The results of the New Welsh Review Poetry Prize, in association with the University of Aberystwyth, were announced last night.
Winner:
John Goodby for 21st October 1966
Runners-up:
Philip Tomkins for The Bed
Katherine Stansfield for Swine Song
The prizes were awarded by poet Philip Gross at a ceremony in Aberystwyth last night. Congratulations to the winners. Winning poems will be published in New Welsh Review in the autumn.
Friday, 13 March 2009
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
New Welsh Review Poetry Prize Event
Join New Welsh Review, in association with Aberystwyth University Department of English and Creative Writing, when we announce the winners of our 2009 Poetry Prize:
Thursday March 12th from 6.30pm at The Bookshop, Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Alongside an opportunity to hear the winning poems, there will also be a chance to catch what will no doubt be an engaging reading from one of the UK's finest poets, Philip Gross.
The event also launches our spring issue, out now.
Entry is free, and we hope to see you there.
Thursday March 12th from 6.30pm at The Bookshop, Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Alongside an opportunity to hear the winning poems, there will also be a chance to catch what will no doubt be an engaging reading from one of the UK's finest poets, Philip Gross.
The event also launches our spring issue, out now.
Entry is free, and we hope to see you there.
Magma Poetry
The latest issue of Magma includes an article by me on the contemporary poetry scene in Wales and the output from Welsh poets.
This edition also includes some fine reviews of recent collections, a great interview with Glyn Maxwell (recent nominee for the T S Eliot Prize) and Michael Symmons Roberts on research and poetry.
This edition also includes some fine reviews of recent collections, a great interview with Glyn Maxwell (recent nominee for the T S Eliot Prize) and Michael Symmons Roberts on research and poetry.
Monday, 2 March 2009
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Happy St David's Day
There is much for the Welsh to be proud of on this St David's Day. Cole Moreton, who has family in the valleys, reports in today’s Independent on Sunday.
Looking at literature from Wales, Moreton cites David Jones, Roald Dahl and the two Thomases. The only two living writers mentioned are Dick Francis and Gwyneth Lewis. Unfortunately, Lewis is described as the National Poet. Of course, the talented Lewis was the first National Poet for Wales and she did a great job during her tenure – in 2005-6. Gillian Clarke is in fact the current incumbent.
And why no mention of any of the following, just for starters: John Williams, Owen Sheers, Trezza Azzopardi, Joe Dunthorne, Robert Lewis, Meirion Jordan, Lloyd Jones, Sarah Waters, Malcolm Pryce, Stevie Davies, Robert Minhinnick. Niall Griffiths, Richard Gwyn, Tristan Hughes or Rachel Trezise?
On the plus side, Trezise provides engaging comment on modern Wales for the IoS for the occasion. You can read it here.
And if you want to discover just how much Welsh literature has to offer then click here.
Dydd Gwyl Dewi Dedwydd!
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
New Welsh Review - Issue 83 published in early March
New Welsh Review 83 will be published in early March and will feature Tom Anderson on La-La Land and the Culture of Impulse, Jane MacNamee on the life and work of Eiluned Lewis, Judy Kendall on Edward Thomas and John Sam Jones on gay literature. In our opinion and comment pages, David Adams considers the death of theatre criticism in Wales and Robert Minhinnick considers his latest work-in-progress, In Goliath's Country.
Poems and Fiction come from Charles Simic, Kelly Grovier, Paul Henry, Richard Marggraf Turley, Carrie Etter, Katherine Stansfield, Henry Shukman and Bethan Roberts.
For details on how to subscribe visit our website
Monday, 9 February 2009
It's a hard knock life
Peter Finch, in a recent Insider column for The Western Mail, writes an interesting and witty piece on that relentless triumph of hope over experience: the literary magazine.
The literary magazine scene has always been fraught with difficulty and financial crisis – across the UK and Ireland. For the majority of small magazines, privately run in someone’s front room and without subsidy, the mortality rate is beyond high. For those with subsidy, nothing can be taken for granted any longer. We’re in a recession. Belts must and will be tightened. It will be enough to break many magazines.
If only the number of unsolicited submissions to small magazines were reflected in the sales and subscriptions. Thousands, it would seem, want to appear in magazines. But, strangely, many don’t want to buy them and read them. Certain writers overlook an indisputable truth: that you really do have to be in(to) it to win it. Submitting without an evidenced knowledge of the magazine limits the chances of success to almost non-existent. And if you want an audience for your work you have to play a part in supporting the magazines that first connect you with such. It’s a cooperative, you might say.
The e-zine scene hasn’t yet taken off – having so many of the problems of the smaller print magazines in attracting leading writers who quite rightly want payment, credibility and cachet. It will eventually, however, as much of our current print experience moves online over the next five to ten years – in tandem with advertising, and enhanced and cheaper mobile technologies.
Life online, in 2019, despite cost savings on print, won’t be any easier for the magazine seeking a wide, engaged audience or those committed stewards who edit and promote them, who believe – as they should – that magazines shape and drive the future of a literature, however subtle or unattributed that can sometimes seem. Yet the small magazine will continue to come - and go. Reanimation has always been the chief characteristic of the scene. Mags will still be around to take the risks, to push the boundaries, to get it wrong and sometimes get it so right.
Tough times are indeed ahead. But necessity is the mother of invention. And invention – and re-invention – is what it’s all about.
The literary magazine scene has always been fraught with difficulty and financial crisis – across the UK and Ireland. For the majority of small magazines, privately run in someone’s front room and without subsidy, the mortality rate is beyond high. For those with subsidy, nothing can be taken for granted any longer. We’re in a recession. Belts must and will be tightened. It will be enough to break many magazines.
If only the number of unsolicited submissions to small magazines were reflected in the sales and subscriptions. Thousands, it would seem, want to appear in magazines. But, strangely, many don’t want to buy them and read them. Certain writers overlook an indisputable truth: that you really do have to be in(to) it to win it. Submitting without an evidenced knowledge of the magazine limits the chances of success to almost non-existent. And if you want an audience for your work you have to play a part in supporting the magazines that first connect you with such. It’s a cooperative, you might say.
The e-zine scene hasn’t yet taken off – having so many of the problems of the smaller print magazines in attracting leading writers who quite rightly want payment, credibility and cachet. It will eventually, however, as much of our current print experience moves online over the next five to ten years – in tandem with advertising, and enhanced and cheaper mobile technologies.
Life online, in 2019, despite cost savings on print, won’t be any easier for the magazine seeking a wide, engaged audience or those committed stewards who edit and promote them, who believe – as they should – that magazines shape and drive the future of a literature, however subtle or unattributed that can sometimes seem. Yet the small magazine will continue to come - and go. Reanimation has always been the chief characteristic of the scene. Mags will still be around to take the risks, to push the boundaries, to get it wrong and sometimes get it so right.
Tough times are indeed ahead. But necessity is the mother of invention. And invention – and re-invention – is what it’s all about.
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