Pascale Petit’s collection of poetry What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo has been long listed for the Wales Book of the Year 2011.
What the Water Gave Me contains fifty-two poems in the voice of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Some of the poems are close interpretations of Kahlo’s work, while others are parallels or version homages where Petit draws on her experience as a visual artist to create alternative ‘paintings’ with words.
To view all long listed titles click here
Anne-Marie Fyfe – as is apparent in her Understudies: New and Selected Poems – is a subtle and engaging poet. She has developed much like a painter, spare themes moving towards a deeper complexity. Her earlier work includes quite a few domestic interiors; rooms recalled from an Irish childhood and stories told by parents and grandparents. Later poems often feature crucial or pitvotal moments in her life and the imagined lives of others: a significant conversation, the look a woman gives herself in the mirror when she’s about to leave her husband, the odour left in the air by a certain perfume. All this eventually evolves into her characteristic poem, a cityscape wrought with careful observation and melded with flashbacks of memory, both her own and including her family, and others, beautifully imagined. Her voice is direct, with a conversational tone that invites you into the narrative. This volume includes selections from her previous books:Late Crossing (1999), Tickets from a Blank Window (2002) – both from Rockingham Press, and The Ghost Twin (Peterloo, 2005).
Published by Seren in September 2010.
Author Anne-Marie Fyfe has had her poem ‘Interstate’ elected as poem of the week by Guardian Books Blog!
‘Interstate’ is taken from Fyfe’s 2010 collection Understudies: New and Selected Poems (available from Seren).
Carol Rumens, from the Guardian, says about Fyfe’s collection, “Set variously in London, the US and her native Northern Ireland, Fyfe’s poems have a certain ease and elasticity, even when their structure is regular, as here. The tone is cool, the language plain and unclassifiable. It’s as if travel between places had made it natural to combine associated poetic styles – lyric compression with a certain freedom of line and movement.”
Seren is delighted to have one of our poet’s recognised and congratulations to Anne-Marie Fyfe!
To read the ‘Poem of the Week’ article posted on Guardian Books Blog follow this link http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/apr/11/anne-marie-fyfe-interstate
Anne-Marie Fyfe was born in Ireland and now lives in West London. A poet, creative-writing tutor, arts organiser (of the well-known Troubadour club events in London), she was recently Chair of the Poetry Society. She has read throughout the world at festivals and events and on BBC radio and television.
Anne-Marie Fyfe’s poems have a lyric clarity, an ontological accuracy and unflinching vigilance that is both spiritual and revelatory – Tom Paulin
Time, witness, flesh and remembrance – these poems play In the deep end of the pools of image and imagination A rich humanity informs Anne-Marie Fyfe’s new work. The vision is detailed, the voice rings true. – Thomas Lynch
Anne-Marie Fyfe reminds us of the skins we inhabit and shed – TLS (John Greening)
Books by Anne-Marie Fyfe
Understudies: New and Selected Poems
Pascale Petit’s collection of poetry What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo has been long listed for the Wales Book of the Year 2011.
What the Water Gave Me contains fifty-two poems in the voice of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Some of the poems are close interpretations of Kahlo’s work, while others are parallels or version homages where Petit draws on her experience as a visual artist to create alternative ‘paintings’ with words.
To view all log listed titles click here
Ruth Bidgood wins the Roland Mathias Prize 2011 with her collection of poetry Time Being, published by Seren (2009).
The £3,000 prize was awarded to Ruth Bidgood at ceremony in Roland Mathias’ home town of Brecon, supported by BBC Wales and hosted by Nicola Heywood Thomas, presenter of Radio Wales’ Arts Show.
In future years, it is to be incorporated into the Wales Book of the Year.
Thinking of submitting your work to Seren? Read our Updated Submissions Policy first.
Seren publishes between twenty and twenty-five new titles a year across its list. Fiction currently accounts for five or six titles and poetry six or seven.
As a successful and prize-winning publisher Seren receives hundreds of typescripts. We do our best to respond as quickly as we can, and like all publishers we’re eager to read remarkable new writing.
Please be aware though that in many areas we are considering titles for publication two or more years ahead, and that the ratio of submissions to editors means that proper consideration of your typescript may take some time. We hope that our continued success will mean an increase in titles, but for the moment please bear with us.
You are welcome to make non-fiction submissions by email, to the addresses below (please note we are not currently accepting poetry or fiction submissions via email). If sending a submission by post, please include a stamped addressed envelope for return of manuscript, and for acknowledgment of receipt if required. (Unfortunately we are unable to acknowledge receipt or return MSS without these.)
Seren publishes a small number of quality literary fiction titles. We do receive a large number of submissions, but are always keen to read innovative, exciting manuscripts. We do not usually publish genre fiction, such as historical, saga, sci-fi, etc, and are not currently publishing children’s fiction. Writers wishing to submit fiction should first familiarise themselves with the Seren website to ascertain whether their book would contribute to the Seren list.
To submit a manuscript please send a synopsis, covering letter, two or three representative chapters (around fifty pages) and a stamped addressed envelope to Penny Thomas, Fiction Editor, Seren, 57 Nolton Street, Bridgend, CF31 3AE. Email submissions are not accepted.
Our list has now reopened to submissions, but please bear with us as it may take some time to get back to you.
Penny Thomas, Fiction Editor: [email protected]
Poets who wish to submit should have track record of publication in literary Journals like Poetry Wales, New Welsh Review, Planet, Poetry Review, etc. Poets should send hard copy manuscript of approximately 50 pages, along with a one-page cover letter with details of previous publications and brief biographical details. It will also be helpful to show some knowledge of the Seren list. Simultaneous submissions are discouraged.
Amy Wack, Poetry Editor. Hard copy submissions only
For us to consider a book for publication, you should send a clear proposal in the first instance. We may subsequently request a sample of the work. 3-4 pages of A4 should be sufficient, covering the following areas:
Author/Editor: brief biographical details of the author, editor(s) or collaborators. Where the book is several edited chapters or essays, brief biographical and professional details of all contributors are useful.
Title of Book: This need only be a working title, but it should give a clear sense of the book’s scope and range.
Synopsis: One page or less outlining the book, its subject, approach and method.
Chapter Outline: A chapter by chapter outline of the contents, showing how the argument or subject is developed.
Illustrations, Figures, Tables: please give an estimate of the number and kind of illustration needed (colour/black and white etc.)
The Market and Competition: What is the envisaged readership? Might the book be used on courses? Is there likely to be overseas interest? Are there any possible tie-ins or media interest likely? Do any similar books exist? If so, what are they and how does yours differ?
Date of Delivery: When can you complete the book?
Please also include the author/editor’s CV.
Mick Felton, Non-Fiction Editor: [email protected]
We wish you every success in your submission and look forward to reading your work soon!
Mick Felton has over thirty years experience in publishing and the book trade and has been representing, managing and editing at Seren for many of them. He is a former Trustee of the Poetry Society and has a longstanding interest and involvement in environmental issues.
Simon Hicks has been at Seren for fifteen years, working in sales, marketing, design and production. He was previously a copywriter and features editor. He likes reading, music, art, food and sitting in the garden.
Amy Wack was born in Florida, USA, and raised in Coronado, California. She has a BA in English Literature from San Diego State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University, New York City. She has worked at Seren since 1989 where she was Reviews Editor of Poetry Wales magazine and, in recent years, Seren’s Poetry Editor, among the many prize-winning titles produced in her tenure are John Haynes Letter to Patience, which won the Costa Award for Poetry, Kathryn Simmonds, Sunday at the Skin Launderette, which won the Forward Prize for best first collection. She also co-edited, with the poet Eva Salzman, the well-received anthology Women’s Work: Modern Women Poets Writing in English. She lives in Cardiff with her husband and daughter and hosts a monthly poetry-reading series, First Thursday, at Chapter Arts Centre, Canton.
Penny Anne Thomas has worked for Seren since 2006 and as part-time fiction editor she is usually buried in manuscripts, some of them wonderful. She loves her job and looks to bring a range of innovative, talented writers to the Seren list. Originally from Hertfordshire she has lived in Wales since 1988. She has a BA English Language and Literature (Oxon) and worked for 15 years as a journalist for Welsh daily newspapers. She is also a freelance editor and lives in Cardiff with her husband, two children and the dog.
Victoria Humphreys was born in Aberystwyth and has worked for Seren since April 2010. She used to work as a Marketing Assistant for a software reseller based in West Wales. Victoria studied Marketing at Swansea Metropolitan University, gaining a 2.1 BA (hons), and is also an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Victoria enjoys reading, music, keeping fit – also Victoria is a very keen spectator of football.
David Hurn and John Fuller present Writing the Picture at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff.
Writing the Picture is a rare collaboration between a leading photographer and an eminent poet. Even more rare, it is a collaboration in which the poet responds to images, rather than a photographer or artists ‘illustrating’ a poem. The book evolved from a previous assignment for The Independent in which Fuller agreed to write about Hurn’s pictures “as long as the ‘captions’ could be poetry”.
Join us for a special evening at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff Thursday 7th April 2011 7.30pm £2
Join Nia Williams for the launch of her latest novel The Colour of Grass.
Who did she think she was? Helen’s family is falling apart. There will be no answers from her husband anymore and she can’t communicate with her grown-up daughter. She’s not sure of anything anymore. So she turns to the relatives: the ones who are dead and gone.
George & Delila Café, 104 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JE 5.30pm Tuesday April 5th 2011. Refreshments
This September, you’re invited to explore the unseen and the unsettling. From dark and menacing landscapes to the everyday terrors of domestic settings disturbingly close to home, these stories will horrify and delight in equal measure. Be prepared, for ‘this is a land of ancient power, and even more ancient beings...’ Pre-order the latest addition to our Welsh Gothic series, ‘Giving the Darkness Life’ on our website now.
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Stories by @markblayney1, Mary-Ann Constantine, @damianwalforddavies, Caradoc Evans, Dorothy K. Haynes, @lucie_mckhardy Arthur Machen, Elinor Mordaunt, John Llewellyn Probert, L.T.C. Rolt, @priyasharma1000, Edward Thomas, Elizabeth Walter and D.P. Watt
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@inpressbooks @books.wales #WelshGothic #SerenBooks #NationalYearOfReading2026 #SpookySeason #AutumnBooks
We had a wonderful time listening to @megan.c.hayes talking about her memoir ‘Glimmering’ with Kath Little from @bardic_books at St Illtud’s church in Llantwit Major on Saturday. Diolch yn fawr to everyone who joined us and to Kath for hosting! Copies of ‘Glimmering’ are available now in your local bookshop.
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#Glimmering #Memoir #SerenBooks #IndependentBookshop #NationalYearOfReading2026
Ebooks available now! ‘In Search of Sea Dragons’, ‘Muslim Wales’ and ‘The Waters That Raised Us’ are now available from all major ebook retailers meaning you can take them with you on the go 🎉 Do you prefer reading ebooks, print books or both?
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@severn.sea.fossils @azimwales @tayloredmonds #Ebooks #Kindle #SerenBooks #BooksFromWales #LoveReading
🏆@maggiepoet continues her winning streak having won the Guyana Prize for Literature Poetry Award with her collection ‘I Sing to the Greenhearts’! Available now in bookshops nationwide and on our website!
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#AwardWinning #GuyanaPrize #Poetry #PoetryBooks #SerenBooks
