Carnival Blog RSS

At the Free Verse Poetry Book Fair in London today? Pop along and say hello to our dear poet Kate Noakes who is selling Parthian books all day and then reading at The Poetry Café this evening! She's a star! The Fair and the daytime readings are from 10.30am - 4.30pm at Conway Hall. Daytime workshops and evening readings are at The Poetry Café - the evening readings are 6.30 - 8.30pm.  

We're thrilled to find out today that Parthian have made it onto the regional shortlist for The British Book Awards' Small Press of the Year! Alongside children's and YA publisher Firefly Press, another fantastic publishing house, we'll be eagerly awaiting the winner's announcement on 20 March. Philip Jones, chair of the judges and editor of The Bookseller, said: 'The shortlist shows companies every bit as dedicated to their authors as the bigger publishers and with some notable success stories contained in their submissions. It is our pleasure to platform their hard work once again.' Read the full announcement here.  

Writing Women: Feminism in Poetry & Prose Fri 10 July 2020 - Sun 12 July 2020 Ty Newydd Tutors / Mari Ellis Dunning & Natalie Ann Holborow Course Fee / From £240 - £325 per person Genre / Poetry Language / Bilingual English Through workshops and group discussions, this course will explore the various ways in which feminism can be translated to creative writing and literature. We will uncover elements of feminism in works by writers such as Zoë Brigley, Fiona Benson, Angela Carter and Amber Sparks amongst others. During this course, we will embolden the women of fairy tale,...

We're looking forward to this digital road trip to coincide with the launch of How to Carry Fire, the second poetry collection by Christina Thatcher. Buckle up and join us for the ride!

In the mean time you can catch up with all that Christina has been up to on her own blog, with her latest entry: 'Proofs, Previews, Pre-Orders':

by Sydney Whiteside

The second day of the 2020 Seren Cardiff Poetry Festival opened on Saturday morning with the New Poetry Showcase, a spectacle of new poetry from authors with recently published or forthcoming collections. Featuring five writers, both debut poets and those on their second or third collection, the showcase was a brilliant start to a dazzling Saturday of poetry in Cardiff’s Temple of Peace.

Cardiff poet Roberto Pastore was the first to read, sharing poems from his new collection Hey Bert, out now with Parthian. Pastore’s poems burst with energy and humour, highlighting the beauty in the everyday and reminding us of our ‘all too humanness’. Among the poems read was ‘Heart Poem’, a beautiful look into memory and the often impossible expectations we place on ourselves.

Kittie Belltree, who was born in south London and now lives in Wales, followed with readings from her debut collection Sliced Tongue and Pearl Cufflinks, also out now with Parthian. Her poems explore domestic trauma, history, and mother-daughter relationships with paralyzing detail and wit. Belltree closed her reading with ‘Magician’s Daughter’, a beautifully haunting piece about sexual abuse that makes whimsical diction dangerous and twists words into unexpected and wonderful combinations.