Susie Wild's Blog: Wildlife, page 29

Brecon Beacons, Green Man Festival, Ep.1

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 journalist, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and author of  Icebreaker: A Voyage Far North READERS:
Round 1:
* Ross Sutherland, writer, performer and award-winning podcaster, who works across theatre, film and radio
*  Susie Wild , author of Better Houses, journalist, critic, lecturer, festival organiser and editor based in Cardiff
Round 2:
* Rebecca Tantony, spoken word artist, journalist and author of Talk You Round Til Dusk
* Hari Ramakrishnan, Bristol-based actor, writer and director Hosted by LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga (check out his debut novel  Collision Theory  today!)

Planet Review: Better Houses

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 between 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 thresholds. [...] The collection ends with an anxious doorstep pause – 'You wait for your self / to open up, to let you in with your secrets' ('Inside You') – that suggests an unfinished journey through the experiences and signs that tell us we're home." 

On Brood:

"From The Parliament of Fowls to Crow, birds are familiar ground for poetry but Edwards's dark and witty Brood finds new points of entry. Suggesting maternity, and a mood, from the title onwards, Brood bears witness to things unravelling – a relationship, a pregnancy, a myth, a familiar rhyme. [...] transporting us the undefined chaos of an unreal world crowded with characters (human and avian) and voices (spoken and sung), and their increasingly punishing demands."

I'm just a few sales away from a reprint, make it so ;) and also please buy and support Planet or log in to your account to read more x

In Praise of 'West'...

'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.

Literary Death Match at Green Man Festival 2018

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

Review: Jonathan Edwards on Better Houses for Ink Sweat & Tears

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

How is my staycation going you ask?

Bad Ideas\Chemicals Shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize 2018

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 blogThe 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 this year is no different – six books reflecting the excellent quality and diversity of new writers today. We have Clare Fisher's touching, tough and incisive view of what it's like to be a child in care, robbed of choices; Eli Goldstone's fable-like tale that spirits the reader from London to the deep forests of Latvia; Lloyd Markham's death stare at society, sharp as a syringe and gloriously weird; Masande Ntshanga depiction of the gritty reality of Cape Town in 2003 through the smoky lens of the young and high; Omar Robert Hamilton's tough, bleak and relentless work – a challenging, heart-wrenching and in many ways, necessary novel; while Sarah Day presents a powerful but little-known historical narrative that needed to be told.
Judges Ben Brooks, Joanne Harris and Samantha Shannon.

Poeting: A lovely time was had in Llansteffan

I'll be reading new poems at these two lovely events...

This Friday 18 May (7.30 - 9.30PM) I'm looking forward to reading a couple of new poems at this splendid Penned on the Bont celebration of 100 years of the Women's Vote in the UK in Bridgend this Friday alongside Gillian Clarke, Rufus Mufasa, Rhian Edwards, Amanda Rackstraw, Julie Elizabeth Griffiths, Tracey Rhys, Emily Cotterill, Emily Blewitt, Kali Hughes, Claire Williamson and Lizzie Parker. Do come along... tickets are £5 and can be booked online, or bought on the door.



I'm also looking forward to reading new poems along with Kate North, Mari Ellis, Natalie Ann Holborow, and Rhys Owain Williams at this year's Llansteffan Literary Festival on Sat 9 June, 4.30pm, Pound Gallery (entry £3). Come along to this and other great events!

Lloyd Markham's Bad Ideas\Chemicals shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2018

I'm really pleased that Lloyd Markham's debut novel has been shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year! #proudeditormoment We've worked long and hard on this book and it is great that it is starting to get the recognition I feel it deserves! As his housemate Crystal Jeans is also shortlisted, it'll be fun to see their friendship break into tatters as the announcement day gets closer too ;)

& I'm chuffed for Tristan Hughes and Hummingbird too, an enchanting, haunting exploration of place and the personal that I urge you all to read.

More info on the Literature Wales website