New Welsh Review

‘New Welsh Review is a magazine of high integrity, elegantly designed, well-produced and edited with rare intelligence and commitment. Anyone seriously interested in art and literature should read it.’ – Nicholas Spice, London Review of Books

‘New Welsh Review gets that dynamic balance right: it looks from Wales to a wide world, defined by where it comes from, not confined by it.’ – Philip Gross

Founded in 1988, New Welsh Review is Wales’ foremost literary magazine in English. For over thirty years, it has been central to the Welsh literary scene in offering a vital outlet for the very best new fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry, a forum for critical debate and a rigorous and engaged reviewing culture. Today, New Welsh Review holds true to its original mission statement: to be dynamic, curious, lively and outward-looking, to commemorate the past but to celebrate contemporary excellence and new directions.

The latest issue (#138) was beautifully redesigned by Olwen Fowler.

Featured Poets: Abeer Ameer – Srebrenica, Town of Silver and Salt (extracts from a long poem sequence commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide); glimpses of a long-running poem-and-image conversation between Penarth-based poet Philip Gross and Luxembourgois-American visual artist Kiera Faber; a cover poem from Roberto Pastore; and new work from the winner of the 2024 Jerwood Poetry Prize clare e. potter.
++ the Borzello Trust Poetry Prize winner, Natasha Gauthier, and runners-up Rhian Thomas, Cerys Hughes, Sarah Persson, Lesley James and Emma Baines.

Essays: Brennig Davies on masculinity and silence in Joe Dunthorne’s Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance and Anthony Shapland’s A Room Above a Shop; Imogen Davies on the controversies surrounding journalist, academic, and writer Goronwy Rees, his association with the Cambridge Spy Ring, and dislocation in his semi-autobiographical debut novel The Summer Flood; Jemma L. King on lyrical resistance in new poetry collections from Emily Cotterill, Gwyneth Lewis, Pascale Petit and Tracey Rhys; and Richard Huw Morgan on the two brains – fiction and non-fiction – of John Williams.

Fiction: A new short story by Nara Vidal, translated from Portuguese by Emyr Wallace Humphreys ++ new writing from the Rheidol Prize: For Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting winner Sam Christie and runners-up Natalie Ann Holborow and Sybilla Harvey.

Buy our latest issue from our bookshop

For individual and institutional digital subscriptions please visit Exact Editions

Editor Profile

Susie Wild is the editor of New Welsh Review. #138 (Summer 2025) is her inaugural issue. She is also Parthian’s publishing editor, specialising in poetry and fiction. Starting with us in 2007, she has since worked with many wonderful writers and translators including Julia Bell, Zoë Brigley, Mari Ellis Dunning, Rhian Elizabeth, Amaia Gabantxo, Richard Gwyn, Natalie Ann Holborow, Rae Howells, Tristan Hughes, Patrick Jones, Lloyd Markham, Miren Agur Meabe and Richard Owain Roberts. Following an MA in Creative Writing from Swansea University and an MA in Journalism from Goldsmiths, Susie has built a portfolio career in the arts as a journalist, festival and events organiser, performer, editor and university lecturer. She is the author of two poetry collections (Windfalls and Better Houses), the short story collection The Art of Contraception, listed for the Edge Hill Prize, and the novella Arrivals.

Contact Susie: editor.newwelshreview@gmail.com

Brief History:

Founded in 1988 as the successor to The Welsh Review (1939–1948), Dock Leaves and The Anglo-Welsh Review (1949–1987), New Welsh Review is Wales’ foremost literary magazine in English.

New Welsh Review has published some of the greatest writers and thinkers from Wales and beyond; Dannie Abse, Paul Muldoon, P.D. James, Emyr Humphreys, Leslie Norris, Gwyneth Lewis, Les Murray, Rachel Trezise, Niall Griffiths, Owen Sheers, Tiffany Murray, Christopher Meredith, Edna Longley, Byron Rogers and Gillian Clarke.

New Welsh Review is published with support from The Borzello Trust, Rheidol Trust and Books Council of Wales with thanks to Richard Powell and Bob Borzello.

Submissions:

We are open to submissions of creative non-fiction, short stories, poetry, review essays and photo essays on a rolling basis.

For our review essays, we want incisive, engaging and innovative essays of critical interest in the study and discussion of Welsh writing in English (particularly the latest generation of writers) or contemporary European literature in translation in English. These pieces should be between 2500 and 6000 words and focus on two to three books of any vintage.

For consideration for our guest poet spot please send six poems along with a short bio. If you would like to nominate a new or emerging poet to be a guest poet, drop us an email with a link to their work and why you think we should feature them.

Our 'In Conversation' slot is also open for pitches of collaborations, interviews (written and live event transcripts) and other interpretations.

Current flat rate fees: £150 for nonfiction / review essay pieces of around 2500-6000 words, £100 for short stories of around 2500-6000 words. Photography, In Conversation and poetry rates on application.

Our New Welsh Writing Awards will reopen for submissions in January 2026.

Get in touch: newwelshreview.submissions@gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you!