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Day two of our Rhys Davies Short Story Award author insights! Today we interviewed Kate Lockwood Jefford, who was shortlisted for her story, ‘Conditions for an Avalanche’. Born and raised in Cardiff, Kate has trained as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist with an interest in writing and performing, including stand-up comedy. She has also completed an MA in creative writing at Birkbeck. Kate has written many short stories which have featured in collections such as the Brick Lane Bookshop 2020 Prize Anthology and the Fish Publishing & Bristol Prize Anthologies 2021. Her short story, Picasso’s Face, won the 2020 VS Pritchett...

To celebrate the lead up to Christmas, we at Parthian thought we’d publish a series of author interviews with the writers who were shortlisted for The 2021 Rhys Davies Short Story Award, continuing from where we left off with Naomi Paulus. Today we are kicking this series off with Elizabeth Pratt, who shared her experience writing the short story, ‘James, In During’. Elizabeth Pratt, who also writes under Elizabeth Ardith Aylward, is an enthusiastic short story and flash fiction author. Having previously won the HE Bates Short Story Competition in 2018, the Frome Festival Short Story Competition in 2020, and...

This week, for her WRITERS CHAT series, Sarah Gilligan talks to author Sarah Broughton about her recent release Brando's Bride. You say several times in the book that Anna Kashfi was “both of her time and one of a kind” and that she was “a part of history and yet also extinguished from it.” Was part of your aim in writing this book to bring her – and her story – back into the folds of history and also popular culture? Did you see her as one of the forgotten women of history? This is an area I’ve always been...

JAMIE GILLINGHAM What do you find are the most enjoyable and most challenging aspects of writing/being a writer? RHYS OWAIN WILLIAMS I think most writers struggle to switch off, and perhaps we never completely do. Everything we encounter in life has the potential to provide that flash of inspiration. Feeling attuned to the world around you in that way is such a positive experience, giving you those moments of absolute creative thought, but it can also be a huge strain on your mental health. The screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan said that “being a writer is like having homework every night for...

Jenny White calls Roberto Pastore 'A sparkling new poetic voice' in the Western Mail today.  We may be biased, but we'd have to agree ;) 'Juggling the mystical and the mundane, Roberto Pastore's first full-length collection of poetry is a thrilling book that begs to be savoured. Bright, vivid memories of people loved and lost, the slipperiness of time and memory, the hope that can be found even in the depths of suffering – it's all there in these beautiful, enigmatic, often incantatory poems.' Pick up a copy of the Western Mail today to read the interview in full. Buy...