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In pre-Christian times, the Gaelic festival of Samhain, celebrating the end of harvest and beginning of Winter would have taken place across Wales in the form of Calan Gaeaf. This would happen about midway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, on a date that we now recognise as Halloween...

‘Morais is right; if we have lived in a place long enough, we all know a Kung Fu or two. We probably know a Pavement Poet as well – highly educated immigrants who have gone through hell to get here […], only to find themselves treated with contempt by the likes of the obnoxious Jolyon […] Less familiar to some, perhaps may be the other characters that people Morais’ acutely observed stories: drug-dealers, users, people who are in- or just out-of or just-about-to-go-into-jail, rogue families, scary hardmen and vile, predatory males who present themselves as Nice Guys. […]' 'This turning-around...

Morning. Lush weather.

Parthian are sending us out on yet another exotic trip – the next date on the last polar bear on earth tour is tomorrow night at Ye Olde Murenger House, Newport, and it kicks off at 7.30PM.

Pontypridd, Cardiff, Neath, Swansea and now Newport – I’m living the dream. In all fairness, I did spend a month in Sweden a few weeks ago, so I’m not complaining.

In Newport I’m sharing the bill with Mari Ellis. I met Mari a few years ago now through the Terry Hetherington Young Writers Award. She won first prize in the competition and I won second (a scandalous decision, if you ask me).

We both won those prizes with our short stories. Mari's was about a dolphin and mine was about some old ladies exercising, so maybe that’s why she won first and I won second – everyone loves a dolphin. Old ladies sweating – not so much.

It was a long time ago anyway and I've forgiven her for snatching the prize money from my grasp, and I'm looking forward to our event, this time reading our poetry. Mari’s collection, Salacia, is available to buy here and she kindly took some time out from spending her prize money to write this piece about mental health and her poetry, especially for my blog.

Over and out.

by Rhian Elizabeth I posted the obligatory back to school photograph of my daughter on Facebook this morning. Because if you don’t post that photo then basically you are a bad mother and all your Facebook mother friends will judge you. Although I will admit that, unlike other parents and their photo captions, I was not 'bursting with pride' at the sight of Scout in her new uniform (after weeks of complaining about the stiffness of collars and the length of skirts and the uncomfortableness of ties I was just glad she put the fucking thing on), I was not...