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Win a Signed Copy of Star-Shot!

It’s competition time!
To celebrate the upcoming release of Mary-Ann Constantine’s debut novel, Star-Shot, we’ll be giving away a signed copy to one lucky follower!
This isn’t just going to be any competition, however, this is going to be an interactive competition!
National Museum Cardiff plays a big part in Star-Shot, so here at Seren we thought it was only right that museums play a part in our competition. We challenge you to take to Twitter and tweet us a picture of you standing outside your nearest museum using the hashtag #ImStarShot, and you’ll be entered to win a signed copy of the book.
The competition ends in a month’s time, on the 5th November, so get your entries in and spread the museum love – we can’t wait to see your photos!

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Friday Poem – The Snake House

This week’s poem comes from Pascale Petit’s third collection, The Huntress, published in 2005.

In Pascale Petit’s highly-charged third collection, a daughter is haunted by her mentally ill mother, and a painful childhood is re-imagined through a series of remarkable and passionate transformations. The feared mother is a rattlesnake, an Aztec goddess, a Tibetan singing bowl, a stalagmite, a praying mantis, a ghost orchid. These culminate in a long central poem where the daughter escapes her huntress as a cosmic stag. Underlying these poems is an intense mystical vision that lifts the dark material of the subject matter above the merely personal. 

The Snake House

It’s time to go up to your front door, Mother,
and ring the rattling buzzer of a bell,
the door with two curved fangs.
I go in, into the muscular throat of the hall,
down the tunnel that’s closing now
to a pinpoint of light.
I’m in the swallowing living-room,
washing it for you, half-alive,
like a man preparing for the rain-dance
in the dry arroyo. He reaches
into the pit and washes the snakes
so that later when he dances with the ‘little mothers’
in his mouth, they won’t bite.
I’m a child playing in the pen
with my pet rattlers,
giving them bread and milk.
As long as I’m unscared
they won’t strike. And you’re saying,
“Only a girl-child can do this”.
My cheeks are almost seamless now,
countless grafts hide the necrosis.

Order The Huntress from our website.

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The Northern Poetry Library

Poet Carolyn Jess-Cooke (Boom!) is taking part in a project aimed at promoting the Northern Poetry Library’s importance on the UK’s literary landscape.
Established in 1968 and managed by Active Northumberland, the Northern Poetry Library, is the largest collection of contemporary poetry outside of London and contains the work of all the major poets writing in English since the end of the Second World War. This new project, led by poet Lisa Matthews, will include setting up poets in residence across the region to work with the communities and take part in various events with the aim of getting people of all ages to visit and get involved.
As well as Carolyn and Lisa, other poets involved in the project include John Challis, Linda France, Jo Colley and Degna Stone. The poets will create their own work inspired by the poetry collection, including digital responses for the new platform, and develop a programme so that community groups can write their own poetry and produce text-based artwork.
Later in the project there will also be an exhibition at Woodhorn Museum, and Palace Green Library focusing on the topics of Collections, History and Contemporary Poetry.
There will be a launch party at the Northern Poetry Library at 7pm on Thursday 8th October which is free to attend.

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Seren at Crickhowell Literary Festival

Wales will see the return of the Crickhowell Literary Festival this month, and this year several of our authors are taking part!

Francesca Rhydderch, author of the 2014 Wales Book of the Year The Rice Paper Diaries and co-editor of New Welsh Short Stories, will be in conversation with Oliver Balch, reading from her work and answering any questions from the audience. She will also be leading a Fiction Writing Masterclass!

Poet and novelist Christopher Meredith will be at the festival for an evening of reading and discussion, and several of our other poets will also be reading from their work. Paul Henry and Philip Gross will be reading poems from Boy Running and A Fold in the River inspired by the rivers Usk and Taff, and Anne-Marie Fyfe will be reading from her latest collection, House of Small Absences, while Costa Award-winner Jonathan Edwards will be reading from his own work.

Whether it’s poetry or prose that mosts interests you, there’s something for everyone at Crickhowell this year. Find out more about all of our upcoming events on our website!

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Seren at the Crickhowell Literary Festival

Wales will see the return of the Crickhowell Literary Festival this month, and this year several of our authors are taking part!
Francesca Rhydderch, author of the 2014 Wales Book of the Year The Rice Paper Diaries and co-editor of New Welsh Short Stories, will be in conversation with Oliver Balch, reading from her work and answering any questions from the audience. She will also be leading a Fiction Writing Masterclass!
Poet and novelist Christopher Meredith will be at the festival for an evening of reading and discussion, and several of our other poets will also be reading from their work. Paul Henry and Philip Gross will be reading poems from Boy Running and A Fold in the River inspired by the rivers Usk and Taff, and Anne-Marie Fyfe will be reading from her latest collection, House of Small Absences, while Costa Award-winner Jonathan Edwards will be reading from his own work.
Whether it’s poetry or prose that mosts interests you, there’s something for everyone at Crickhowell this year. Find out more about all of our upcoming events on our events page!