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The Captain’s Tower Blog

Editors of The Captain’s Tower: Seventy Poets Celebrate Bob  Dylan at Seventy, Phil Bowen, Damian Furniss and David Woolley, have launched a blog dedicated to the Collection – http://thecaptainstowerdylanbook.blogspot.com

All information and events regarding the Collection and the seventy poems and poets that are featured can be found on the blog.

Please help Seren in supporting it!

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Graham Mort’s collection of short stories ‘Touch’ short-listed for the Edge Hill Prize

Graham Mort’s collection of short stories Touch has been short-listed for the Edge Hill University short story prize 2011.

Touch includes the Bridport prize winning story ‘The Prince’, which was described by novelist Tracy Chevalier as “..the writing is word perfect..”.

From a young child adrift on an ice-filled lake to an ageing farmer facing life alone, the twenty-one stories display a deep sensitivity to both the natural world and to human relationships. In skilfully crafted prose, vivid with detail, Mort examines the strength and fragility of life and the ties that hold us within it.

See the Edge Hill Univeristy Short Story Prize 2011 shortlist – click here

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Seren Authors at the Hay Festival

A whole host of Seren authors will be appearing at this year’s Telegraph Hay Festival from 30th May to 4th June – Gwyneth Lewis, Niall Griffiths, Ken Elias, Ceri Thomas, Paul Henry, Mavis Nicholson, Peter J. Conradi and Grahame Davies. Book your tickets now on the Hay Festival website: www.hayfestival.com

Gwyneth Lewis and Niall Griffiths
New Stories from the Mabinogion
Event 146 • Monday 30 May 2011, 2.30pm • Venue: Summer House
Two more new versions of the Welsh mythologies. Lewis spins the tale of Blodeuwedd, the woman made of flowers, into a sci-fi setting in The Meat Tree. Griffiths conjures an Iraq-bound squaddie and a Cardiff gangsta in The Dreams of Max and Ronnie.
Price: £6.00

Ken Elias talks to Ceri Thomas
Thin Partitions
Event 178 • Tuesday 31 May 2011, 11:30am • Venue: Elmley Foundation Theatre
An illustrated conversation surveying forty years of the esteemed Glynneath artist’s work in painting, collage and photomontage.
Price: £5.00

Paul Henry & Patrick Jones
The Brittle Sea, Hafan Cymru
Event 257 • Thursday 2 June 2011, 1pm • Venue: The Moot
Paul Henry reads and discusses his New and Selected Poems. The individual human voice, the ragged vagaries of the heart and soul, the joys and sorrows of family life feature here but this poetry is personal without being confessional, preferring tender observation to sensationalism or didacticism. Jones reads writing arising from his work with victims of domestic abuse. Chaired by Benna Waites.
Price: £4.00

Mavis Nicholson talks to Sarah Crompton
What Did You Do in the War, Mummy?
Event 275 • Thursday 2 June 2011, 6.45pm • Venue: Sky Arts Studio
The broadcaster has interviewed women from lumber-jills and landgirls to undercover spies and entertainers about the new freedoms, the make-do and mend, the hopes and the fears, as well as the post-war adjustments they had to make.
Price: £6.00

Brenda Maddox, Peter J Conradi, Tom Bullough
At the Bright Hem of God: Radnorshire Pastoral
Event 291 • Friday 3 June 2011, 10am • Venue: Elmley Foundation Theatre
The authors discuss how the wild, rural landscape of Radnorshire inspires their work and that of others before them, from Gerald of Wales to Vaughan and Traherne, Francis Kilvert, Eric Gill, David Jones and Bruce Chatwin.
Price: £5.00

Grahame Davies talks to Merryl Wyn Davies
The Dragon and the Crescent
Event 340 • Saturday 4 June 2011, 10am • Venue: Elmley Foundation Theatre
Nine centuries of contact between Wales and Islam. Chaired by the Director of the Muslim Institute.
Price: £5.00

Seren hopes to see as many of you there as possible!

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Graham Mort’s collection of short stories ‘Touch’ short-listed for the Edge Hill Prize

Graham Mort’s collection of short stories Touch has been short-listed for the Edge Hill University short story prize 2011.
Touch includes the Bridport prize winning story ‘The Prince’, which was described by novelist Tracy Chevalier as “..the writing is word perfect..”.
From a young child adrift on an ice-filled lake to an ageing farmer facing life alone, the twenty-one stories display a deep sensitivity to both the natural world and to human relationships. In skilfully crafted prose, vivid with detail, Mort examines the strength and fragility of life and the ties that hold us within it.
See the Edge Hill Univeristy Short Story Prize 2011 shortlist – click here

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John Haynes, Fiona Sampson and Tim Liardet, Lauderdale House, London

Thursday 12th May, 8.00 pm. Three Seren poets will be reading as part of the ‘Four Poets’ event at Lauderdale House in May. John Haynes, Fiona Sampson and Tim Liardet will be joined at the event by Carole Satyamurti.
Tickets: £5.00/Concessions: Concession: £3.00Concessions are available for students, people on benefit and over 60s. Proof must be provided when collecting tickets.
Lauderdale House, Waterlow Park, Highgate Hill, London N6 5HG Telephone: 020 8348 8716
Email: [email protected] 
Website: www.lauderdalehouse.co.uk

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Bruce Cardwell launches Noteworthy: Images of Welsh Music

Bruce Cardwell launches his latest book Noteworthy: Images of Welsh Music at Pontardawe Arts Cenntre, Swansea.
Noteworthy is one man’s view of the acoustic music scene in Wales, illustrated with black and white photography to present the musicians in context in their surroundings.
Join Bruce for an evening of music with harpist Delyth Jenkins and her daughter, fiddle player Angharad Sian from Calan. Enjoy the exhibition from the Noteworthy project, with a glass of wine.
Tuesday 10th May 2011 6pm

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Lorraine Bewsey: Olympians and Others exhibition at Cynon Valley and Gallery, Aberdare

Mavis Nicholson will be opening an exhibition of new work by portrait artist Lorraine Bewsey in the Cynon Valley Museum and Gallery in Aberdare at 7.00pm on Friday 6th May.
Entitled ‘Olympians and Others’, the exhibition features the first set in a series of portraits of Welsh Olympic athletes which Lorraine is working on in the run-up to 2012. The exhibition runs until 25th June.
For more information contact Lorraine Bewsey: 01639 730108 / 0787 985 7975 Email:[email protected]

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First Thursday poetry reading tonight with Nerys Williams

Join Seren at Chapter Arts Centre tonight with guest poet Nerys Williams, who will be reading from her debut collection of poetry Sound Archive. Sound Archive is the strikingly original first collection of poems from Nerys Williams. Using formal strategies similar to modernist painting: abstraction, dislocation, surrealist juxtaposition, the poet conjures a complex music, intriguing narratives, and poems full of atmosphere that query identity, gender, and the dream of art as a vehicle for emotion and meaning.
Followed by Open Mic – Thursday 5th May, 7.30pm £2 Media Point Room, Chapter Arts Centre.