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Seren Christmas Gift Guide 2024

A group of Seren titles arranged against a snowy blanket surrounded by festive lights

Our Christmas Gift Guide is back for 2024 with bookish recommendations to help you find the perfect gifts this Christmas. Read on for our suggestions, or browse at your leisure on our Books pages.

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Fiction Recommendations

This cover shows a flaming pile of burning letters against a red background. The text reads: Flames of Anarchy. Leslie Scase. An Inspector Chard Mystery.

Flames of Anarchy

Leslie Scase

Inspector Chard Mysteries

“This thoroughly enjoyable book is the best yet in Scase’s ‘Inspector Chard’ series…” – Nation.Cymru

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This cover shows a black print of a smashed vodka bottle set against a shocking pink background. The text reads: The Crazy Truth. Gemma June Howell. A novel.

The Crazy Truth

Gemma June Howell

“Alive and full of energy, vital… like a slap in the face from someone you fancy.” – Crystal Jeans

Buy now
This cover shows a line illustration of a woman and a dog walking through lush green fields. Behind them, a river separates them from a burning city. The text reads: All the Colours You Cannot Name. Joad R Wren.

All the Colours You Cannot Name

Joad R. Wren

“A hauntingly vivid story… written with spare grace and intelligence… very moving.” – Dr Rowan Williams

Buy now
This cover shows a colourful, collage illustration by Pete Fowler. The text reads: Wonderboy and The Life and Times of Drewford Alabama. Jamie Morrison

Wonderboy and The Life & Times of Drewford Alabama

Jamie Morrison

“A unique and electric talent – his work is full of technicolour and imagination. I love this author and I love this book.” – Laura Dockrill

Buy now
Photo of a present wrapped in craft paper with a red bow and alongside copies of Let a Sleeping Witch Lie and Sugar Hall

Seren Welsh Gothic Gift Set

This exclusive Seren Welsh Gothic Gift Set includes a copy of Elizabeth Walter’s chilling collection of short fiction Let a Sleeping Witch Lie and Tiffany Murray’s classic ghost story Sugar Hall which will come together gift wrapped ready to put under the tree.

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See How they Run

lloyd jones

New Stories from the Mabinogion

“Jones captures a magic largely absent from the modern world.” – Wales Arts Review

Buy now
This cover shows an abstract painting of a fiery sun shining red, yellow and orange rays. The text reads: Kidnap Fury of the Smoking Lovers, Peter Benson

Kidnap Fury of the Smoking Lovers

Peter Benson

“Kidnap Fury of the Smoking Lovers raises you up on its shoulders and carries you away.” – International Times

Buy now
This cover shows an image of an African tree silhouetted against the purple, mist shrouded dawn sky. The text reads: This Is Not Who We Are. Sophie Buchaillard.

This is Not Who We Are

Sophie Buchaillard

“…a stark and terrifying reminder that only the most fragile screen separates the familiar from the abyss.” – Richard Gwyn

Buy now
This cover shows a picture of a girl's shadow reflected on the watery sand. The text reads From Seven to the Sea. Jayne Joso.

From Seven to the Sea

Jayne Joso

“Hymns the compassion of strangers and the consolations of the sea.” – Horatio Clare

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This cover shows a black and white photo of a man sat at a piano facing away from us with the streets of New York behind him. The text reads: A Simple Scale. David Llewellyn.

A Simple Scale

David Llewellyn

“Beautifully told and beautifully written.” – Philip Reeve

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This cover shows a close up photo of a broken wire fence threaded with barbed wire. The text reads: What Remains at the End. Alexandra Ford.

What Remains at the End

Alexandra Ford

“…both an education and a song of the heartache.” – Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

Buy now
This cover shows a fiery sunset over a city scape reflected in the bonnet of a car. The text reads: A City Burning. Angela Graham.

A City Burning

Angela Graham

“In this powerful collection, Angela Graham shows herself master of the angle of vision.” – Stevie Davies

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Non-Fiction Recommendations

This cover shows a yellow photograph of a road in patagonia stretching into the mountains. On the left of the cover is a bright yellow strip with repeating black patterns. Text reads: Ambassador of Nowhere: A Latin American Pilgrimage. Richard Gwyn.

Ambassador of Nowhere

Richard Gwyn

“Gwyn’s prose is lyrical without being indulgent… Ambassador of Nowhere… treats life itself as the ultimate poem to be translated…” – Times Literary Supplement

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The cover shows six t-shirts of varying colour at the top and bottom of the cover. The middle has six colour blocks which provide a background to the word ‘casual’. The text reads: A Casual Life in Six T-shirts. Euron Griffith.

A Casual Life: In Six T-Shirts

Euron Griffith

“Six life-changing, raging and inspiring XL shirts – a soundtrack to growing up and living in Wales that is more than just the records.” – Rhys Mwyn

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This cover shows an illustration of a grey heron standing on the side of an estuary, the purple heather stretching out in the distance. The text reads: This Stolen Land A People's History of the Gwent Levels. Marsha O'Mahony.

This Stolen Land: A People’s History of the Gwent Levels

Marsha O’Mahony

“A fascinating book about a very special and unique part of Wales.” – Iolo Williams

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This cover shows a photo of a star filled sky over the dark silhouette of a castle. The text reads: Dark Land, Dark Skies. Martin Griffiths.

Dark Land, Dark Skies

Martin Griffiths

“I must confess to being completely star-struck by this seminal work​.” – The Bay

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This cover shows a black and white image of a herd of sheep moving down the side of a mountain. The text reads: A Hardy Breed, Sheep Farming in Wales. Bruce Cardwell.

A Hardy Breed: Sheep Farming in Wales

Bruce Cardwell

“…will find a ready audience not only amongst those of us who live in this world… but by all seeking to understand… the connections between mankind and the natural world” – Nation.Cymru

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This cover shows large white text with a yellow ampersand on a dark green background. The end of the ampersand is a dragon’s tail. The text reads: Cymru & I. Essays By Gosia Buzzanca, Tia-Zakura Camilleri, Kelechi Ronald Ikpe, Mo Jannah, Bethany McAuley, Laura Mochan, Debowale Omole, Alys Roberts, Anthony Shapland. In Parntnership with Inclusive Journalism Cymru.

Cymru & I

In partnership with Inclusive Journalism Cymru

“…an inclusive, honest, and eloquent contribution to a wider conversation taking place socially in Wales.” – Buzz Magazine

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This cover shows a spanish-style illustration. The text reads: Barr 44 Tapas y Copas. This is Out Spain. Owen and Tom Morgan.

Bar 44: Tapas y Copas

Owen & Tom Morgan

“The sort of tome that becomes battered and splattered with constant use.” – Tom Parker-Bowles

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This cover shows a light grey background with a red pattern quilted on. The Text reads: Welsh Quilts. Jen Jones. Foreword by Kaffe Fassett. Patterns by Sandie Lush.

Welsh Quilts

Jen Jones

Welsh Quilts explores the origins of quilting and blanket making in Wales. It’s the essential book on the subject, whether you are a quilter yourself, or simply interested in quilting heritage.

Buy now
The Occasional Vegan Sarah Philpott

The Occasional Vegan

Sarah Philpott

“If you’re looking for accessible, unpretentious vegan food to impress even the most sceptical friends and family, then this is the book to cook from.​” – Vegan Burd

Buy now
This cover shows a black and white photograph of a boy sat alone on a hospital bed. One of his legs is missing from the knee down and he is resting on crutches. The text reads: Aperture: Life Through a Fleet Street Lens. John Downing.

Aperture: Life Through a Fleet Street Lens

John Downing

“…plunges the reader into the cut and thrust of life – and near-death – on the front line… an eye-opening portrait of a perilous profession.” – Buzz Magazine

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This cover has a bright pink background. A cut out image of a young Lucy Cannon wearing a white comunion gown with her hands raised in prayer and drawn devil horns is in the middle. The text reads: The Amazingly Astonishing Story by Lucy Gannon.

The Amazingly Astonishing Story

Lucy Gannon

“This fantastic book is the saddest happiest funniest book I’ve read for ages…” – Dawn French

Buy now
This cover shows a simple illustration of part of the Cardiff border. The text reads Peter Finch, Edging the City, A Journey Round the Border of Cardiff.

Edging the City

Peter Finch

“Finch has created a new form of psychogeography, one written on a human scale, alive to social and cultural concerns, rooted in local experience but open to the world…” – Planet

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Poetry Recommendations

This cover shows a renaissance style painting of a woman looking at a butterfly perched on her finger. In place of a wig, her hair takes the shape of a human heart overlayed with tiny doors which attract a multitude of butterflies. The text reads: The Butterfly House, Kathryn Bevis.

The Butterfly House

Kathryn Bevis

“In the end, the theme of this life-enhancing book is not death, but love.” – The Sunday Times

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This cover depicts a painted image of a large hill. The hill is dark, with blurred fields in the foreground and a light sky in the background. The text reads A Darker Way: Grahame Davies.

A Darker Way

Grahame Davies

“Despite the shadows,  A Darker Way is like a glowing hearth where humour and lyricism, comfort and blessing are exchanged.” – Carol Rumens

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This cover depicts a drawing of snow-covered branches which overlap. There is a bright red cardinal one a single branch. The text reads: Grief's Alphabet by Carrie Etter.

Grief’s Alphabet

Carrie Etter

“Etter performs a painfully remarkable magic trick: she gives a voice to ‘soundless keening,’ the grief that cannot speak.” – Caroline Bird

Buy now
This cover shows a vintage photo of a woman sleeping with her head on a pillow, a large conch shell pressed to her ear. The text reads: Battery Rocks, Katrina Naomi

Battery Rocks

Katrina Naomi

“This is poetry of incredible bravery, of endurance and of an ongoing vulnerability.” – Daljit Nagra, Poetry Extra

Buy now
This cover depicts an illustration of a ceiling with repeated black and white swirling patterns. In place of a lampshade are several colourful ribbons tied together. There is a shadow of the ribbons on the ceiling. The text reads: Leaving the Hills, Tony Curtis. ‘The poems reverberate with present, sensuous experiences, but beyond their immediacy there is a deep hinterland of public and private histories, grief and delight’.- Helen Dunmore.

Leaving the Hills

Tony Curtis

“This wide-ranging collection sees Curtis writing at the height of his powers…” – Write Out Loud

Buy now
This cover shows a graphic painting of a black cormorant surrounded by unusual colourful objects like a vibrant trainer, skull and blooming roses. The text reads: Cormorant. Elizabeth Parker.

Cormorant

Elizabeth Parker

“Parker’s poems surface with a haul of truths that are dark and dazzling.” – Deborah Harvey

Buy now
This cover shows an abstract illustration of a circular sun and triangular moon in shades of black, white, blue and yellow. The text reads: East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Taz Rahman.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Taz Rahman

“In vivifying and vital language here are poems that hymn nature into being… A marvellous, marvelling collection to both savour and hold close.” – Jon Gower

Buy now
This cover shows a dark Renaissance-style painting of a woman with paint peeling away over her face and body. The text reads: Strange Husbandry, Lorcan Black

Strange Husbandry

Lorcán Black

“Strange Husbandry shows love that is difficult to understand, unfamiliar and alien but always endeavouring to cultivate something new.” – Roy McFarlane, Poetry Book Society 

Buy now
This cover shows a woman looking down at a book in her hands. Next to her is a small table with a teacup. The cover style is slightly blurry, painted by oil paints.

God’s Little Artist

Sue Hubbard

“Sue Hubbard’s poems on this often anguished life delicately evoke the haunted atmosphere of Gwen John’s own wonderful art.” – Ruth Padel

Buy now
This cover shows an abstract painting made up of purple and blue tones with a bright yellow sun burst at the bottom. The text reads: Into the Same Sound Twice. Zakia Carpenter-Hall.

Into the Same Sound Twice

Zakia Carpenter-Hall

“Into the Same Sound Twice displays how language, like the world it witnesses, is something radiantly prismatic.” – Fiona Sampson

Buy now
This cover shows an abstract image in overlapping hues of purple and mustard yellow of two people entwined. The text reads: Portrait in Mustard. Wendy Allen.

Portrait in Mustard

Wendy Allen

“Wendy Allen’s intelligent and ekphrastic hymns to the body sing out with life and engender a reseeing of the world with a bold eroticism.” – Richard Scott

Buy now
This cover shows a still life painting of various fruits which are beginning to decay. The text reads: Fruits of Labour, Betty Doyle.

Fruits of Labour

Betty Doyle

“If I could hand this collection out, like a secret handshake, to all the women who would recognise themselves reflected in its pages, I would.” – Wendy Pratt

Buy now
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10 Deals for Black Friday

This Black Friday we’re offering 50% off these 10 fantastic Seren books – perfect for Christmas, or as a personal Black Friday Treat.  Offer ends Sunday 1st December.

This cover shows a painting of rolling golden fields stretching into the distance where a lake sits at the bottom of the valley. The text reads: A Last Respect

A Last Respect: The Roland Mathias Prize Anthology

Edited by Glyn Mathias & Daniel G. Williams

£9.99 – Reduced to £4.99

Celebrating the best of contemporary Welsh poetry, A Last Respect features poems from the eleven collections awarded the Roland Mathias Prize. Featuring work by Dannie Abse, Tiffany Atkinson, Ruth Bidgood, Ailbhe Darcy, Rhian Edwards, Christine Evans, John Freeman, Philip Gross, Gwyneth Lewis, Robert Minhinnick, and Owen Sheers, these poems cover a wide range of topics from relationships, nature and environmental issues, to mortality, time, war, Wales, and even the minefield of parents’ evenings. The perfect gift for any poetry lover.

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This cover has a bright pink background. A cut out image of a young Lucy Cannon wearing a white comunion gown with her hands raised in prayer and drawn devil horns is in the middle. The text reads: The Amazingly Astonishing Story by Lucy Gannon.

The Amazingly Astonishing Story

Lucy Gannon

£12.99 – Reduced to £6.49

Lucy Gannon is the writer of 8 plays and 18 TV dramas or series, including The Best of Men, Soldier Soldier, Peak Practice, Bramwell, and Dad. By turns laugh out loud funny and deeply sad, The Amazingly Astonishing Story is her childhood memoir, a classic story of a working-class girl growing up in the fifties and sixties, where dreams and reality seem irreconcilable. Her Catholic upbringing, a father torn between his daughter and his new wife, a chance meeting with The Beatles in the school playground and her irreverent imagination and determination to enjoy life, really does make this an amazing story.

Buy now
This cover shows a close up photo of a broken wire fence threaded with barbed wire. The text reads: What Remains at the End. Alexandra Ford.

What Remains at the End

Alexandra Ford

£9.99 – Reduced to £4.99

Marie Kohler’s grandparents didn’t talk about their past, or how they came to America. Wanting to know more about her own history, Marie travels to the former Yugoslavia where she learns of atrocities committed against Yugoslavia’s ethnic Germans, the Danube Swabians, in the aftermath of World War II by Tito’s Partisan regime. Stories of Tito’s victims – a young survivor who has lost his mother and his identity, a woman held captive in a sugar factory, a refugee girl living in Austria under the din of air raid sirens – merge with Marie’s own journey as she searches for truth and connection in the face of loss and long-held family secrets.

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This cover shows a watercolour illustration of a winding river surrounded by blank white space. The text reads: A Fold in the River. Phillip Gross. Valerie Coffin Price.

A Fold in the River

Philip Gross and Valerie Coffin Price

£12.99 – Reduced to £6.49

The result of a collaboration between T.S. Eliot prize-winning poet Philip Gross and visual artist Valerie Coffin Price, A Fold in the River is a creative conversation between words and paint, set on the banks of the River Taff. Considering the river, nature, landscape, history and ways of seeing, this book is for anyone who has experienced the beauty of our ancient waterways.

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This cover shows a paper cut out of a tree and a chapel casting shadow on a purple background. The text reads: The White Trail. Fflur Dafydd. New Stories From the Mabinogion.

The White Trail

Fflur Dafydd

£8.99 – Reduced to £4.49

Life is tough for Cilydd, 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. So begins a tale of intrigue and confusion that ends with a wild boar chase and a dangerous journey to the House of the Missing. In this contemporary retelling, award-winning Welsh writer Fflur Dafydd transforms the medieval Welsh Arthurian myth of the Mabinogion’s ‘Culhwch and Olwen’ into a 21st century quest for love and revenge.

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This cover shows a black and white photograph of a boy sat alone on a hospital bed. One of his legs is missing from the knee down and he is resting on crutches. The text reads: Aperture: Life Through a Fleet Street Lens. John Downing.

Aperture: Life Through a Fleet Street Lens

John Downing with Wendy Holden

£19.99 – Reduced to £9.99

John Downing was the pre-eminent press photographer of his generation and seven-time winner of the British Press Photographer of the Year. Aperture: Life Through a Fleet Street Lens is an account of his life and a career which placed him at the forefront of photojournalism during one of the most interesting periods in world history. Exploring both the glamour of journalism at the time and the gruelling nature of assignments in places such as South Sudan, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Uganda, Bangladesh and Chernobyl, this is a unique and first-hand insight into life behind the Fleet Street lens during a ‘golden age’ of photojournalism.

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This cover shows an abstract painting of a fiery sun shining red, yellow and orange rays. The text reads: Kidnap Fury of the Smoking Lovers, Peter Benson

Kidnap Fury of the Smoking Lovers

Peter Benson

£9.99 – Reduced to £4.99

Fargo Hawkins dropped out of school. Now he is a gardener. He’s twenty years old, and works for Harry Swaine, an abusive butcher with a chain of shops on the south coast of England. After witnessing a fight between Harry and Anne (Harry’s wife) Fargo steals a car and together he, Anne and a dog called Radar go on the run. They have £9,653, a bag of apples, a penknife and three bottles of wine. Where will their journey take them, and what will they discover about themselves and each other along the way?

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This cover shows a photograph of James Roberts. The text reads: The Longest Farewell, James, Dementia and Me by Nula Suchet

The Longest Farewell

Nula Suchet

£12.99 – Reduced to £6.49

The Longest Farewell is Nula Suchet’s moving account of caring for her husband, James, after he was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of early-onset dementia. Her account considers the effect this distressing disease had on both James and those around him as his condition worsened. Nula describes her initial shock and sadness, as well as her frustration and eventual feeling of guilt when faced with the difficult decision to place him in care. There, Nula meets Bonnie, another resident suffering from the same condition, and in turn her husband, broadcaster John Suchet. The similarities of Nula and John’s positions brings them closer together and after James and Bonnie have passed away, this heartbreaking story finds an unexpectedly happy ending.

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This cover shows a painting my Shani Rhys James of a child peering over the edge of a table where a jug balances on the edge of falling. The text reads: Women's Work. Edited Eva Salzman and Amy Wack.

Women’s Work: Modern Women Poets Writing in English

Edited by Eva Salzman & Amy Wack

£14.99 – Reduced to £7.49

This landmark anthology is a touchstone of women’s experiences in the 21st century. Covering various topics from love, family and the body, to war, politics and displacement, Women’s Work brings together 250 of the best poems by women ever published. Eva Salzman’s introduction considers whether there is a need for such a book to exist, opening a conversation on what constitutes the literary canon. Exploring and illuminating women’s experiences and identities in all their rich and complex variety, this is a must-read anthology. 

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This cover shows a photograph of a barn own flying over a golden field, its wings illuminated against the dark background. The text reads: The Owl House. Daniel Butler.

The Owl House

Daniel Butler

£12.99 – Reduced to £6.49

For over twenty-five years Daniel Butler has lived in the Cambrian Mountains near Rhayader, absorbing the world around him and charting its changes, slow and rapid. His passion for keeping hawks was compounded by two wild birds, barn owls, which nested at his farm and became increasingly tame and familiar with him and his family. His relationship with the birds became the starting point for a pastoral exploration of mid-Wales and the flora and fauna which inhabit it, making this a rich and vividly written account of one of the most sparsely populated areas of Britain.

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Mick Felton Obituary

4 pointed star against a black background

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of our former Publisher Mick Felton. Mick was instrumental to the establishment of Seren and a supporter of many flourishing writers from Wales and beyond. It is hard to argue that anyone has done more for the heritage and sustenance of English-language publishing in Wales over the past forty years. We know there will be many both shocked and saddened by this news.

As a very private person, Mick would not want us to share too much about what a loss this is. His determination at holding the publishing house together, come what may, is deeply admired and is the reason why Seren is still here, providing opportunities for the next generation of writers. We’ll miss his dry sense of humour and his understated pride in the classics of Welsh literature which he had a hand in creating. Mick’s retirement was cruelly short, and we’re devastated that we won’t be sharing the future classics of Welsh literature with him to read at his leisure.

We send our deepest condolences to his family and friends.

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Friday Poem – ‘Afterwards’ by Betty Doyle

Image of a dying star in the middle of a swirling cloud of dust and light

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Afterwards’ by Betty Doyle from her newly published pamphlet Fruits of Labour. Join us on Wednesday 6th November for our joint online poetry launch celebrating Fruits of Labour and Portrait in Mustard by Wendy Allen.

Afterwards the pain was so much that I curled inwards as my breath was ripped out of me: the I of my body curved until my head was buried inside my belly, contracting to a dying star. I could see the implosion at my core, hot-white, radiating outwards with high winds, light waves flying out of me when all I wanted was to unfurl, straighten, stretch my spine beyond its half-moon, point my chin sunwards, uncross myself, stand palms-up, legs spread mouth wide, to let my face, chest belly see it all – and feel it.

Register via Eventbrite to join us online on Wednesday 6th November for the launch of Fruits of Labour and Portrait in Mustard.

Register for free
Join Poetry Launch. Portrait in Mustard by Wendy Allen and Fruits of Labour by Betty Doyle. 6pm Wednesday 6th November. Online via Zoom. All welcome. Book via Eventbrite.
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Taz Rahman longlisted for the Laurel Prize 2024

Flat lay image of East of the Sun West of the Moon against a navy background.

Congratulations Taz Rahman whose debut collection East of the Sun, West of the Moon has been longlisted for the Laurel Prize for Poetry 2024.

The prize, set up by poet laureate Simon Armitage and run by the Poetry School, is awarded annually to the best collection of environmental or nature poetry published that year. This year’s judges are Mona Arshi, Caroline Bird and Kwame Dawes.

The shortlist will be announced on Monday 7 October, with prizes of £5,000 (1st prize), £2,000 (2nd prize), and £1,000 (3rd prize) awarded to the winners. There’s also a £500 award for each of the Best First Collection UK and Best International First Collection. In addition, winners will receive a commission from National Landscapes to create a poem based on their favourite UK landscape.

Poets from the 21 strong longlist will be reading at the Laurel Prize Ceremony which is due to take place on Saturday 19th October at Yorkshire Sculpture Park as part of the inaugural Poetry School Summit, as well as being live streamed.