This year’s Man Booker long list was notable for its inclusion of first novelists and small publishers. In this piece on the Book Brunch website, Mick Felton, Publisher of Bridgend-based indie Seren, reflects on a sudden appearance on a lot of radars. Full interview on www.bookbrunch.co.uk

To celebrate our 30th birthday, we’re giving people in Bridgend Borough the chance to read a Seren book for free.*
White Ravens is “a spellbinding fable about male self-destructiveness and the effects of the war on those who return home”. (FT) by award-winning author, Owen Sheers.
One of Seren’s series of New Stories from the Mabinogion, it is set partly in World War Two, in the recent past.
“Fuses Welsh myth and modern macabre into a superb, bewitching whole.” (Sunday Times)
“Sheers writes with dazzle and poetic economy.” (The Times)
“…a gripping contemporary story that brilliantly adsorbs the magical elements of the original.” (Guardian)
Get hold of your copy* for your local library, or contact Seren on 01656 663 018 or [email protected].
Read the book, pass it around your friends, review it on Amazon or send your comments to Seren’s Facebook Page.
* one coy per person, subject to availability

Titles that are included in the 3 for 2 offer at selected local book stores:
Touch by Graham Mort – Winner of the Edge Hill Univeristy Short Story Prize 2011. Also includes 2007 Bridport winning short story ‘The Prince’. “A true pleasure from first page to last” New Welsh Review
The Colour of Grass by Nia Williams – “This read will draw you into its story within minutes” Woman Magazine”..witty, wry and charming” Western Mail
Sing Sorrow Sorrow by Gwen Davies – a chilling collection of supernatural myth and otherworldly horror stories from some of Wales’ most exciting new and established authors. “Excellent collection” bookgeeks.co.uk
The Brittle Sea: New and Selected Poems by Paul Henry – “The new, previously unpublished poems…represent the best work of a lyric poet who deserves a wider readership.” TLS
“There’s a consistency of tone and voice in Paul Henry’s work – gentle, regretful and effortlessly musical – stretching from the earliest poems in 1991’s Time Pieces right through to the present day” Magma
Fire Drill: Notes on the twenty-first century by John Barnie – “This reasoned, readable atheistic and humanist collection stares the world uncompromisingly in the face – something most of us try to avoid” Western Mail
Time Being by Ruth Bidgood – WINNER of the Roland Mathias Prize 2011 and also a Poetry Society Recommendation.
The Mabinogion Series – Retelling of the Mabingogion stories
White Ravens by Owen Sheers – “a gripping tale of the unexpected that fuses Welsh myth and modern macabre into a superb, bewitching whole” Sunday Times
“a gripping contemporary story… brilliantly absorbs the magical elements of the original” The Guardian
The Ninth Wave by Russell Celyn Jones – The Ninth Wave is an arresting, contemporary retelling of a centuries-old Welsh myth.
The Meat Tree by Gwyneth Lewis – “It provides a satisfying bizarre context for a narrative about an unfaithful woman made of flowers who turns into an owl, while Lewis’s inspector observes events from a hilariously jobs-worth perspective” The Guardian
“The successful recreation of myth requires a wiliness that exceeds that of the original; myth makers, and Lewis patiently and skillfully demonstrates that wiliness in presenting to her readers” TLS
The Dreams of Max and Ronnie by Niall Griffiths – “..both tales include passages of razor-sharp humour as well as great beauty and poignancy…” New Welsh Review
“Griffiths also supplies the best sign-off of the series so far” The Guardian
Brand New! The White Trail by Fflur Dafydd – Life is tough for Cilydd’s, after his wife Goleuddydd, who is nine months pregnant, seems to vanish into thin air at a supermarket one wintry afternoon. Cilydd gets his cousin, Arthur – a private eye who has never solved a single case – to help him with the investigation.
Brand New! The Prince’s Pen by Horatio Clare – Award-winning author Horatio Clare refracts politics, faith and the contemporary world order through the prism of some of the earliest British myth, the Mabinogion, to ask who are the outsiders, the infidels and who the enemy within.
BOOKSHOPS:
Palas Print – Caernarfon, Palas Print Pendref – Bangor, The Hours – Brecon, Book-ish – Crickhowell, Chepstow Bookshop, Caban – Cardiff, National Musuem of Wales St Fagans – Cardiff, National Musuem of Wales Main Gallery – Cardiff, National Musuem of Wales Roman Legion – Caerleon, Wales Millennium Centre – Portmeirion, Nickleby’s – Llantwit Major, Verzon Books – Llandrindod Wells, Siop Hen Bont – Bridgend, Senedd Bookshop – Cardiff, Siop y Ganolfan – Merthyr, Burway Books – Church Stretton, Pemberton’s – Hay, Arts Centre Bookshop – Aberystwyth,
Tenby Bookshop, Cover to Cover – Mumbles (Swansea), Awen Teifi – Cardigan, National Library of Wales – Aberystwyth, National Museum of Wales Waterfront Museum – Swansea and Siop Sian – Crymych

Seren would like to invite you to help celebrate 30 years of publishing.

Guest of Honour Dannie Abse.
We are having a street party here at Bridgend on the 1st October 2011, 11am – 4pm.
There will be a slice of birthday cake and a soft drink for everyone, also a lucky dip – a free read on us!
Meet the editors and a few of the Seren authors. We will be selling Seren books at discounted prices. Special offers on a range of food all day from the deli based next door to Seren.
Please feel free to bring along family and friends – the more, the merrier.

Fixed Events throughout the day:

12pm-2pm: ‘Meet the Editor’ (Poetry, fiction and non-fiction). Get advice from Seren editors about your unpublished work – to book your 10 minute time slot please send your name and email address to [email protected] – we will allocate a time for you. Spaces are limited!
12pm-1pm and 2pm-3pm: Open Mic slots. Sign up on arrival and read your poetry, fiction or sing some songs. Mike Jenkins and Robert Minhinnick will also be reading at Open Mic.
3pm Guest of Honour Dannie Abse, to make a speech and a short reading.
Raffle tickets on sale throughout the day some great prizes to win including:
A set of six books from the Seren’s Mabinogion series. Signed by authors Owen Sheers, Russell Celyn Jones, Gwyneth Lewis, Niall Griffiths, Horatio Clare and Fflur Dafydd.
A signed copy of the Man Booker Prize 2011 long-listed title ‘The Last Hundred Days’ by Patrick McGuinness.
This event is supported by Literature Wales www.literaturewales.org
This event coincides with Bridgend town’s annual ‘feastival’ – an alternative food festival http://feastival.moonfruit.com/

Join Robert Seatter at the official launch of his latest poetry collection Writing King Kong at RADA in London.Friday September 16th 2011 7pm-9pm The Foyer, RADA, Malet Street, London WC1 7JN
Nearest Tube: Goodge Street, Russell Square, Tottenham Court Road

Tony Curtis will be signing copies of Real South Pembrokeshire at the Tenby Bookshop, Tudor Square, Tenby Saturday  17th September 11am.
Poet, and past resident and frequent visitor Tony Curtis roams south Pembrokeshire, from costal resorts of Tenby and Saundersfoot, west to the surfers of Stackpole and Barafundle and north to the Landsker, the cultural boundary between English speaking south Pembs and the Welsh speaking north.