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‘I avoided becoming a writer for as long as I could’ Interview with Eeva Park, author of The Rules of Bird Hunting, part of the Parthian Baltic Series
Eeva Park is one of the authors featured in the new Parthian Baltic Series. Whilst she began her writing career as a poet, she is also well-known for her short-stories, novels and plays. The Rules of Bird Hunting is a lively, strongly autobiographical collection of poems, exploring changing values over the course of a lifetime, and features the author’s best work from the last three decades. Eeva Park tells us more about her writing, her influences and gives us some insight into the process of both translating and being translated.
'In the Goldfish Bowl'- a response by Richard Davies
Writer and publisher Richard Lewis Davies responds in the New Welsh Reader to a commentary on the Hughes report.
‘Nothing changes, it only looks that way’ Interview with Latvian poet Madara Gruntmane and translator Richard O’Brien
The Parthian Baltic series introduces contemporary Baltic writing to an English-speaking audience. Many of these writers have been translated into English for the first time. The process of translating writing from one language into another involves more than a simple translation of words – it is a translating of cultures, values and meaning. Parthian asked one of the Parthian Baltic authors, Latvian poet Madara Gruntmane, and translator, Richard O’Brien, for their insight into the process.
Books matter in the Baltic
The three Baltic states will be the market focus for the 2018 London Book Fair, just one part of a year-long programme to commemorate a century of independence for each country. This focus brings an opportunity to delve into the tangles of literary history, and to appreciate the contemporary cultural landscapes of these lesser-known countries.
Susie Wild at Satellite of Love / NWR Review
New Welsh Review Reviewed Better Houses: Wild clearly has a sense of fun. Her poem, ‘Pub Crawl Date’ – cataloguing a nine-pint epic evening out – had me chuckling out loud. So too, ‘The Bed Testers’. But, in my view, Wild is at her best when she is more serious and, to this end, there were several stand-out poems. [...] Similarly, there is a Plath-like forensic quality to ‘The Lash Museum’ which I also really enjoyed. It opens with ‘A gutsy Cornish wind / slammed the caravan door shut, / skinning a birthmark, / my head / a blood fountain.’...
