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Following hard on the heels of some great reviews, The Vagabond King is going on tour! Check out the dates on this pretty poster and be sure to see what the bloggers have to say.

A Thousandfold Loving: Derick Mattern reviews Pomegranate Garden by Haydar Ergülen, edited by Mel Kenne, Saliha Paker, and Caroline Stockford, Parthian, 2019. 'Haydar Ergülen is the most prominent of a group of poets that emerged during the 1980s in Turkey, an era woefully underrepresented in translation. Drawing on some forty years of work, this selection of nearly eighty poems is the first volume of his work – and the first major work of his generation – to appear in English. 'A poet of deep affections, this selection highlights Ergülen’s love poems, his summer poems, his nostalgias, his constant connection to the...

Uršuľa Kovalyk's short story collection, The Night Circus and Other Stories, has been on a whirlwind tour of Britain this autumn, and collected reviews from far and wide. Feminist, poignant, vividly imaginative, it was described by European Literature Network thus: "A strongly feminist perspective expresses itself in the way such longings materialise, often independently of a woman’s consciousness, in dreamlike experiences presented as real – full of vibrant colour and luscious sensuousness, where women are literally rejuvenated." The London Magazine applauded the richness of Kovalyk's prose and themes: "Kovalyk is striking in the boldness of her imagination: we encounter cute and...

Writing on Nation.Cymru Jon Gower finds much to admire in Zoë Brigley's new essay collection. 'Throughout this collection Brigley is challengingly open about her own life. Which turns out to have had its challenges especially because, as a young writer she found it hard to write about personal material, which she described as a ‘writerly shyness.’ As a young woman she found herself in an abusive relationship with an older man. So the essays prove she has overcome both and now faces her fears head-on. 'These Notes from a Swing State are written with an openness to ideas redolent of...

Representatives from the Cardiff poetry scene, Literature Wales and the British Council were at St Canna's in Cardiff yesterday to welcome the Turkish poet and writer Haydar Ergülen to Wales and share a cultural exchange with readings from his new selected poems Pomegranate Garden as well as poetry about Cardiff, about Wales, about place and about love. All with a bonus buffet and wine! It was a superb way to spend a Sunday lunchtime. Featuring tanslator, editor and poet Caroline Stockford alongside Cardiff-based poets Topher Mills, J. Brookes, Kate North, Roberto Pastore, Luca Paci, Mab Jones and Susie Wild. Thanks to...