Susie Wild's Blog: Wildlife, page 57

New Photos from the Wales Book of the Year Party. Taken by the lovely John Briggs. [Part Two]

New Photos from the Wales Book of the Year Party. Taken by the lovely John Briggs.

Nan, I'm on the telly!

Really lovely 2nd part of The Passion bbc documentary... (I appear in it about 7 times too!) http://t.co/nkJHJtl #ntw13 #porttalbot

The Raconteur

Just a quick post today -- I wanted to let you know that I am now the Associate Editor of The Raconteur. More exciting news on that front in the near future. Had a top meeting today with Cofounders and Editors Gary Raymond and Dylan Moore.

BUZZ: RACHEL TREZISE TO JUDGE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2011

RACHEL TREZISE TO JUDGE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2011BY SUSIE WILD ⋅ JUNE 2, 2011 ⋅ POST A COMMENTFILED UNDER  BOOKS, DYLAN THOMAS, DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE, HAY FESTIVAL, HAY-ON-WYE, RACHEL TREZISEAt an event to unveil the judges for this year's prestigious literary competition at Hay Festival last night it was announced that Rachel Trezise, the first winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize,  is to join this year's judging panel.Literary luminaries gathered for a champagne reception in Richard Booth's famous Bookshop in the Town of Books to hear readings by two of the three former winners ofthe University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize — US poet Elyse Fenton, who won the £30,000 prize last year for  Clamor , her debut collection of 21st century war poetry; and Rachel Trezise from Rhondda, the 2006 winner of the competition for her gritty collection of short stories  Fresh Apples .Peter Florence, creator and director of the Hay Festival and of the international programme of Hay Festivals, is to continue to chair the international panel of judges. He will also be joined by literary scholar Kurt Heinzelman, who is Professor of English at the University of Texas; Dr Mererid Hopwood, a National Eisteddfod Bardic Chair winner and who is also an acclaimed poet, linguist, academic and TV presenter; and Dr Kim Howells, former Pontypridd MP and Foreign Office Minister.Also on the panel will be the Daily Telegraphcolumnist and novelist Allison Pearson; and broadcaster, columnist and former history lecturer Professor Peter Stead.Commenting on the event, Peter Stead, who is also the Prize chairman, said:"Elyse's was an astonishing, fully accomplished book of huge ambition and spectacular delivery and we were delighted to discover this new poetic talent, while Rachel's collection was exceptional and focused the eyes of the world on the brilliance of Welsh writers."The excellence of their work is beyond question and stands out as examples of what the University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize is about – wonderfully evocative writing that the great man himself would have been proud to produce."I'm sure that this year's entries will match up to the standards set by their predecessors, and the panel is really looking forward to seeing what the latest batch of young writers have created."The £30,000 University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize is awarded to the best eligible published or produced literary work in the English language, written by an author under 30 years of age. The competition is open to authors from around the world and the winner will be announced at the final awards ceremony in Swansea on November 9.More info: www.dylanthomasprize.com

The Lampeter Review | Issue 3

There are some new fictional words from me in Issue 3 of The Lampeter Review, out now: http://lampeter-review.com/

One To Read: Lila Azam Zanganeh

Lila Azam Zanganeh: 'I've always wanted to push myself to do things I don't know how to do'Lila Azam Zanganeh loved Nabokov from an early age and has now turned her passion into a book. But be warned – it's like nothing you've read before
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/26/lila-azam-zanganeh-nabokov-interview

GUARDIAN CARDIFF: Embracing the e-ink

Blog homeSpotlight: Embracing the e-inkGuest blogger and Cardiff writer Susie Wild takes a look at new innovations in Welsh publishing which are being celebrated with a launch do in the city tonight Comments (0)Changes are afoot in the world of books and publishing – and a Welsh publisher is embracing them. With attention spans shrinking, short stories, sudden fiction, essays and novellas are rising in popularity and a new digital pamphlet format, thus far only launched in the US is embracing this shift. Now Parthian Books intends to launch four new ebooks in this format – including my novella Arrivals which we'll be celebrating with other Cardiff writers at a launch party tonight.Amazon describes the Kindle Single as an ebook that's 'twice the length of a New Yorker feature or as much as a few chapters of a typical book'. The l0,000 to 30,000 word digital pamphlets will be produced by writers, scientists, business leaders, historians, politicians, publishers and other big thinkers. In fact, in their announcement of the Kindle Single launch Amazon writes the size of these ebooks offers the 'perfect, natural length to lay out a single killer idea, well researched, well argued and well illustrated—whether it's a business lesson, a political point of view, a scientific argument, or a beautifully crafted essay on a current event'. It also offers a more financially viable way of publishing for those important, but not mass market publications, and a lifeline for non-Faber poets, the small presses and literary or niche magazines.The Kindle Single format, in its official capacity, will be hitting UK shoressometime soon and offers these quick-read books at a fraction of the price of hard copy novels, on a budget more in line with a magazine or Sunday newspaper. In sales terms, the Kindle is already taking off, the Amazon US store stocks over 950,000 Kindle titles and Amazon was reporting that Kindle edition sales were outstripping paperbacks in the US (105 Kindle ebooks:100 paperbacks).Welsh publisher Parthian Books are known for supporting new writers with their Nu anthologies (Nu2: Memorable Firsts launches in July) andBright Young Things series – the next instalment, 10 of the Best features five new poets including Cardiff's Mab Jones and launches next month.By picking raw talent Parthian has launched the careers of Rachel Trezise, Deborah Kay Davies, Tyler Keevil and Rebecca Hunt, so it seems right that it should be a pioneer in terms of embracing the new e-ink technology, and creating the first ebook-only launch by a Welsh publisher. Parthian starts its e-ink love-in by launching four ebook titles following the new Kindle Single model.The four Parthian Kindle titles include my novella Arrivals, from my Edge Hill short story prize long-listed collection The Art of Contraception and Muscles Came Easy by former Wales Book of The Year winner Aled Islwyn. The new Kindle ebook format also allows forgotten greats from their Library of Wales series to reach a wider, global audience. The stories can move with the times. As such two revered Library of Walestitles – A Thing of Nought by Hilda Vaughan, and The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen will also see their Kindle ebooks launched this month.Tonight Parthian Books are throwing a party at Y Fuwch Goch (The Red Cow) on Womanby Street to mark the global launch of these four skinny Kindle books. Throwing a launch party for ebooks, to some, may seem a bit weird. How does it work? In tonight's case, much the same as any other book launch – there will be readings, chatter and hopefully some book sales... although authors may have to sign autograph books and torsos rather than your Kindle screens. Co-founder and editor of the amazing literary magazine The Raconteur, Dylan Moore, will be our host for the night. Living Cardiff-based writers Aled Islwyn and myself will both read extracts from our novellas (on Kindles, of course) while Gwilym Games, the editor of Machenalia for the Friends of Arthur Machen, will read an extract from The Great God Pan and Laura Wainwright will read a short extract from A Thing of Nought. Dylan may ask us a couple of questions, and so may you. Then Cardiff's DJ Dave 'Grooveslave' Morris will spin some tunes while we mingle, chat, exchange money with the bar staff and play with our Kindles.You don't have to buy a Kindle to read Kindle ebooks. There is a Kindle app that can be downloaded onto your laptop, iPad or mobile phone that enable you to buy and read books in the Kindle format. For those of you not quite ready to take the digital leap but interested in the titles, hard copies of A Thing of Nought,The Great God Pan, Out With It, and The Art of Contraception will also be for sale on the night, and can all be bought from Parthian Books. Entrance to tonight's launch party is free, the event starts at 7pm. Susie Wild is a writer, poet, journalist and editor.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/cardiff/2011/may/25/parthian-books-ebooks-kindle-series

The End of Guardian Cardiff :(

Hello. The Guardian Cardiff local blog project finished on Friday. I've been a guest blogger for them over the last year, so this is me pulling  a sad face :(  My last Guardian Cardiff blog will go live tomorrow afternoon.
To find out what will be happening with Cardiff Blog meetings, tweets and other stuff read on...
"Regular readers will have aptly noticed this is the last week of the Guardian Cardiff blog – with our final day this Friday 27 May.

This week we'll be celebrating some of the great reader submissions for the blog including the best Flickr submissions, guest posts and stories covered on the blog in the last year – and we welcome you to add your comments below on what you've enjoyed.It might also be worth stating here what will happen to some elements of the blog and projects run by Guardian Cardiff. Here's a round up of what will happen to some of what we've been doing in the last year:Cardiff Bloggers Meet Ups – The meetings will continue, under the excellent organisation of Ed Walker from Media Wales – if you think you can help out Ed in any way, including setting up, shifting equipment or brainstorming ideas for meetings – then let him know. Don't forget it's Guardian Cardiff's last bloggers meet this Wednesday from 8pm at the Media Point in ChapterCardiff Social Media Surgeries – Last week we announced the next stage of the Cardiff Social Media Surgeries which will be disbanding from a central bi-monthly session to five locally arranged surgeries across the city – find out more info hereProject:document will be taken over by Stu Herbert, a Merthyr-based photographer who was part of the genus of the idea for the project and instrumental in keeping it going in the last year – he'll be announcing the new themes and locations soon so befriend him on Flickr to await newsThe rest of the blog – Guardian Cardiff will have no new posts after this Friday 27 May, but you'll still be able to find the site via guardian.co.uk/cardiff and search for older posts which are eternalised in Google. Data, maps, visualisations and slideshows should all still be viewable, but obviously some bits and bobs may disappear as Guardian Cardiff accounts are closed downGdnCardiff on Twitter – We have more than 5,000 followers and a thriving Twitter community. This will be rebranded and taken over by a trusted local tweeter who is already producing exciting new community content. Helia Phoenix runs @roathCardiff @hack_flash @cfgigpostersand much more. The Twitter account will be officially transferred over and no longer have links to the Guardian, but will still provide a fantastic source of news, links and Cardiff chat which is worth followingThat leaves me to say I'll be sad to leave Cardiff but I am moving on to pastures new to join Guardian.co.uk as community coordinator in news. It's not time for goodbyes just yet though and I hope to see many of you at the bloggers meet up tomorrow."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cardiff/2011/may/24/end-of-guardian-cardiff-what-happens-next

BUZZ: FOLK THE OWL | LIVE REVIEW

> REVIEWSFOLK THE OWL | LIVE REVIEWBY SUSIE WILD ⋅ MAY 23, 2011 ⋅ POST A COMMENTFILED UNDER  CARDIFF, DAVID THOMAS BROUGHTON, FOLK, FOLK THE OWL, GARETH BONELLO, JOE COLEMAN, MEILIR, MEILIR TOMOS, MUSIC,THE GATE, THE GENTLE GOOD
22 May 2011, The Gate, Cardiff**** Featuring Joe Coleman, The Gentle Good, Meilir and David Thomas Broughton. I don't know where the folk the audience were, but at least the glorious folk was there in spades.For some reason the crowd stayed away from the Folk The Owl gig on Sunday, but despite this, and the sloshed, shambolic host, the evening session was enjoyable due to being blessed with four professional musical talents.Lovely folkster youngster Joe Coleman, the first of the four bearded rising stars to stand in front of the statement wallpaper, sang a pretty pastoral set of songs accompanied by guitar and harmonica. Many were recognisable as favourites from his sets at Swansea's ever-popular Skye folk night, and are on his new White Rabbit EP which launches at Skye on Thursday and includes the upbeat number 'Closer now' which I bloody love. Go along and wish this infectiously smiley happy man well.The less said about the host's performance (Robert Doherty) the better. So following that egocentric abuse of the eardrums, we were saved by a sublime set from Gareth Bonello aka The Gentle Good who is both gentle and good. Bonello plays a mixture of trad folk and his own compositions in Welsh and English and he does a mean line in 60s finger-picking guitar too. 'This track is amazing' gasps a blonde girl in the audience, clearly a fan. This happens more than once. She's not wrong, Gareth plays damn well and captivates us all – brogues, beards and barnets were happily nodding along across the room. His long-awaited second album Tethered For The Stormcame out on the Welsh label Gwymon a couple of months back and it is ace. I particularly love track one, 'Aubade', a song set at dawn about two lovers who are lying in bed, wishing that the sun wasn't coming up to separate them. It shares its title with a Philip Larkin poem. I also enjoyed hearing 'Llosgi Pontydd' (Burning Bridges) again, a track he wrote when he was frustrated with a job and fantasising about quitting and burning bridges, something sure to resonate with most creative types/ most anyone. The Gentle Good has been compared to Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Nick Drake and John Martyn, but these days I think Gareth Bonello sounds exactly like himself, which is a (gentle) good thing. As his set drew to a close the audience yelled for more, but sadly time was against us…In fact, due the the host's bad time management, Meilir's spectral set was reduced to "The Greatest Hits" rushing through beautiful tracks from his latest bilingual EP Cellar Songs on keyboard and thumb piano accompanied by quirky percussion that ranged from hitting gravel in a cat litter tray with feet or sticks to typing on a typewriter (magical). His sorrow-drenched voice bring to mind Thom Yorke's solo stuff and though I've heard it often, 'Less Wrong (Part 1)' still gives me shivers. Frighteningly catchy 'Fingertips' is the EP's best track with its curious refrain of  'don't be so strange'.  No, Meilir, do and also continue to Bydd Wych.Finally the genius that is David Thomas Broughton headlined and provided me with yet another reason to love Brainlove Records. If you let him, he'd have you believe he was 'a perfect louse' but let's not indulge in such nonsense. The tidiest of the folksters – my friend described the look as 'Swedish Folk' – the London-based Yorkshireman started the spectral electro-folk set layering tracks with loops of beats, bleeps, pyrotechnic percussive interludes and sexy samples, and ended unplugged (that host mismanagement again) standing in the middle of the audience, unfazed, improvising and filling the missing volume by using the empty bottles on the tables as backing. Broughton has a vaudeville croon of a voice, is not afraid to experiment, displays offbeat brilliance, and uses words like 'piffle' in his lyrics, which should be applauded. A gem of a performance and absolutely recommended to the lot of you. As Joe Coleman predicted, he did 'change our lives' for the better. Buy his album Outbreeding, it is out today.
http://www.buzzmag.co.uk/music/folk-the-owl-live-review/