Susie Wild's Blog: Wildlife, page 35

The Mothership

Hello lovelies!
I hope you are having a splendid summer and managing to fit some adventures into the pockets of sunshine.
2016 has been throwing all sorts of horribleness at us (collectively and personally), but I'm beginning to feel more myself again after a quick succession of bad news including losing my dear Nan Sylvia while I was away in Istanbul in May followed by all the awfulness of Brexit. 
Recently I've been finding more occasions... or more need, perhaps... for joy with picnics (with my excellent new birthday gifts of a picnic basket and blanket) and time in green spaces and Ikea purchases to cosy up the not-so-new-now house.
The snails may have eaten all our edible plants in the not-so-new-now garden but weeding has been achieved. From my office window I can admire the thistles, and the parade of cats from the other terraced houses that box in our little plots. Still, I don't think we'll be returning from Greece this year to a bumper crop of courgettes and beans. 
Greece? Yes Greece. The ever-delightful T and I are heading back to Greece for the much-needed holiday we were partially robbed of last year. (Somebody lost their passport on the way). (It wasn't me!). All of you please pretty please cross your fingers for us so that nothing goes wrong this time! 
The Greece trip takes place over a week in September, and prior to that I'm really pleased that I will be on The MOTHERSHIP Residency in Dorset, writing for a week. Anna Best was kind enough to accept my application. My work in the past has focused on a very urban space and quirky, lonely characters but I am becoming more and more preoccupied with edge lands and place, with the village-living of my Cornish childhood, and with the weather... so this residency felt like a perfect fit for me. The week as a writer-in-residence will offer me the opportunity to further develop some of my new poems and stories away from capital city living. It will also allow for time to walk and reflect on other germinating creative projects. And afterwards I'm hoping to visit Chesil Beach.




Today, though, will see German practise (33% fluent on Duolingo now) and then the gym calleth, and later still I'm off to Swansea to see three of elysiumgallery's excellent exhibitions: the group shows Painting Parallels and The Painter's Studio, both in the Arts Wing of Swansea Grand Theatre, followed by the official opening of BEEP 2016: This must be the place I never wanted to leave… where the winner of the Beep Wales International Painting Prize will be announced.  Exciting! 

I hope to see many of you there or somewhere,

Susie Q x

The Lonely Crowd: Spring Sampler

You can now download a free 32 page PDF sampler of Issue Four of The Lonely Crowd, Spring. Spring contains over 240 pages of short fiction, poetry and photography from some of the most exciting writers and artists at work today, including Kate Hamer, Joe Dunthorne, Susie Wild, Polly Atkin, Robert Minhinnick, Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, Valerie Sirr, Alan McMonagle & many, many more. 
Download the preview here and you can read the first page of my short story 'Looks Like Rain':
The Lonely Crowd – Issue Four
A great journal to support!

New Flash Fiction: Birdie

I wrote a new little story called 'Birdie' for Wales Arts Review, you may have had enough fiction fed to you lately, but it may distract you briefly from this dark day... it may not.'Usually when I passed, Birdie would be crouched, rocking on his haunches – forwards, backwards, forwards, back. He sometimes had a smile to flash, sometimes didn’t, not-quite-sat upon the threshold. Neither in nor out.'Read my flash fiction 'Birdie' in full on Wales Arts ReviewJoin Wales Arts Review throughout June for a month-long celebration of the flash fiction form. They will be publishing stories by the finest writers, a new story every day, in this online festival of flash fiction.

Tomorrow is also National Flash Fiction Day and I'll be reading a piece at the Cardiff event Imagistic at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff at 5pm, the event is free entry, do join us (more in the blog below about this and on Facebook).
Otherwise, today, I feel like this:

Imagistic on National Flash Fiction Day

I'm reading flash fiction here this Saturday – I'm on first or early at least. Come buy me an early birthday drink, or get Rhian Edwards, who is also reading, a belated one...

Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Sat 25th June, 5pmThis year's Imagistic features six writers, including Rhian Edwards, Tyler Keevil, Ivy Alvarez, and Susie Wild, along with six artists, including Robert Harding, Keith Bayliss and Maja Spasova, in collaborations in which the writers respond to artists with new work – or for the first time in Imagistic, vice versa. In the first set of collaborations, three writers have chosen an image by one of the artists as an inspiration for a new short story, up to 1,000 words. Rebecca Smith will work from a painting (above) by Medina Hammad; Tyler Keevil will respond to a painting by Magda Kozarzewska; and Sarah Hayden has chosen a work by sculptor Robert Harding. In the second collaborations, we are flipping this relationship, so that the artists who have taken part in previous Imagistic events will create a piece of art inspired in some way by the writer they were previously paired with. Artist Paul Edwards will respond to new poems by Rhian Edwards; Maja Spasova to work by Ivy Alvarez; and Keith Bayliss to the story Susie Wild wrote in the very first Imagistic. On the night, the writers will read their work with the images linked to the writing projected. The event is part of National Flash Fiction Day, which features events across the UK.
The photo montage above is Keith's response to my story 'We Hang in the Balance' in response to another image by him...
It's a dark little story.

Ink Sweat and Tears: May Pick of the Month

The lovely folks at Ink Sweat and Tears have selected my poem 'In case' as one in a shortlist of six up for the May 2016 Pick of the Month.

If anyone deserves a gin tomorrow, they do.

Voting is open until Tuesday 14 June.

Read my poem 'In case' and the rest of the shortlist on Ink Sweat and Tears

Vote for my poem on surveymonkey for Ink Sweat and Tears' May Pick of the Month.

Enjoy World Gin Day! And, while we're talking voting, don't forget to vote (to stay) in the EU Referendum on 23 June.

Susie x

New Poems: 'Yolk/White' and 'In Case'

While I've been away on my ITEF Fellowship in Istanbul there's been a little flurry of my writing appearing in the world. 

This means that you can now read two of my new poems for free online.

'Yolk/White' has been published in The Lampeter Review's Issue 13 (Exit) which can be read online here for free.

'The estate agent posts written requests 
to air the space between us
before public viewings.'



'In case' has been published by Ink Sweat & Tears and can be read on their website for free:


Ink Sweat & Tears
May 11 at 9:17am · 
Susie Wild tickles our fancy today on www.inksweatandtears.co.uk
In caseof fire
exit building
before tweeting
about it...
You can read my new story 'Looks Like Rain' in the Spring issue of The Lonely Crowd (Issue 4) which is out now. Buy it from the website or pop along to the launch at Little Man in Cardiff on the 20th of May where I'll be reading with a number of the other excellent contributors. If you'd like a sneak preview, you can read a little bit about my writing process and the story in my short essay on The Lonely Crowd website.I'm also pleased to have been offered a short UK residency this summer to concentrate on my writing about more rural locations and place in my fiction and poetry. More on that, and on my time in Istanbul soon.Stay well lovelies,Susie x

The Lonely Crowd: Susie Wild On Writing ‘Looks Like Rain’

'It began with the opening image. I usually start stories or poems with an image, a line or a character. I’m a visual learner, an introvert observer of others. Knowing I’d agreed to write this piece I’ve been racking my brain and notebooks for the seed that planted the first page.'Read the article in full on The Lonely Crowd website. My story 'Looks Like Rain' is in the new Spring 2016 Issue, out now. I'll be reading it at the Little Man launch in Cardiff on 20th May.

Literary Happenings

I am so looking forward to this next month.
Today I went back to my old teaching campus of Francis Close Hall, Uni of Glocs to talk about the creative process, writing stories and poems and working as an editor with my fellow Bright Young Thing Tyler Keevil, his bright and erudite students, and the talented Rebecca F. John. It was lovely to be talking about my next book, finally, out next spring!
I also discovered that Rebecca is a basher and Tyler and I are swoopers / leapers: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/632571-swoopers-write-a-story-quickly-higgledy-piggledy-crinkum-crankum-any-which-way
I've a few bits and pieces coming up... out now, the Spring issue of The Lonely Crowd includes a new story from me called 'Looks Like Rain':

The Lonely Crowd ‏@thelonelypress  10h10 hours ago10 hours ago'When the woman was a girl she was afraid of the weather...' Read @Soozerama in our new issue.



I've also written an essay about the writing process which will be up on the TLC website soon.
In the next week or so the Lampeter Review Issue 13 Exit will be published and this includes a new poem from me, on the theme of exit called 'Yolk / White'.
Then I'm off to Istanbul for my ITEF fellowship and a bit of sightseeing 6-12 May and while I'm away the excellent Ink Sweat & Tears are publishing one of my poems (11 May).
All three of these publications and the people behind them are wonderful and supportive and worth supporting, so do!
I hope to see you at the Cardiff launch of The Lonely Crowd Spring Issue on 20 May.
Be well dears,
Susie x

A Spring Evening with The Lonely Crowd

I hope you can join me for this event of loveliness: An evening of readings from the Spring Issue of The Lonely Crowd, featuring Robert Minhinnick, Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, Leila Segal, Bethany W. Pope, Susie Wild, Marie Gethins & more tbc shortly.
The Little Man Coffee Co,Ivor House, Bridge Street, CF10 2EE Cardifff, United Kingdom
Facebook Event Page

Also, I decided, as my old Literature Wales profile mentioned MySpace, I was due for a 5 year update 

ITLF Fellowship: Istanbul

I'm looking forward to this trip to Istanbul next month, one of the lucky 21 chosen to be a fellow from hundreds... flights booked:
"The Fellowship Programme starting in year 2011 has hosted 63 international professionals in İstanbul until now in the field of publishing and contributed to the promotion of Turkish literature and publishing. This year 21 professionals from 14 different countries, such as publishers, literary agents, translators, literary fund managers and directors of literary festivals are meeting in İstanbul. Professionals working in the field of literature and translation are going to visit publishing houses with their Turkish colleagues during the 3-day program, share their knowledge and experience in one-to-one meetings, participate in the Programme which creates a ground for development of joint projects and provide common market for the copyrights.See here for more information."