January 2016

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Simon appleby

Friday Poem – Soup

This week’s Friday Poem is Tony Curtis’ Arvon Prize-shortlisted ‘Soup’.

This is one of many poems on the subject of conflict in Tony’s War Voices (1995) and will also feature in the soon-to-be published From the Fortunate Isles: New and Selected Poems, out in October this year. Wednesday 27th January was Holocaust Remembrance Day and so this poem is an especially poignant choice.

Soup

One night our block leader set a competition:
two bowls of soup to the best teller of a tale.
That whole evening the hut filled with words –
tales from the old countries
of wolves and children
potions and love-sick herders
stupid woodsmen and crafty villagers.
Apple-blossom snowed from blue skies,
orphans discovered themselves royal.
Tales of greed and heroes and cunning survival,
soldiers of the Empires, the Church, the Reich.

And when they turned to me
I could not speak,
sunk in the horror of that place,
my throat a corridor of bones, my eyes
and nostrils clogged with self-pity.
‘Speak,’ they said, ‘everyone has a story to tell.’
And so I closed my eyes and said:
I have no hunger for your bowls of soup, you see
I have just risen from the Shabbat meal –
my father has filled our glasses with wine,
bread has been broken, the maid has served fish.
Grandfather has sung, tears in his eyes, the old songs.
My mother holds her glass by the stem, lifts
it to her mouth, the red glow reflecting on her throat.
I go to her side and she kisses me for bed.
My grandfather’s kiss is rough and soft like an apricot.
The sheets on my bed are crisp and flat
like the leaves of a book …

I carried my prizes back to my bunk: one bowl
I hid, the other I stirred
and smelt a long time, so long
that it filled the cauldron of my head,
drowning a family of memories.

Buy War Voices from our website, and look out for From the Fortunate Isles: New and Selected Poems, available October 2016.

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Simon appleby

Significance by Jo Mazelis in Wordery’s Top 10 Fiction list

This cover shows a close-up photograph of a white woman with red lipstick staring at the camera. Her hair is blonde and is tied up above her head, with a loose thick strand covering her right eye. She does not have any clothes. In front of her and across the cover are white translucent scraps of an image which is not identifiable. The text at the bottom reads: Significance. Jo Mazelis. The text at the top reads: ‘An intricate, subtle thriller with a satisfying literary edge’ Francesca Rhydderch. There is a red sticker on the right hand sideof the cover which reads: Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize winner 2015.

Significance by Jo Mazelis, a winner of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015, has been chosen by Wordery as one of the top ten independent fiction books of 2015. Other titles listed include Marlon James’ Booker Prize-winner, A Brief History of Seven Killings, and Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter. You can see the full list here.

About Significance:
Lucy Swann is trying on a new life. She’s cut and dyed her hair and bought new clothes, but she’s only got as far as a small town in northern France when her flight is violently cut short. When Inspector Vivier and his handsome assistant Sabine Pelat begin their investigation the chance encounters of her last days take on a new significance.
Lucy’s death, like a stone thrown into a pool, sends out far-reaching ripples, altering the lives of people who never knew her as well as those of her loved ones back home.
“With Significance Mazelis has set her novel-writing bar at a breathtaking height.”– Rachel Trezise, Agenda

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Simon appleby

5 things to do for your loved one on St Dwynwen’s Day

On this day each year, people all over Wales celebrate St Dwynwen’s Day, named for the Welsh patron saint of lovers.

According to legend, Princess Dwynwen (who lived at around 400 AD) was the most beautiful and spirited of the many daughters of King Brychan Brycheiniog, founder of a medieval kingdom in what is today the Brecon Beacons of South Wales. She fell in love with a man named Maelon, yet her father had already promised her in marriage to another, so she prayed to God to be released from loving Maelon. Once asleep, an angel appeared and gave her a potion, which turned her ill-fated lover into a block of ice.

Upon waking, Dwynwen prayed again for the curse to be broken and God granted her three wishes: that Maelon be thawed, that Dwynwen herself never marry, and that the fate of all true lovers will be safeguarded through all time. As a mark of gratitude, Dwynwen devoted the rest of her life to God. Her reputation spread, and finally she became known as Santes (“Saint”) Dwynwen, paitron saint of lovers.

Here at Seren, we’ve been pondering how best to show your loved one how much they mean to you in the spirit of St Dwynwen. Here are five suggestions we’re sure will bring a smile to their face…

1. A simple cuppa
Wales can be a cold and rainy place (sometimes!), so what better to warm the heart of your S/O than a hot brew?

2. A private poetry reading
Select a poem or two to read to your special someone. We recommend ‘Making Love’ from David Foster-Morgan’s Masculine Happiness, and ‘The Love Songs of Davy Blackrock’ from Boy Running by Paul Henry.

3. A romantic walk
There are so many beautiful areas in Wales, so why not explore one of them with the person you love? Anglesey (St Dwynwen’s home) is the perfect choice, and there are lots of other outstanding areas.

4. A carefully chosen book
Show you know your partner’s interests and present them with a thoughtfully selected book to enjoy. Bonus points if it’s one of ours!

5. A home-cooked meal
Restaurants are romantic. But making something edible – nay, delicious – with your own two hands? Now that is a gesture of love.

Happy St Dwynwen’s Day, everyone.

Posted on January 22, 2016 by Simon appleby

Friday Poem – Elegy for the Living

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Elegy for the Living’ from Kathryn Simmonds’ insightful collection The Visitations.

In this book, Simmonds infuses with beauty the everyday phenomena that we often neglect: from fleeting moments with strangers on the street, to even that peculiar yet widely recognisable experience of forgetting what exactly we went upstairs to retrieve. Through an innovative and triumphant blend of humour and realism – complemented by its simple yet wonderfully rich language – the collection explores both the truths and the uncertainties of life in terms of faith, the self, and the familial. This creative ambiguity reaches a crescendo in the title poem ‘The Visitations’ in which the divine is effortlessly combined with the domestic. Yet even her more elegiac poems are rarely sombre, but abound with the imagery of homeliness, and an underlying sense of vigour and life.

Elegy for the Living

We wash up side by side
to find each other

in the speakable world,
and, lulled into sense,

inhabit our landscape;
the curve

of that chair draped
with your shirt;

my glass of water
seeded overnight with air.

After this bed
there’ll be another,

so we’ll roll
and keep rolling

until one of us
will roll alone and try to roll

the other back — a trick

no one’s yet pulled off —

and it’ll be
as if I dreamed you, dear,

as if I dreamed this bed,
our touching limbs,

this room, the tree outside alive
with new wet light.

Not now. Not yet.

Buy The Visitations on our website.

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Simon appleby

Breaking News: 10.6% Funding Cut to Welsh Books Industry Revoked

Following a popular campaign from Welsh publishers, authors and supporters throughout the UK and beyond, Ken Skates and the Welsh Government have announced that the proposed 10.6% cut to the Welsh Books Council will not go ahead.
The announcement that there will be no funding cuts to the Welsh books industry for 2016/17 makes clear that our voices have been heard, and that the Welsh Government understands how detrimental the cuts would have been to Welsh literature and culture.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in organising the campaign, and to everyone who showed their support either by signing the online petition or by engaging with the #WelshBooksMatter conversation on Twitter. Special mentions should go to Kathryn Gray, who was a driving force behind the campaign’s success, and to Richard Houdmont, Chair of our Board of Directors, who spoke today at the Wales National Assembly. Authors Philip Pullman, Sarah Waters and Gillian Clarke were among the many well-known names to publicly lend their support to the cause. David Williamson of Wales Online, The Guardian’s Alison Flood, Natasha Onwuemezi from The Bookseller and Carolyn Hitt of Wales Online are just some of many who gave excellent media coverage to the issue.
Finally, thanks must go to Ken Skates and the Welsh Government for overturning the cuts. This is a great day for Welsh publishing and literature, and we couldn’t be happier.

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Simon appleby

Seren stands against proposed 10.6% cut threat to Welsh books industry

The future of publishing in Wales and with it ‘a distinctive literature from Wales’ could be under threat if the Welsh Government agrees a proposed 10.6% cut to industry funding, and we at Seren stand with our fellow publishers, with authors and with the literary community of Wales in opposition to these cuts.
The unprecedented 10.6% cut (£374,000) to the Welsh Books Council is more than twice that of planned cuts to other cultural organisations such as the Arts Council of Wales. Coming after a decade of standstill funding, grants to Welsh publishing in English will have been cut by 21% – £158,050 – in the last three years if these latest plans go through.
Wales’ small but vibrant and diverse publishing industry produces everything from Costa prize-winning poetry titles to young adult novels, from books about sporting and music legends to Welsh history and art, from prize-winning literature: fiction, biography, travel and memoir, academic titles and Welsh classics, to richly illustrated titles and books for children, in English and Welsh.
Its independent publishing companies are spread across the country, providing skilled work for an estimated 1000 plus people, from authors to publishers, freelance editors, designers, illustrators, printers, booksellers and many others, often in areas of high unemployment.
Publishing is an essential part of a vibrant and dynamic Welsh culture within a diverse UK, which can cover all aspects of life from literacy to putting great Welsh writing on the world stage. Welsh Government support, via the Welsh Books Council, contributes towards a ‘level playing field’, allowing publishers like Seren to compete by publishing attractive, high-quality titles which have an important economic, educational and cultural impact.
To safeguard the future of Welsh publishing, please stand with us in opposition to the proposed cuts. Sign the petition online now.
You can join in with the conversation online by using the hashtag #WelshBooksMatter. Why not tweet directly to Ken Skates (@WG_CultureMin), Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, the name of a favourite title by Welsh publishers?

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Simon appleby

Friday Poem – Skeeter Syndrome

For our Friday Poem this week we have ‘Skeeter Syndrome’ from Rhian Edwards’ dark and sensual debut collection Clueless Dogs.

Winner of Wales Book of the Year 2013
Winner of the Roland Mathias Prize for Poetry 2013
Winner of Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice 2013
Shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2012

Full of verve and humour, with a spiky syntax featuring hard-edged consonants, Rhian Edwards’ language has a winning honesty and intensity. Poems like ‘The Welshman Who Couldn’t Sing’ chronicle a fraught childhood in Bridgend, south Wales, where the sensitive child escapes through imaginative games of ‘Playing Dead’ and ‘Broken Lifeboat’. Later poems confidently explore teenage lusts, student rivalries, damaged peers and tense situations. Although the author doesn’t flinch from ruthless depictions in which we are often implicated by her use of the second person ‘You’, there is an underlying sweetness, an elegiac thread most evident in the poems of maturity.

Skeeter Syndrome

I felt a tickle to my ankle,
saw her, dithering in the air
light as dandelion snow,
a winged needle, a mother-to-be
clumsy with the harvest of my blood.

I caught her dancing on the wall,
crushed her with a single applaud.
I opened my hand to a mangle of limbs,
a patch of my own blood – the stigma
of killing something full of me.

Buy Clueless Dogs on our website.

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Simon appleby

First Thursday Returns for 2016

After a break this month, First Thursday will return on 4th February!
First Thursday is our monthly celebration of new poetry and fiction, held at Chapter, Cardiff. February’s event will feature Peter Finch, whose new book The Roots of Rock, from Cardiff to Mississippi and Back charts the evolution of popular music, and Mulfran author Jenny Lewis.
Tickets are £2.50 on the door and redeemable upon purchase of a book.

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Simon appleby

Friday Poem — Making Love

This week’s poem is from Cardiff-based David Foster-Morgan’s provocative debut, Masculine Happiness. The collection is half price until midnight, Sunday 10th January. You can find the book here.

Born and based in Wales, Foster-Morgan has long been a presence in the poetry world, having had poems published widely in magazines and with appearances at workshops, festivals, and events including ‘slams’ where his quiet style and obvious integrity frequently beat louder and less subtle voices to a prize. His debut collection, some years in the making, is inspired in part by his reading of American literature: the conversational tone of Frank O’Hara (‘F’OH’) and the long-lined garrulity of Allen Ginsberg, (‘Allen Ginsberg returns to Llantony Priory’) as well as the models of masculinity handed out to us by Hollywood characters like John Wayne (‘Masculine Happiness’). His ambivalence toward the idea of the ‘hero’ and his observation of the fate of those who have been lauded, like the conflicted protagonist of ‘The City Legend’, is a fruitful area for exposition.

Making Love

I think that we were meant to…

Is it treat as if we were nations

or better meet as friends.

To have no buts

and simply wait ’til fate instructs.

Fate though never interrupts.

Oh: sighs, eyes, easy, thighs.

Oh: find, kind, miss, bliss.

In exquisite orbit on your…

Is it rim

or better promise held within.

Both pleasure and pain

in equal measure, at once the same.

With no words the meaning plain.

Oh: insane, flame, be, flee.

Oh: quest, rest, crux, stuck.

You are…

Is it everything I lack

or better welcome heart and hurry back.

Your soft magnetic air sublime,

wraps me in an ecstasy so kind.

That is I like your style.

Oh: start, apart, qualm, charm.

Oh: light, flight, sun, undone.

I fear you sense my…

Is it following cloud

or better stubborn doubt.

It is a flinching habit to say no

and pinch new love before it can grow.

Give no the elbow.

Oh: aloud, shroud, spite, blight.

Oh: cruel, duel, bequeathed, heed.

Banish fear with…

Is it yes

nothing better than yes.

Defeat strange love with a yes,

fate and doubt distress with a yes.

I would really like you to say yes.

Oh: finesse, mistress, conquest, bless.

Oh: fair, dare, rare, flare.

I watch your hair…

Is it coil like a snake

or better hang at your nape.

High on oblivion’s plain,

a wordless freedom we will claim.

Enjoy the moment, don’t explain.

Oh: arms, charms, find, unconfined

Oh: sublime, entwine, sun, outdone.

Oh: me, thee, we.

Order David Foster-Morgan’s Masculine Happiness from our website (half-price until midnight, Sunday 10th January).

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Simon appleby

50% Off All Books: Editors’ Picks

2016 has arrived and with it, our January sale. For one week only, enjoy 50% off all books available on our website!

That being said, we know choosing which books to buy can be a little tricky so our three editors are on hand to give their book recommendations. Be it poetry, fiction or non-fiction that tickles your fancy, we have suggestions for one and all.

Mick Felton – Non-Fiction Editor
As our non-fiction editor, Mick sees a wide variety of books each year, including everything from history, crime, autobiography, music and sport. So which two books does Mick think you need most on your shelf?

The Road to Zagora by Richard Collins

After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, Richard Collins sets off with his partner Flic on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. The Road to Zagora is a singular travel book which takes in India, Nepal, Turkey, Morocco, Peru, Equador and Wales.
Though not shy about the hardships of the disease, any sentiment of self-pity is denied through Collins’s resolute and independent-mindedness and the quality of writing.
~~£9.99~~ £5.00

Losing Israel by Jasmine Donahaye

After discovering by chance that her family had colluded in the eviction of Palestinians in 1948, Jasmine Donahaye set out to learn the story of what happened. Her discoveries challenged everything she thought she knew about the country and her family. Losing Israel is a moving and honest account which spans travel writing, nature writing and memoir. Jasmine explores the powerful and competing attachments people feel for their country and its history, by attempting to understand and reconcile her conflicted attachments, rooted in her family story – and in a love of Israel’s birds.
~~£12.99~~ £6.50

Amy Wack – Poetry Editor

Amy has read and enjoyed a dazzling array of poetry over the twenty-plus years she’s been with us. Trying to narrow down her choices to just two books was hard, but here goes…

A Formula for Night: New and Selected Poems by Tamar Yoseloff

The eagerly awaited summation of Tamar’ work, encompassing selections from four published print volumes: Sweetheart, Barnard’s Star, Fetch and The City with Horns; and poems from her collaborations with artists: Formerly, Marks and Desire Paths.
The book also includes a generous selection of beautiful new poems, which are often artful explorations of paradox: death/birth, dark/light, clarity/mystery.
~~£12.99~~ £6.50

House of Small Absences by Anne-Marie Fyfe

Anne-Marie Fyfe’s poems have long dwelt on the role that the spaces we inhabit, the places in which we find security, play in our lives: House of Small Absences is an observation window into strange, unsettling spaces—a deserted stage-set, our own personalised ‘museum’, a Piedmont albergo, underground cities, Midtown roof-gardens, convent orchards, houseboats, a foldaway circus, a Romanian sleeper-carriage—the familiar rendered uncanny through the distorting lenses of distance and life’s exigencies, its inevitable lettings-go.
~~£9.99~~ £5.00

Penny Thomas – Fiction Editor

Which fictional words would Penny have you delve into first? We’ve published a beautifully varied range of books, and below are just two of Penny’s favourites.

Swimming on Dry Land by Helen Blackhurst

Twelve-year-old Monica Harvey is looking for her sister Georgie, who has disappeared. The Harvey family has recently moved to Akarula, south-west Australia, having been persuaded to set out in search of a new life by their rich Uncle Eddie, who owns the town. Unbeknownst to them, Georgie isn’t the first person to vanish.
As their dream-like vision of life in outback Australia begins to be tainted my mystery and deceit, the history of the land unfolds and answers to the strange disappearances slowly suggest themselves.
~~£9.99~~ £5.00

Foreign Bodies by Candy Neubert

Fresh from the UK, Emma thinks she has fallen in love with a place, a person, and pursues the man of her dreams with a colonial zeal. But for all her poetic sensibilities, she seems unaware of the destruction she is capable of leaving in her wake.

A beautifully written first novel, Foreign Bodies explores the spaces between people, and the nature of encounters in romantic idylls on the other side of the world.
~~£7.99~~ £4.00

Don’t forget, absolutely everything on our website is 50% off– so if you’re eager to see beyond our suggestions, then go forth and discover a new read for the New Year on our website.

Half price offer ends midnight, Sunday 10th January. Happy book hunting!

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