LAUNCH PARTY: New Welsh Review Issue 138

The new New Welsh Review

Saturday 13 September, 2-5.30pm

Join us at elysium gallery, 210 High Street, Swansea to celebrate the latest issue of New Welsh Review with readings and live music.

Founded in 1988, New Welsh Review is Wales’ foremost literary magazine in English. For over thirty years, it has been central to the Welsh literary scene in offering a vital outlet for the very best new fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry, a forum for critical debate and a rigorous and engaged reviewing culture. Today, New Welsh Review holds true to its original mission statement: to be dynamic, curious, lively and outward-looking, to commemorate the past but to celebrate contemporary excellence and new directions.

We’ll be kicking off with a set from the excellent Swansea band Dark & Twisties at 2pm with readings to follow from issue contributors including Abeer Ameer, Natasha Gauthier, Natalie Ann Holborow, Roberto Pastore and clare e. potter as well as more great music from Ben Wildsmith.

Beautifully redesigned by Olwen Fowler, and now edited by yours truly, come and celebrate our inaugural new look, new team edition #138.

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Dark & Twisties are Sarah Birch, Kate Ronconi, Sarah Passmore, Danny Kilbride and Huw Rees, a collective made up of members of Lost Tuesday Society, Rag Foundation, and Sarah and the Creepy Uncles. They weave stories old and new into strange and beautiful songs with glorious harmonies and skilful musicianship. They are currently working towards their debut album Ungrateful Women and we can’t wait to hear it.https://www.facebook.com/DarkandTwistiesMusicAbeer Ameer is a poet of Iraqi heritage who lives in Cardiff. Her poem ‘at least’ (MODRON) has been shortlisted for the 2025 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. Her debut collection, Inhale/Exile, was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2022. Currently working on a second, Abeer shares readings on her YouTube channel.Natasha Gauthier is a Canadian poet and journalist living in Cardiff. The winner of the Borzello Trust Poetry Prize 2025 and the Poetry Wales Award 2024-25, Natasha established and hosts Tiger Bay Poetry at Chapter Arts Centre.Natalie Ann Holborow is a winner of the Terry Hetherington Award and the Robin Reeves Award. Little Universe, her third full collection, was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2025. Natalie was a runner-up in the New Welsh Writing Awards Rheidol Prize 2025 for her short story ‘The Man Who Knew Things’.Roberto Pastore is a poet based in Cardiff. His first collection Hey Bert was highly commended by the Forward Poetry Prize. His second, Graveyards On Other Planets, is published in 2025.clare e. potter won the RSL Jerwood Poetry Award 2025 for Cymru. Her Cymraeg pamphlet Nôl Iaith follows new collection Healing the Pack. Her BBC Radio Wales programme The Poet’s Poet was nominated for a 2025 Celtic Media Award.Ben Wildsmith is a musician, writer, Nation.Cymru columnist, and poet. His memoir about adoption and identity Whose Song to Sing? will be published by Calon in February 2026. He’s been a performing musician since he was fifteen and his album Damn My Sense of Humour will be out in 2026.