Carnival Blog RSS

Alex Haagaard gives a deep reading of Bad Ideas\Chemicals in her review on monsteringmag.com:

'It is perhaps best characterised as a slightly magical-realist dystopian satire of 21st century British neoliberalism; for all its more fantastical elements, this is a story with a very strong sense of place and time. A unique desperation pervades everything in Goregree—clinging like a film of mildew to the town's arrogantly optimistic historical architecture, and smothered under a layer of cheerful bureaucratic indifference. This is a portrait of the Welsh valleys—after the closure of the mines, and under austerity.' 

'[...] Bad Ideas\Chemicals is, at its heart, an account of what it is to be a freak. It portrays with painful honesty the many ways that society lets freaks know we're not welcome here.'

'[...] both disturbingly real and terribly sad.' 

Buy Bad ideas\Chemicals from our online shop for £7.99 and free P&P

Congratulations to Alys Conran (Pigeon) and Peter Lord (The Tradition) who have both had their latest books shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2017, as announced on BBC Radio Wales this morning.

The Wales Book of the Year Award, administered by Literature Wales, is presented to the best Welsh-language and English-language works first published in the preceding year in the fields of creative writing and literary criticism in three categories: Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction. 

The Short List comprises of three books in each of the following categories in both Welsh and English: Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction.

The English-language poetry category, sponsored by The Brecknock Society is entitled The Roland Mathias Poetry Award. The English-language fiction category is sponsored by The Rhys Davies Trust, and is entitled The Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award. The English-language judging panel this year are: award-winning author Tyler Keevil; Senior Lecturer Dimitra Fimi and the Costa Poetry Prize winner Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards said: 'This shortlist offers a real celebration of just how exciting, vibrant and diverse literature in Wales currently is. There are books here for everyone: poetry collections which are novelistic in their scope and ambition, novels whose innovations in language might be traditionally expected of poetry. There are biographies which don't so much show you a life as let you amble round in a world, reference books which can put six centuries on your coffee table. To be part of the announcement of this list is to be proud to be Welsh; the country which moved these writers to such astonishing achievement.'

Lleucu Siencyn, Chief Executive of Literature Wales said: 'It’s one of the literary highlights of the year, and we at Literature Wales have been filled with excitement for the release of this year's Short List. With the announcement taking place during Libraries Week, we hope that readers will head to their local library to seek out these wonderful titles to enjoy the wealth and variety of modern Welsh literature. Readers will travel from the shadow of slate mountains to 60s London; they’ll be lost at sea; they’ll experience the pain of radiation therapy; will learn about the history of Welsh art, and journey through themes of loss, myth and memory.'

The winners of this prestigious award will be announced at an Award Ceremony held in The Tramshed, Cardiff on the evening of Monday 13 November, where a total prize fund of £12,000 is up for grabs. Each category winner will receive a prize of £1,000, and the main award winners in each language will receive an additional £3,000. Each winner will also receive a specially commissioned trophy created by the artist Angharad Pearce Jones. Tickets for the Award Ceremony are £6 and can be purchased online from http://tramshedcardiff.com.

At the Award Ceremony both the People’s Choice Award and Gwobr Barn y Bobl (the Welsh-language people’s prize) will also be presented to the reading public’s favorite title from the Short List. Visit Wales Arts Review to vote for your favorite English-language title. 

A new edition of Dat’s Love has been published by Parthian’s Library of Wales series. Leonora Brito’s influential and award-winning collection of short stories was originally published in 1999. Yalan Bao reinvigorates Leonora’s stories and characters, reviving them for a new generation of readers. Leonora Brito was raised in and influenced by the multicultural community of Tiger Bay, she recreates the society’s values through a diverse collection of voices. Afro- Caribbean, Leonora writes about the diaspora felt by the Black-Welsh community. She has a vibrant writing style, inflected by humorous observations that highlight the oppression, persecution and daily life of...

Wil Roberts's forthcoming book, Paris, will be released in November and can be pre-ordered here. His award-winning novel Petrograd, published by Parthian in 2008, is also available for purchase here.   About Wil: Wiliam Owen Roberts was born in 1960 and educated at the University of Wales Aberystwyth. He worked for various theatre companies before joining HTV as a script editor in 1984. Since 1989 he has been a full-time writer and has written extensively for theatre, television, radio and film. His first novel Bingo! (1985) was described as the first postmodernist novel in Welsh. His second novel Y Pla (Pestilence; 1987) won the Welsh Arts Council Literature prize...