Susie Wild's Blog: Wildlife, page 13

On Being a Writer in Wales: Lloyd Markham

"I decided to set the novel in Zimbabwe. Not out of any desire to reclaim an estranged national identity or ‘authenticity’. In fact the opposite compelled me.

I wanted to write something that re-enacted my estrangement. The authentic becoming inauthentic. Familiarity collapsing into the absurd and horrific. The small, simple, fragile life of a child colliding with immense forces both political and cosmic..."
Read the feature in full on Nation.Cymru

Book Launch: Fox Bites

 

Nation.Cymru Review: Unspeakable Beauty

Thanks to Sophie Buchaillard and Nation.Cymru for this wonderful review of Georgia Carys Williams's Unspeakable Beauty!

"an elegant psychological exploration of obsessive behaviours, be that the physical and psychological demands placed on an aspiring ballerina; or the predatory tendencies of a man who comes to objectify a woman made vulnerable by her quiet nature... a lyrical, compelling and addictive read" Read the review in full on Nation.Cymru

Book Launch: Unspeakable Beauty

A wonderful launch at Swansea Waterstones for Georgia Carys Williams’ debut novel Unspeakable Beauty last night. I was working in Swansea Waterstones about 20 years ago now and it is lovely to be back there doing events. Next up the launch of This Common Uncommon, the new poetry collection by Rae Howells on 26th June! I picked up the first copies of this on my way home last night and it looks beautiful! Today I’m off to the Creative Industries Day at Cardiff Uni to take part in the Publishing Panel… see some of you there!

Aberystwyth Poetry Festival

 I am looking forward to Aberystwyth Poetry Festival at The Bookshop by the Sea next weekend, with events with Rae Howells and Mari Ellis Dunning on Saturday afternoon, a publishing panel that I am part of on Sunday afternoon and lots of other wonderful poets and talks. Do join us!

Hello Strangers!

I've been meaning to update this blog and then I was in Goa for a month, which WAS wonderful thanks, and it's about to get busy with book launches... So, soon, dears!
Here's a photo I took on my travels.

I hope you are well, sending sparkle,

Susie x

WAR Best Poetry Collections of 2023: Hymnal

 

Thrilled to see Julia Bell's Hymnal on WAR's 'Best Poetry Collections of 2023' list!

Late in the 1960s, before Bell was born, her father and mother visited Aberaeron, a small fishing town on the west coast of Wales. Here, her father heard a voice – which he knew to be God – directing him to minister to the Welsh. Six months after she was born in the early 1970s, they moved to Aberaeron where he took up his first curateship. Over the next eighteen years they would move to various parishes within a forty mile radius: first to Llangeler a predominantly Welsh-speaking parish in the Teifi valley, then back to Aberaeron where Bell’s father became vicar, and then to a larger and more Evangelical church in Aberystwyth.

This unique memoir in verse offers a series of snapshots about religion and sexuality. In verse because it’s how Bell remembers: snapshots in words strung along a line, which somehow constitute a life. Snapshots of another time from now, but from a time which tells us about how Bell got here. Not the whole story, but her story. Of an English family on a mission from God, of signs and wonders in the Welsh countryside, of difference, and of faith and its loss.

Buy Hymnal from Parthian

Welsh Books Council 2023 Highlight: Hymnal by Julia Bell

It was lovely to see Hymnal, Julia Bell's memoir in verse selected as a 2023 Highlight by the Welsh Books Council in their latest newsletter.

'Moving, tender writing with a haunting evocation of place and time.' – Hannah Lowe

'Bell pulls us deep into her memory, where depth charges lie planted which are then detonated to great effect. We are there, in her moment, and though her eye is unwavering and her wit biting, it is never at the cost of empathy... The claustrophobia is gothic and palpable, but never overplayed – testament to Julia Bell’s finesse as a writer, but also her frankly awesome powers of forgiveness.' – Mike Parker, Planet Magazine

'Hymnal is vivid, intense and freeing. There is so much to release; so much deep emotional confusion is explored. Her poems remind me of Sharon Olds’ The Father and Pascale Petit’s The Zoo Father, woven through with threads of trauma and self-discovery ... This work bursts forth in relentless, rich images. It’s a record of an exhausting, lonely coming of age, hard won. Its overriding power resides in the knowledge that one must understand one’s own needs, escape conformity, and find a way of living which liberates the true self.'  – Maggie Mackay, The Friday Poem

'These full-throated poems bring to resonant life the story of a daughter whose father’s calling “sits on all our shoulders like a fog”. Bewildered by severities at odds with her body, she wonders at Jonah breathing inside a whale while on land “I do not know which way is up ... The surface is so far down.” Yet the desires of the queer self unfolding in thrilling detail here refuse to be extinguished – the phrasing in Hymnal glistens with the rich clarity of stained glass.' – John McCullough

'Autobiographical, alluring, with keen evocations of Welsh setting and clever reworkings of Christian images, Julia Bell’s Hymnal is a hymn to “the possibilities of … life unfolding”. Amen to that.' – Mab Jones, Buzz Magazine

 

'The work is nigh on perfect.  As poetry, it is exquisite, just as you’d expect from a writer as accomplished as Bell.  She produces verse that is somehow simultaneously dainty and meaty, and clearly adores words and what can be done with them... Her outsider-insider takes on Welshness are especially thrilling, but in truth, there is no duff topic here, no slight slip-up anywhere in this consistently brave and brilliant collection.' – Wales Arts Review

WAR Best Welsh Non-Fiction Books of 2023: Letters from Wales

It is lovely to see Letters from Wales: Memories and Encounters in Literature and Life by Sam Adams on Wales Arts Review ’s Best Welsh Non-Fiction Books of 2023 list!

‘This is writing in time and over time; the author’s horizons widen as he goes, his impressions change... What is revealed is the generous deep-rootedness of the author’s cultures.’ – Michael Schmidt

‘His writing respects writers, respects the past and, because of this quality, it continuously offers readers something surprising and new.’ – Jonathan Edwards

'with Letters from Wales Sam Adams has created what has become one of my favourite books dealing with the histories and cultures of our homeland. Nominally concerned with a country’s literatures, packed with praise and puzzlement, Adams’s ‘Letters' is a vastly wide-ranging collection of personal engagements. Those who know Sam Adams's own poetry will be delighted by the self-revelations that create a delicious seam throughout this work. For example, the editor singles out a depiction of a miner’s lamp. Brilliant, poignant. Originally a series of columns in PN Review, Letters from Wales can now be enjoyed in one indispensable volume.' – Robert Minhinnick

'This collection of Sam Adams’s pieces, written over the years for PN Review, is a literary journey in the company of writers and writings of Wales, and beyond. Sam Adams was there at the start, when a few believers sparked a renaissance of Welsh writings in English, when Poetry Wales, The Anglo-Welsh Review, the Triskel Press were launched, slim volumes were published, and for the first time the TLS reviewed poetry from Wales. I will return to it again and again, to learn, and to remember our story.' – Gillian Clarke

'Drawing on decades of experience as a writer at the heart of Welsh literary life, Adams has treated readers of PN Review to short, intimate commentaries on the cultural sector in Wales as it has evolved around him... Letters from Wales stands alone as an invaluable guide to Welsh writing.' – Sam Young, Wales Arts Review

'In these columns, as impressive for their depth as they are for their intellectual breadth, Adams analyses the work of acclaimed Welsh writers such as Gillian Clarke, R. S. Thomas, and Rhian Edwards with scholarly panache' – Joshua Rees, Buzz Magazine

'This is a huge book which serves to demonstrate the no less enormous contribution made by Sam Adams to Welsh literary life... Adams is consistently the most amiable and urbane of companions, illuminating and entertaining as he intelligently surveys the world of letters from a Welsh perspective.' – Jon Gower, Nation.Cymru

'Adams writes with magisterial clarity as if for the general reader from outside Wales, but it’s sometimes when describing ourselves to others that we learn most. Informative, great for dipping into, and testimony of a lifetime of service to this country.' – Christopher Meredith, Wales Arts Review

Cover Reveal: Fox Bites by Lloyd Markham

COMING IN APRIL 2024... FOX BITES

The new novel from Betty Trask winner Lloyd MarkhamSurely we can all come back from the edge? Can we?Set in Zimbabwe during the early 2000s, amidst a backdrop of political turmoil, FOX BITES is a dark coming-of-age horror fantasy about pain, loneliness, and stepping back from the abyss.Available to pre-order: https://www.parthianbooks.com/collections/pre-order/products/fox-bitesLloyd Markham was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He spent his childhood in Zimbabwe before moving to and settling in south Wales at the age of thirteen. His first novel 'Bad Ideas\Chemicals' was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year and won a Betty Trask award. He was awarded a bursary from Literature Wales to develop his second novel 'Fox Bites'. He lives in Cardiff where he likes making and listening to strange music.