Susie Wild's Blog: Wildlife, page 36

The Lonely Crowd Spring 2016

You can now pre-order the new, spring issue of The Lonely Crowd here: http://thelonelycrowd.org/the-lonely-store/Featuring: Fiction / Kate Hamer, Valerie Sirr, Leila Segal, Robert Minhinnick, Marie Gethins, Charlie Hill, Bethany W. Pope, Catherine McNamara, Neil Campbell, Alan McMonagle, Siân Melangell Dafydd, Armel Dagorn, C. G. Menon, Susie Wild, Laura Windley, Iain Robinson, Giles Rees, Diana Powell, Pia Ghosh Roy, Nigel Jarrett / Poetry / Joe Dunthorne, Polly Atkin, Zelda Chappell, Scarlett Sabet, Carol Lypsc, James Aust, Sarah James,
Katharine Stansfield, Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch / Photo Story / Seamus Sullivan / Editing & Design / John Lavin / Advisory Editor / Michou Burckett St. Laurent / Front & Back Photos / Jo Mazelis

Cabaret Obscura: Free Fringe at the Laugharne Weekend

Thrilled to let you know that I'll be reading poems at The Tin Shed Experience as part of the Free Fringe at the Laugharne Weekend this year.

Catch me on stage at 8.15pm Sat 2nd April.

I look forward to seeing familiar and unfamiliar faces around town that weekend.

In other news, I'm on holiday!

Susie x

Leaping Forward

Ziggy / Daffs
Today is a Leap Day and so it feels appropriate to leap forward but also to look back, to catch up, to update. March arrives tomorrow and daffodils are everywhere, on banks and in vases, on Six Nations pub bars in ice buckets, in hats and buttonholes, all ready for St David's Day. They bob their daft sunshine heads and make me smile. 
Tuesday will also bring our appointment to cross t's and dot i's for our next house and I feel like I am unfurling, blooming... full of news and newness, full of poems and stories, after a time of hiding beneath the soil.
Our garden, in this house we love but have to leave early (for the landlord wants it back to live in or sell we are not sure)…  is neglected now, but the sky is brightening and the gentrified neighbourhood cats still visit, paw at windows, hope for feeding. We are deciding on the ethics of stealing our favourite (Ziggy)– and we are hoping for other funny Bowie-named feline visitors on our new street...
Inside boxes have been gathering and I've half-heartedly spring-cleaned my wardrobe in order to move just that little bit less to the new place. In the kitchen – the other night, or rather 4am in the morning – a forgotten bottle of elderflower cordial, foraged and made last year by our fair hands, exploded. Now all our recipes books are sticky with these syrupy tongue licks, though the broken, shattered glass has been collected; binned.
We've been feeling a lot like that about-to-explode cordial bottle, the letter in January telling us to go, although we've been model tenants, model pay-on-time renters. And so the rigmarole again of looking for new places online, paying out for reference checks and deposits... in January, the month that is known to be the flushest of the art / freelance work year.
In January both of my writing workshops (with my peers, not for teaching) were also cancelled and I felt gloomy with the lack of life and creativity, the demands of tax returns and taxing things. But two writing workshops did happen in February and some new pieces of my writing have also found new homes... I have poems forthcoming this spring(ish) with Ink Sweat & Tears and The Lampeter Review, a story in Issue 4 of The Lonely Crowd, and my debut poetry collection will also be out through Parthian in spring 2017, probably with some poems about moving that might move you ;)
We also have a wonderful collection of books out and forthcoming with Parthian this year, a new website and catalogue about to launch, and an excellent new team. I still feel lucky and blessed to have such a varied interesting job and the plusses outweighing the bugbears – proofing complicated books, the headaches of organising large lecture tours, the worst of the slush pile, the neglected and ever-growing admin and digital clutter vs. an email from a reader who loved a book, a good press review, a happy author, a prize nomination, giving a talk or workshop that helps give confidence to a nervous but good writer to submit their work, or a successful grant application. From small to large, these all contribute to a happier Soozerama, and a better literary life.
And so I look forward to the rest of 2016 feeling positive and hopeful. Excited about all the books I have to work on, to read... and all my own pieces I've to write, to edit, or to let out from the new-house-new-office drawer.
I hope to see you at workshops, launches, events, bookshops, libraries, exhibitions, garden parties and picnics. Be good to each other, be good to yourselves.

Soozerama xx

Feb 28: Meet a Publishing Editor

'In response to popular demand, I’ve organised a question-and-answer session with Susie Wild, publishing editor for Parthian Books, on Sunday February 28th. There will be a numbers limit, so as always it’s best to book well in advance: the cost is just £10. Once you’ve booked, feel free to email me with any question you may have: that way I can collate the most common questions and make sure these get covered.
'The session will start at 1pm in the Bute Park Education Centre and last about one and a half hours. Details of how to find the centre can be found.'

https://parkwrite.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/your-chance-to-talk-to-a-publishing-editor-feb-28/

British Council article: Give yourself the gift of writing from Wales this Christmas

"Earlier this month Owen Martell, Jon Ronson, John Harrison, Rebecca F John, Ian Sinclair and Joe Dunthorne fled the British rain and joined a group of UK writers taken to the Guadalajara International Book Fair in Mexico by the British Council. 
"The UK literary scene was the focus of this year’s Fair, one of the largest book fairs in the world, second only to Frankfurt with a million visitors passing through the doors this year. The writers introduced their work to publishers, ambassadors, critics, academics and school children and now we’d like to introduce a couple of them to you."Read the article in full: https://wales.britishcouncil.org/en/guadalajara-2015Susie Wild is a writer and the publishing editor at Parthian Books. She also attended FIL Guadalajara on a Welsh Government Trade Mission.

Guadalajara: The Blogs

Hi Folks!

I've written a mega update on my recent Welsh Government Cultural Trade Mission to the international book fair FIL Guadalajara as part of the Wales-Jalisco partnership.

You can see my photo album from the trip (29 Nov - 6 December) here


Read my blogs:

Hola!

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Blogs on the trip by the others:

Short story writer Rebecca F. John has also written a blog about her experience, which you can read on her website.

Travel writer John Harrison's blog post on the trip is also now online.

And Mabli Jen Eustace, a Cardiff MET Student who was artist in residence for the trip has also blogged about her painting and visit.

Hola! Guadalajara Calling

'There's an opportunity to go to Mexico in a week or two. Do you fancy going?' 
I look at Richard, blink twice, and say something eloquent and profound. I say something like '––What––?' 
Outside the Dylan Thomas Centre, a grey Welsh November was getting itself into a bit of an Abertawe flap with the obese circling gulls. Inside the official book launch and signing for Rebecca F. John's debut collection Clown's Shoes has begun to wind down. Richard and I are enjoying a glass of wine with Jeremy Osborne from Sweet Talk productions who had produced Rebecca's stories for both Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4Extra. It is hard to conjure up the heat and colour of Mexico, to comprehend his question. 
Richard explains that two of the authors we work with, Rebecca F. John and John Harrison, have been invited by the British Council and British Council Wales to attend the international book fair FIL Guadalajara in Mexico's second city later that month. The UK are Guest of Honour at this festival  and the British delegation at Guadalajara International Book Fair were to be organised by the British Council and made up of more than 150 writers, academics, artists and representatives of publishing houses.
Thirty writers from across the UK are part of a 150-strong delegation at this year’s Guadalajara International Book Fair (Feria Internacional del libro – FIL) in Mexico. Writers including Irvine Welsh, Jeanette Winterson, Philippa Gregory, Andrew Motion, Val McDermid, Naomi Alderman, Tessa Hadley, Joe Dunthorne and Owen Jones will feature as part of the UK Guest of Honour Literary Programme.
Rebecca going off somewhere else exotic made sense. Her stories were being broadcast on national radio. She was not long back from a whistlestop-trophy-grab in Canada where she scooped the PEN International New Voices Award for her story 'Moon Dog' and shared the stage with Margaret Atwood, and she's more travel booked for 2016. For a self-confessed homebird she was leaving it rather a lot.
John has travelled to this part of the world before. Award-winning travel writer John Harrison's latest book  1519: A Journey to the End of Time  follows Hernán Cortés' 1519 route along the Mexican coast and across country to modern Mexico City, home of the Aztecs. He was always going somewhere, it seemed to me, or hoping to at any rate. He was leaving in just over a week's time and Rebecca would follow, with me if I liked, after her reading at Hay Castle as part of the Hay Winter Weekend. 
The delegation has been carefully selected to reflect the strong regional identities that make up the UK and the unique breadth of British literature in the 21st century. It includes established novelists and poets, emerging writers, those that are still experimenting with themes and literary form, writers testing the limits of existing genre definitions and boundaries; and those exploring new media such as digital, spoken word and graphic novels. Six Welsh writers had been added to that list: Joe Dunthorne, Iain Sinclair, Jon Ronson, John Harrison, Owen Martell and Rebecca F. John. 
Eight if you included Mari Griffith, also reading at the festival, and myself. More if you gave Tessa Hadley honorary status for thirty years living here, although she, herself, corrected the chair for calling her Welsh during the short story panel I saw her at in FIL with John Burnside and 'I'm Welsh' wisecracking literary rock star Irvine. I'm getting a bit bored of the differences between the novel and the short story discussion though, so I'll spare you the rest of what was said there.
In Swansea’s Dylan Thomas Centre my head was full of German words and German plans – I'm off to Hamburg for the bulk of the festive season and a whole 25% fluent according to DuoLingo. What little Spanish I'd picked up from films, restaurants and youthful visits to Barcelona and Madrid had faded to blank. I closed my eyes and saw Breaking Bad, faces painted for Day of the Dead, Frida (obviously), then montages of Breaking Bad again wth SFA's song 'Guacamole' as soundtrack. 
Unlike Rebecca, Mexico had always been a place I'd wanted to visit. I have long been interested in Frida Kahlo's life and work, the Aztecs, and lately I have become more and more interested in the Day of the Dead. I've also a soft spot for magical realism, mariachi bands, peasant dresses and shawls, bright paint, chilli, and Tequila. Mexican cuisine is one of my favourite types of food both to eat and cook, and I recall a Christmas where I even cooked it for festive dinner complete with Margaritas of course. I love to travel though, so I generally say yes to things, even if when I get to my destination I wish I;d done more research before snapping to a decision. This time I took the weekend to sleep on it and spend a bit of time typing things into Google and talking to my darling man. And then I said yes, despite of that spider and not because of the drug smuggling possibilities. Once the decision was made I panicked, I planned and I packed! And then I repacked.
With books to sign off for printing and production and a lot of press to complete before I went, research was squeezed in to evenings and weekends as I trawled the internet for a place for us to stay – we settle on a vibrant, friendly place a short walk from the old town and the cathedral and around the corner from Musa (Museo de las Artes). There were lots of forms to fill out and emails to fire off to Mexican publishers to see if anyone was free to meet with me to discuss international rights for our titles and translation rights for theirs at such a late stage. I was met with the sound of silence.
This was my first time attempting to sell publishing and translation rights internationally or visiting an international rights fair where English was not to be the first language. I was not going to be fluent in Spanish in a week and so I practised a few basic phrases and packed a phrase book, along with maps of the main places I needed to go. I gathered some bullet-pointed advice from an excellent rights agent I knew and more from another publisher who'd been thrust into the deep end like this before too. Both said they thought it was unlikely I would make a sale while I was there, that rights is about relationship building and took time. I had to hope for chance meetings with the people I needed to speak to or a good literary scout at a party or networking event and prepare some promo material. I put together AI sheets and samples, packed catalogues and a few books and crossed my fingers for some good luck.

Guadalajara: Saturday

Sob. It's my last day in Guadalajara. Isn't it always the way with long haul journeys that just as the jet lag eases and the Spanish / local phrases start to stick and you are getting the hang of getting around that it is time to leave again? I'm packed – and sure my bag is overweight from swapping book stock for gifts (it is, slightly) – and out into the glorious sunshine in search of more art and a chance to look around the impressive neo-Gothic church, Templo Expiatorio, I've repeatedly spotted near us from taxi windows. I walk a couple of blocks left, past street art murals, secondhand bookshops and guitar shops and the church is suddenly in front of me. In the square street food traders sell fruit with chilli and crushed crickets if you are so inclined. I'm not hungry yet, and instead feast on architecture, wandering the exterior and interior of the building before crossing around the corner to MUSA (Museo de las Artes) where Hockney is showing as part of FIL as well as Mexican artist Sergio Arau's paintings of tattooed Botticelli cherubs in wrestling masks.





















Now for the 28-hour journey home...

Was FIL a success for the UK? Perhaps a big step in the right direction.

As a Publishing Editor it was a learning curve in rights and international fairs and last minute plans for me and I think we all made the best we could of it. As a writer travel is always fruitful for ideas, new experiences and stories and I'm glad I had the chance to go.

Hasta Luego Guadalajara, Mucho Gusto. 

Guadalajara: Friday

On Friday we had more time in the morning and chose to seek breakfast out, and settled on the terrace at Chai, a bright cafe in a small square off Juarez, a short walk from our hostel where the Huevos Rancheros and large coffee went down well.



Then we were back at MIND for the presentation of Mabli's painting to Jalisco Government before the film crew took Rebecca and I up to the roof for our interviews to camera. 



Then we were free to explore – heading out to picturesque artisan area of Tlaquepaque for some street food and shopping before joining the others for drinks and dinner at their glitzy hotel.






  After dinner I headed back to FIL with the boys for the second half of the Cinematic Orchestra set.

Guadalajara: Thursday

It was an early start on Thursday, to be on site for John, Owen and Mari's talk at 9am. We beat most of the exhibitors in, hopping over brooms and vacuums and the cleaners got the site ready for visitors.  This was the calm before the excited schoolchildren storm, arriving coach load by coach load, and buying books, mobbing authors, buying more books. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm in the 9am talk, and a full room at a time I was told was 'too early for most Mexicans!'






Later that day we manage to get out to Mercado Libertad (known locally as Mercado San Juan de Dios): 'Guadalajarans claim that it's the largest indoor market in the world' says my Rough Guide to Mexico. It is pretty big, with around 2,800 stalls - a sprawling maze of narrow lanes of stalls selling leather goods, clothes, tequila, shot glasses, handbags, ukuleles, all kinds of street food and birds in cages from roosters to songbirds. We come up for air and wander outside for some food – I opt for Sopa Azteca – a visit to a cash machine and a quick art fix for me at Plaza Tapatia where Alejandro Colunga's hall of mirrors bronze figures form quirky chairs and benches. Then we use our FIL passes to slip back inside the adjacent Hospicio Cabanas to see David Shrigley's exhibition and the Orozco murals from the Horsemen of the Apocalypse to The Man of Fire.

















Revived, fed and watered, we head back in the market, although I've not a lot of spare cash to flash, I do buy myself a shawl and some trinkets for xmas for himself and a few friends.


and then we head back to FIL


The Wonder of the Short Story: Tessa Hadley, Irvine Welsh, John Burnside

The post-talk author mob
 Jenny Walford (Culture group) and Rebecca at dinner in a nearby place where the food is lovely, swoon and the boys are all drinking clamato; a bloody Mary type drink involving clam broth and beer.
Mabli (left)
The film crew make friends again after pretending to hate each other during their rival teams football match on the telly