by all!🎄 ID: Zoë and Peter on one side of a restaurant table, Rhian and Susie on the other.

I had a wonderful time in Tenby this week, where the weather was less storm, more showers and double rainbows. This allowed me to stroll along the shore some of the time without being blown away, to explore the fort, and to do some research and scribbling with a wild-mood-swings sea view. As well as launching Celine's Soho Salon anthology by reading some poems at Tenby museum.  You'll find a few more photos on Instagram, but this one is a favourite from my mini-creative-getaway!

In this brand new interview episode , poets George Sandifer-Smith and Mari Ellis Dunning join Sophie and Jonathan to discuss their latest collections, Empty Trains (Broken Sleep) and Night Travel at the Right Speed (Infinity Books) from George, and Pearl and Bone (Parthian) from Mari, and how they were able to process their lockdown experiences through their work. As Mari's editor, I have worked on both her full collections with Parthian, so I recommend you listen for wonderful readings from Pearl and Bone and also for George who talks about not one but two poetry books that he has recently released.  George was also very kind, giving Windfalls a shout out. He's recently reread the collection in his capacity as the new Reviews Editor at Poetry Wales and a piece about it will appear in the new winter issue. He said: ‘Also, recent things that I’ve read that I loved ...  Windfalls was just spectacular, so musical in its use of free verse, and so much colour in it, such a wond...

  … and my last gig of the year (probably)! Come along to Storyville Books in Pontypridd on the 30th for the next instalment of Voices on the Bridge where I’ll be reading with other great people and there will also be wonderful music from Ben.

 

 Thanks to Tracey Rhys for these two lovely photos from The Swansea Fringe where I was hosting an event with Emily Cotterill and Mari Ellis Dunning on Sunday at COPR Bar, and I also read a few poems... Thanks also to all who braved the weather and came along and to Joe and the rest of the festival team and to Lee at COPR Bar for having us! Here are some of my favourites who stayed for a catch up after... Also, the weather meant my hair was firmly under a hat / in plaits for most of the weekend, but it did start out looking nice... so as I photographed this rare good hair day... here's evidence! I'm a right curlylocks again at the moment... which means it is rare they tame themselves nicely...

If you missed Celine's radio show, giving a sneak preview of this Thursday's Tenby launch of the new Celine's Soho Salon anthology, you can listen again here  ... my two poems are about 18 mins in.

ONE WEEK TODAY... I am hosting this poetry event at The Swansea Fringe. Do come! I'll also be kicking it off with a few poems of my own... Flying Pearls: Mari Ellis Dunning and Emily Cotterill Sunday 6 November, 5pm, COPR Bar Swansea Entry free with festival wristband or £5 on the door Mari Ellis Dunning’s first poetry collection Salacia was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year Award, and was followed by The Wrong Side of the Looking Glass , a pamphlet of dramatic monologues written in collaboration with Natalie Ann Holborow and her recently released second collection Pearl and Bone . She won the Terry Hetherington Young Writers Award and placed second in both the Lucent Dreaming Short Story Competition and the Sylvia Plath Poetry Prize. A PhD candidate at Aberystwyth University working on a historical novel exploring accusations of witchcraft and fertility, Dunning also teaches creative writing part time. She lives on the west coast of Wales, in Llanon, with her husband, th...

  I’m looking forward to reading poems at the Tenby launch for this wonderful new anthology next month… do come along!

I'm happy to be hosting something literary here next month, more details to follow, look at all the good people involved! It must be time to book a ticket or three?

It was so lovely to be asked to be the first Broken Spine Arts'   #TheCodex guest feature which shares poems from my collections Windfalls and Better Houses . They also wrote some nice things about my writing that made me blush... 'We’re delighted to publish four poems by writer Susie Wild as our first writer on  The Codex , a new, special project with  Broken Spine Arts Collective  to showcase contemporary talent. Susie’s poetry has really distinctive appeal, with its playful, inventive phrasing and unexpected imagery, taking on almost any subject full-pelt as a conjuror of words. With her intense focus, Susie Wild can transform the everyday, the ordinary – a walk in the park, bouncing on a trampoline, a traumatic break-up, into a vibrant, often humorous and surreal poem, taking us into multiple situations, both challenging and provoking us as readers. The poems in ‘Better Houses’ and ‘Windfalls’ have a stripped-back, seamless and finished quality, reflected in he...

Thanks to all who came along to listen and share writing last night! What a lovely audience! And especially to @artographyalix   and @ShermanTheatre5   for having us and to @mainchrisglynn for this wonderful live action pen portrait!

  Company of Words is teaming up with Sherman 5 for this in person literary Open Mic featuring guest poets Susie Wild and Ben Wildsmith, hosted by artist Alix Edwards . Suitable for over 15s.  Share your poems, monologues, short scripts and prose in a warm, welcoming environment in the fabulous setting of the Sherman foyer, catch up with friends over a beer or coffee and get creative inspiration from our guest poets. All welcome! whether you are an experienced performer, new to creative writing or just want to listen!  Susie Wild is author of the poetry collections Windfalls and Better Houses , the short story collection The Art of Contraception listed for the Edge Hill Prize, and the novella Arrivals . She has placed in competitions including the Welshpool Poetry Festival Competition, the Prole Laureate Prize and the Mslexia Women’s Poetry Competition and performed at festivals including The Laugharne Weekend, Green Man and Glastonbury. 'Wild comes across as the poetic...

 

On 7 July, Voices on the Bridge returns with a great line up including Stephanie McNicholas, Des Mannay, Stephen Payne, Ben Wildsmith, Nicholas McGaughey, Siôn Tomos Owen, Susie Wild and Rob Cullen presenting and reading.  6-8pm, Storyville Books,  8 Mill Street, Pontypridd CF37 2SN

  The return of our favourite Poetry Showcase, hosted by Penarth-based poet Stephen Payne. Stephen will be joined by poets Abeer Ameer, John Freeman and Susie Wild and musician Ben Wildsmith for a brilliant event of poetry and music to bring an end to Penarth Literary Festival 2022.  For more details, visit:  ticketsource.co.uk/griffinbooks

'This month’s Seren First Thursday is back on Zoom and we’re breaking tradition by running on the second Thursday of the month 9th June because of the Jubilee Bank Holiday. We're delighted to be joined by guest readers Paul Henry reading from ‘As If To Sing’ and Susie Wild reading from ‘Windfalls ’(Parthian). Our main readings will be followed by our usual open mic. Tickets are £2 (plus Eventbrite admin fee) available here  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/352766834097 .'

CARDIFF GIG ALERT: Poetry from me and music from Ben's new album with his band of Half Truths... Sunday afternoon, get tickets and come along... Please note the set times have changed to what we previously advertised... poetry from me from 12.30 and then the band after me at 1ish. There will be food on sale ...