Wales Book of the Year 2009: The Shortlist

Belatedly (I've returned from a wonderful time at Hay), the shortlist for the English language Wales Book of the Year has been announced and is as follows:

Deborah Kay Davies - Grace, Tamar and Lazlo the Beautiful (Parthian)
Gee Williams - Blood etc. (Parthian)
Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch - Not In These Shoes (Picador)

The winner will be announced on Monday 15 June 2009, 7.00 pm at the St David’s Hotel and Spa, Cardiff. More details on the prize, as well as details on how to book your ticket for the awards ceremony, can be found by visiting Academi

Make Hay - two free tickets

I've got two tickets to give away for New Welsh Review's event at Hay this Sunday 24th May at 4pm, when I'll be in conversation with Fflur Dafydd and Nam Le. First two blog readers to email their name and postal address to editor[AT]newwelshreview[dot]com before this Thursday (midday) will each win a ticket.

New Welsh Review - Issue 84

New Welsh Review 84 – the 21st Anniversary Issue – is out now.

This issue's contributors include Owen Sheers, Anne Stevenson, Kitty Sewell, Rachel Trezise, Richard Gwyn, Christopher Meredith, Tim Lebbon, Richard Lewis Davies, Meirion Jordan, Joe Dunthorne, Carrie Etter and Damian Walford Davies. The issue also includes an exclusive final interview with one of the twentieth century's greatest photojournalists, Philip Jones Griffiths. Subscribe now or buy individual issues of Wales's finest literary magazine. Visit www.newwelshreview.com

Plus: don't forget to join us at Hay on Sunday 24th May, as I chat to leading young authors Nam Le (author of The Boat and winner of the 2008 Dylan Thomas Prize) and Fflur Dafydd (author of Twenty Thousand Saints). Visit the Guardian Hay Festival website to book your ticket.

A Poet's Guide to Britain

Owen Sheers presents a series of programmes examining the influence of place on classic poems. The series looks at the work of William Wordsworth (May 4), Sylvia Plath (May 11), George Mackay Brown (May 18), Matthew Arnold (May 25), Lynette Roberts (June 1) and Louis MacNeice (June 8), and includes contributions from contemporary poets Don Paterson, Gillian Clarke, Simon Armitage, Paul Farley, Clare Pollard, Adam O'Riordan and myself. The series is part of a welcome season of poetry programming by BBC2 and BBC4 running from May to June. Further details on the season can be found here , and Owen will be considering his experience of bringing poetry to television in the summer issue of New Welsh Review which will be published shortly.