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Friday Poem – ‘Just About Now’ by Judy Brown

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Just About Now’ by Judy Brown from her collection Crowd Sensations.

Judy is joining us at virtual First Thursday next week to read alongside Katrina Naomi. Find the full details here.

Elterwater Rain Crowd Sensations Judy BrownCrowd Sensations, Judy Brown’s second collection, was shortlisted for the Ledbury Forte Prize. She is a poet of dazzling contrasts, of thoughtful paradox, intimate confidences and precise evocations. Her titles and first lines both draw you right into a poem and then quite often surprise you with a narrative that you hadn’t expected. Her work is fired as much by intelligence and philosophical speculation, as it is by the emotion stirred up by experience and relationships.

Crowd Sensations is available on the Seren website: £9.99

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Polly Atkin awarded Northern Writers’ Award for Poetry 2020.

We are delighted to hear that Seren poet Polly Atkin has been awarded a Northern Writers’ Award for Poetry, 2020. 
Established in 2000 by New Writing North, the Northern Writers’ Awards supports work-in-progress by new, emerging and established writers across the North of England.
Of winning the award Polly said:
“Winning a Northern Writers’ Award would never not be a great boost to both morale and finances, but this year it feels like a life-saver. I had to keep re-reading the email to check it was real. Like many freelance writers, I lost most of paid work for the year in March. Like many disabled and chronically ill writers, I’m facing a long period of uncertainty, knowing it may not be save to resume face-to-face work for many months to come. This award not only offers creative encouragement when I really need it, but financial support which will make continuing to create possible. It has saved my year.”
Polly’s debut collection Basic Nest Architecture was longlisted for the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize, 2019. We are due to publisher her second collection in 2021. 

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Short Story of the Month – ‘Sugarcane for My Sweetheart’ by Maggie Harris

Our new Short Story of the Month is ‘Sugarcane for My Sweetheart’ by Maggie Harris which features in her short story collection Writing on Water.

Writing on Water Maggie HarrisMaggie Harris’ short story collection Writing on Water  is informed by the Caribbean, where she was born, and Britain where she has lived as an adult, and through them, the wider world. Issues of belonging and migration feature, but alongside these are growing interests in voice, narrative, gardening and botany, music and family. There are both UK and Caribbean voices in these tales, told by children, migrants, mothers, grandparents.

This is an excerpt, read the full story for FREE on the Seren website here.

Sugarcane for My Sweetheart

Maya is dreaming of kitchens. New kitchens. Not open to the air, wood-smoke kitchens; not kerosene stoves or coalpot kitchens. New kitchens. Kitchens of pine and oak and beech. Kitchens with solid wood doors and MDF shelves, kitchens with laminate and chrome, Mediterranean tiles, Victorian pulleys, cork and slate floors, quarry tiles.
In her dreams she enters those kitchens as she has taken to entering all those showrooms on lunchtime Sundays: with the slow excited steps of a traveller arriving. Eyes stray past customs, the loitering salesman, the swing doors past Immigration. Gleaming glass-fronted doors hold her gaze like shimmering tarmac. They draw her in like mirrors, framing the new arrival. Excitement is mixed with fear and longing, slowed by the shuffling progress of the queue.
Her kitchen measurements are clutched tight in her hands like a passport; over and over she checks them: the permit, the invitation letter, traveller’s cheques crisp and new in their plastic sleeve.
She has reason to feel afraid. On her return from the island the eyes of the officer had scalded Maya. They highlighted her like a spotlight, running her up and down as if they could see right through her. A chorus had risen from the queue like the tide, washing over her with a high Atlantic wave. In this dream her mother is by her side, her spirit hands even more frantic in death, fluttering a British passport that only Maya could see, tickets and boarding passes scattering on the desk like the plucked feathers of a broiling bird.
In her dream the showrooms stretch: long corridors of gleaming perfection. Miles and miles of shining flooring glide her on its conveyor belt, kitchen after kitchen smiling like models, preening their leaded light and bubble-glassed doors, their plaited cornices like wooden pigtails, their panels in Bermuda Blue, Nevada Blond, Pine Forest. Her dreams have kept up with fashion, solid pine and farmhouse oak that had once beamed their rustic Englishness, Middle England Agas nestling securely like the Cotswold Hills, no longer feature. Now chrome and beech and Shaker kitchens lure her, will her to run her fingers on their smooth fine grain, their granite and Corian worktops combining style and utilitarian twenty-first century designs.
The salesman disappears. Other dreamers have re-commissioned him; they sit in the conservatory-style office with their dream kitchen coming alive on a computer screen, Mr and Mrs Doggy nodding, car-window heads beaming. Their Cheshire smiles fill Maya’s vision and suddenly she is horizontal, being whisked along white corridors with ceilings of ceramic hobs, their halogen spotlights steaming her face like Granny’s Vicks. Perspiration is running down her cheeks, the small of her back. The steward has opened the aircraft door and Maya is descending. Heat washes over her like invisible rain. Tarmac ripples in the haze. The redcap boys run with their luggage trolleys. Water runs down her back. She is a dog in the shadows, turning over and over in the liquid heat, an insistent voice riding over the surf.
‘Maya! Maya!’
Denver is nuzzling his face into her neck. His hand rests on her hip. Her eyes flutter into a still-dark morning. She senses his body wakening. He is not yet, fully. In a minute he will be, and remember. He’ll turn away then, face his own wall, summon the energy to rise, get ready for work.
Beneath her the towel is damp and hard. Many washes in this limescaled water has wrung any softness out. She thinks of the towels in Uncle Danny’s bathroom, the white fleshy softness, her body cosseted, white tiles reflecting her face. There was no limescale back there. How she loved to hang the washing out then! Hook them on the line, watch them dance like kites in the wild wind, sing in a soft breeze. She had washed everything in sight, tea cloths, Uncle Danny’s clothes, her own. Just to smell them, feel them, watch them dry face up to the sun, unaccustomed in cold dank London.
The first thing they tell you when you return is to tek it easy, you back home now. So fill your eyes with the coconut trees, the endless beach, the boats turning out to sea. Lone fishermen pushed their bikes across the sand, their dogs nosing alongside. And the sky, the sky! That brilliant cobalt blue, stretching a panorama between memory and reality. Tourists didn’t make it this far. Here it was too rough to swim, the waves still angry at history, guarding the wrecks viciously. Their anger had moved from scuttles to schooners and jet skis, to slippery fishing boats with secret cargoes. And you try and take it easy. Borrow that inherent ambiance, live one day at a time. But soon you realise that what you’re doing is waiting. Waiting for time to stand still. Time has stood still for Maya in this particular place.
Waiting. Watching the shifting blues, the white haze, the fisherman becoming a dot. The clothes on the line have dried, her swimsuit a kitten at play, relishing this now-time, this brief sojourn before being folded into a drawer, nestling in the dark like a hyacinth bulb.

…

Finish reading ‘Sugarcane for My Sweetheart’ on the Seren website here.

Writing on Water is available on the Seren website: £8.99

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Celebrating Independent Bookshop Week

As bookshops in Wales and England begin to reopen, we wanted to remind you of how you can support your local indie bookshop this Independent Bookshop Week.

  1. Buy a book

Many indie bookshops are working harder than ever to get books out to customers during lockdown and are continuing to sell online, over the phone or via social media as they begin to open up. Find your local indie and check how they’re selling here https://indiebookshopweek.org.uk/bookshopsearch.

  1. Support them on social media

Spread the word about the indie bookshops you love, and those you’ve supported during lockdown by tagging your favourite ones on social media. Don’t forget to tag @booksaremybag, #IndieBookshopWeek and your friends.

  1. Get involved with online events

As well as working hard to get books to you, lots of Indies are also busy organising fantastic online events with all your favourite authors. Check with your local shop to see what they have going on. You should also take a look at what At Home With 4 Indies have coming up.

  1. Encourage others to buy from Indies too

Share your love of indies with your friends and family and encourage them to buy from independent bookshops too.

 

Indie Updates

We are proud to work with a number great independent bookshops in Wales and across the UK. Here is an update from some of them about how they’re currently operating.

 

The Wellfield Bookshop, Cardiff

“We are continuing to post out orders, and in view of the Welsh Government’s announcement last Friday we are hoping to open the shop later this week. We’d like to say a huge thank you for the continued support The Wellfield Bookshop has received during these uncertain times. Hopefully, see you soon!”

The Wellfield Bookshop are taking orders over the phone 029 2036 0777 or via Facebook.

 

Book-ish, Crickhowell

Book-ish has officially re-opened today with strict social distancing guidelines in place. They are posting regular updates on their Twitter page @Bookishcrick and also offer a great online service at https://www.book-ish.co.uk/.

Book-ish are also one of the shops running regular online events through At Home With 4 Indies. Check out what events they have coming up on Facebook.

 

Griffin Books, Penarth

“We’re pleased to announce that we will reopen the shop on Wednesday 1 July. Please keep an eye on our website and social media channels for details of new opening times and the social distancing measures that will be in place.

We will continue to offer an online ordering and home delivery service beyond Wednesday 1 July. If you would like to place an order, or have an enquiry about any of our services, please email us on: [email protected] You can also contact us via our social media channels: Twitter @GriffinBooksUK, Facebook @griffinbookspenarth, and Instagram @griffinbooksuk.

DELIVERY: We are offering a FREE home delivery service within the Penarth area (excludes Sully, Dinas Powys and Llandough) and posting to customers further afield (£3.00 postal charge applies). A FREE click and collect service will be in operation from Wednesday 1 July.”

They are also running a fab series of online events to celebrate Indie Bookshop Week this week. See what they have coming up and book tickets on their website www.griffinbooks.co.uk.

 

Browsers Bookshop, Portmadog

“Following the Welsh Government’s recent announcement, Ben and I would like to advise you of Browsers intentions.

It is NOT our intention to open the building for public admittance on Monday 22nd June. We will review the situation over the coming weeks/months.

We will continue to provide online, telephone, mail and doorstep orders/collections as we have done throughout lockdown.

We would like to thank each and every one of you who has supported us and other local independent businesses in any way during lockdown and ask you to respect our decision.

Thank you, Ben and Sian Cowper.”

Get in touch with them on 01766 512066 or via Facebook @browsersbookshopporthmadog. You can also browse on their brand new website https://browsersbook.shop/

 

Pen’rallt Gallery Bookshop, Machynlleth

“Gardners Books wholesalers to the independent book trade, our postman, Clive, our UPS delivery man, Rob, Books Council Wales and The Booksellers’ Association have provided wonderful support. We also continue to offer Gardners Home Delivery service. Either way, you can still browse Gardners website, order your book through us and we will instruct Gardners (very nicely) to dispatch direct to you, or to a friend, via Royal Mail. We are still dealing direct with major publishers and our good allies, Y Lolfa and Atebol, the Independent Alliance and Yale University List representative – order away!”

The bookshop is closed to visitors, but you can order books via this form or by emailing [email protected]. You can also call them on 01654 700559 (10am – 12noon weekdays only).

 

Cover to Cover, Swansea

“We’ve opened the doors, and it’s been great to see your friendly faces this morning. Offers all week with Dylan’s Mobile Bookstore (@Dylanthomasguy)!

You can also order via email, phone, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and we’ll deliver with social distancing for free within 10 miles, and post further afield.”

 

Palas Print, Caernarfon

“Thank you for your continued support during these testing times, and for your patience as we sort and deliver your orders. We understand how books are a comfort, a means of escape and a way of making teaching at home fun in these difficult times. Thank you for staying at home, staying safe, protecting our communities and NHS Wales. For the time being, please continue to take care and stay at home!

If you need a book or two, or advice about books, we are happy to accept and deliver orders, being mindful of the need to do this in a safe way. You’re welcome to order online from the shop section of the website at any time. Or, email your query and we’ll reply as soon as we can.

You can phone the shop 01286 674631 between 10am and 2pm Monday – Friday, or contact us via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. We will respond as soon as we can, but please be patient as we may take up to 24 hours to get back to you. Once your parcel is ready, we will deliver or post it to you. The service provided by the Post Office in Caernarfon has been excellent throughout.”

Order online – www.palasprint.com, over the phone 01286674631, or by e-mail [email protected].

Palas Print are also running a number of free online events this Indie Bookshop Week, register by emailing [email protected].

 

Workers Gallery, Porth

“Our focus has been to create book bundles that included artist cards and locally handmade chocolates so people could support us and 3 other small and independent businesses with one purchase. We provide a free gift wrapping and messaging service – which most orders used as they were bundles sent as gifts. We imagined the recipient opening the handwritten card, unwrapping the bundle to later be reading a fabulous book while chomping on a lovely chocolate treat! Feedback has been really good. We’ve even had recipients of The Occassional Vegan bundle (sent with vegan chocs) sending us photographs of the food they made from the recipes! We’re going to continue offering the book bundles online.”

View their full range of gift bundles one their website www.workersgallery.co.uk or get in touch with them via Twitter.

 

The Hours, Brecon

“We unfortunately remain closed but are pleased that after the initial shock and panic, sleepless nights and stress-filled days, we found our feet and have managed to use the time well and wisely. We’ve had some small improvement works completed that needed to be done internally at the shop; upgraded and improved our website and made (half-whispered, hopeful) plans for later in the trading year. We’re now in the process of having customer and staff safeguarding work done at the shop including safety screens etc, and are looking forward to reopening when it is safe to do so.

We have been impressed by the First Minister and Welsh Government’s cautious but measured and mature approach to the handling of the pandemic. It has been a stressful, frightening and unsettling time for businesses everywhere (indeed everyone, everywhere) and no doubt we will all see devastating repercussions for some time yet with the Arts, Hospitality and Tourism being especially badly hit it would seem. We can only trust that the right decisions have been made at the right times here in Wales and do our very best to recover and resume trading. I would stress that that cannot happen without continued financial and other support from all the relevant bodies and sectors, should any businesses still require it – they will.

Everyone navigating the ‘new normal’ demands lots of joined up thinking, empathy and support. Pulling the plug now and just hoping things fall into place isn’t optional and we urge Welsh Government to be there now, for everyone, at this pivotal point for the Welsh economy.”

We look forward to further updates on their re-opening soon.

 

Inigo Jones Slate Works, Caernarfon

“We have not opened our shop yet but we are accepting online orders at www.inigojones.co.uk. We hope to open soon but this will depend on certain restrictions being lifted.”

 

Don’t forget you can find your local independent bookshop using the Independent Bookshop Week bookshop search. 

We’d love to hear what Independent Bookshops you’ve been shopping with during lockdown and what books you’ve been buying. Tag us on social media @SerenBooks.  

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Friday Poem – ‘Isolation Blessing’ by Polly Atkin

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Isolation Blessing’ by Polly Atkin, author of Basic Nest Architecture. This poem was first published for Manchester Writing School’s Write Where We Are Now project which invites poets to write directly about the Coronavirus pandemic or about the personal situation they find themselves in right now.

Polly Atkin’s debut poetry collection, Basic Nest Architecture, is complex, vivid and moving. It opens with poems inspired by her home in the Lake District, and the landscape and famous Romantic poets such as Wordsworth and Keats, who have walked there and written about the fells and lakes. Nature is a guiding presence, but the author’s personal story, of enduring a little-known and sometimes debilitating illness, is also the backdrop to this striking poetry. Formally, this work is more akin to the metaphysical poets in its fervent use of metaphor, in its multiple layers of meaning and in its quest for answers to the most pressing questions of mortality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basic Nest Architecture is available on the Seren website: £9.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book you buy from us.

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Seren Stay-at-Home Series Archive

Welcome to the Seren Stay-at-Home Series archive! Over the coming weeks, we will be uploading recordings of the entire two-week series to our Youtube channel for you to rewatch at your leisure. Subscribe to be notified when we post new videos.
We’re hugely grateful to everyone who bought tickets and joined us for the live events. It was a fantastic two weeks and we couldn’t have done it without you. We are always grateful for the support of our loyal readers and if you would like to donate to help us and our authors thrive during this time, you can do so here. 
Robert Minhinnick in Conversation with Jon Gower
Rewatch the full conversation between Robert Minhinnick and Jon Gower from the Seren Stay-at-Home Series. They discuss Robert’s latest novel Nia and the inspiration behind his writing.

 
Eoghan Walls: Pigeon Songs
Rewatch our event with Eoghan Walls where he reads poems from his two collections, The Salt Harvest and Pigeon Songs plus some new work.

 
Kim Moore: Ask a Poet Q&A
The third event of the Seren Stay-at-Home Series saw us host a Q&A with award-winning poet Kim Moore, author of The Art of Falling. Watch it back now.

 
Phil Cope: The Poetry of Sacred Springs and Holy Wells
In this illustrated talk Phil Cope, author of The Living Wells of Wales takes us on a journey through the wells of Wales, Scotland, Cornwall and Ireland and shares some of his favourite poetic responses to sacred springs and holy wells. 

 
Ben Wilkinson: Way More Than Luck
In the latest video from the Seren Stay-at-Home Series, poet and critic Ben Wilkinson reads from his debut collection Way More Than Luck and shares some of the poems that featured in his Poems for the Lockdown videos.

 
Nula Suchet: The Longest Farewell
The 1 September marked the beginning of World Alzheimer’s Month, an international campaign to raise awareness and challenge the stigma about dementia. In this event from the Seren Stay-at-Home Series, Nula Suchet, author of The Longest Farewell, and her husband John joined us to talk about the challenges facing dementia sufferers and their families.
NOTE: We experienced some connection issues during this event so please excuse the quality of the recording.

 
An Evening with Peter Finch: Walking Cardiff & The Machineries of Joy
In this event, Peter Finch kicked off the second week of the Seren Stay-at-Home Series reading from his two most recent books; his psychogeographic guide to the Welsh capital Walking Cardiff and his first collection of poetry in a decade The Machineries of Joy.

 
T.J. Hughes: Wales’s Best One Hundred Churches
Our second illustrated talk during the Seren Stay-at-Home Series saw T. J. Hughes give us a fascinating insight into the churches of Wales and the history contained within their walls. His book Wales’s Best One Hundred Churches is available on our website. 

 
Q&A with Jaki McCarrick
As part of the Seren Stay-at-Home Series we hosted a special Q&A with award-winning writer and playright Jaki McCarrick, author of The Scattering. 

 
Alexandra Ford: What Remains at the End
In this Seren Stay-at-Home Series event, Alexandra Ford reads from her debut novel What Remains at the End and talks about her personal connection to its setting, followed by an audience Q&A.

 
An Evening of Poetry with Tamar Yoseloff and Martyn Crucefix
At this event two Seren poets joined us for an evening of poetry. Tamar Yoseloff read from her collections A Formula for Night and The Black Place and Martyn Crucefix read from his Seren collection The Lovely Disciplines.

 
David Llewellyn: A Simple Scale
In this final recording from the Seren Stay-at-Home Series, David Llewellyn is in conversation with Nemonie Craven Roderick about his latest novel A Simple Scale and actor Samuel West read extracts from the book.

 

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Friday Poem – ‘Last Walk at Lydstep’ by Tony Curtis

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Last Walk at Lydstep’ by Tony Curtis which he has written during lockdown. Tony is the author of numerous collections of poetry, most recently From The Fortunate Isles: New and Selected Poems.

From the Fortunate Isles: New and Selected Poems, Tony Curtis From the Fortunate Isles features poems from ten of Tony’s published collections, as well as a substantial number of new poems. This is a poet whose themes and variations remain consistent: a deep affection for his roots in West Wales, tender attachments to family, a profound interest in the wars of the last century, and an abiding fascination for all art forms, particularly painting and poetry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Fortunate Isles is available via the Seren website: £12.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book you buy from us.

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Recipe: Summer Berry & Coconut Milk Ice Lollies

Get a sneak peak of what’s to come in Sarah Philpott’s new book with this delicious recipe for Summer Berry & Coconut Milk Ice Lollies from The Seasonal Vegan.

A kitchen diary of seasonal recipes with a delicious mixture of fine food writing and beautiful photography. This guide to eating with the seasons takes a realistic approach to shopping cheaply and sustainably, and proves that the vegan lifestyle is anything but expensive. Features recipes for all seasons, a section on dishes that can be enjoyed all year round, and menu ideas for special occasions.

 

Summer Berry & Coconut Milk Ice Lollies

10 minutes, plus freezing time

Makes 4 lollies

Ingredients

1 x 400ml can full fat coconut milk

1 punnet strawberries, hulled and sliced

1 punnet raspberries

1 handful fresh mint, chopped, stalks removed

Method

In a large bowl, stir together all the ingredients and spoon into ice lolly moulds. Place in the freezer and when frozen, remove from the moulds and enjoy.

 

Photograph: Manon Houston

The Seasonal Vegan is available to pre-order on the Seren website: £12.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book you buy from us.

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eBooks are coming to the Seren website!

It will soon be easier than ever to get hold of Seren eBooks when they become available to buy via our website later this month. Rediscover forgotten favourites or download the latest releases as they come out. 
We will be using the Glassboxx service from Firsty Group for delivery of our eBooks. This will make it quick and easy for you to access the books you’ve purchased by way of a simple app on your Android or iOS phone or tablet, or Kindle Fire.
We have a wide range of eBooks available across our poetry, fiction and non-fiction categories which you will be able to view in a new section of our website or on individual book pages.
Keep an eye out for the full details as soon as the system launches.

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Friday Poem – ‘Poem in Which She Wears Her Favourite Wedding Dress’ by Katrina Naomi

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Poem in Which She Wears Her Favourite Wedding Dress’ by Katrina Naomi from her new collection Wild Persistence.

Wild Persistence by Katrina Naomi is a confident and persuasive collection of poems. Written following her move from London to Cornwall, it considers distance and closeness, and questions how to live. She dissects ‘dualism’ and arrival, sex and dance, a trip to Japan. The collection also includes a moving sequence of poems about the aftermath of an attempted rape.

“Funny, moving, surprising, unflinching and, above all else…joyous.” – Helen Mort

Wild Persistence is available on the Seren website: £9.99

Create your free Seren account and enjoy 20% off every book you buy from us.

Join us for the virtual launch of Wild Persistence on Thursday 11th June at 6:30pm live via the online platform Zoom. Email [email protected] for the link details. 

Watch Katrina read her poem ‘Maybe Owls’ on our Youtube channel: