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Friday Poem – A small domestic scene

This week’s poem is from Ivy Alvarez’s collection, Disturbance, published in 2013.

Disturbance is a novel in verse by Ivy Alvarez that chronicles a multiple homicide, a tragic case of domestic violence, where a family was gunned down by the husband and father. 

The book features poems in a kaleidoscope of voices from all the characters involved. We first meet the family itself and witness how the father’s controlling attitude gradually escalates into violence. Then we get the aftermath: the authorities, police and neighbours, who all might have helped to prevent this tragedy. This is a very dark book, but a courageous one, ultimately about evil and its presence in our everyday lives. The fact that this family was relatively well-to-do, seemingly prosperous and well-connected, adds another layer of intrigue and mystery. There is some graphic violence, but the emphasis is on the characters and their motivations.

A small domestic scene

‘Blood comes out in cold water,’
he said to me,
almost tenderly,
from the doorway,
as I held the icepack to my cheek,
looked at my blouse in the mirror,
fingered the stains.

Order Disturbance from our website.

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Help the Homeless: A Charity Evening with Rosie Shepperd

Rosie Shepperd is teaming up with Waterstones Guildford to present a charity launch of her debut collection, The Man at the Corner Table.

Join Rosie and the Waterstones team at 18:30 on Monday 7th December for a sophisticated evening that will include wine, canapés, and a talk from Rosie about her dazzling collection. The event itself is free, but any who wish to attend are encouraged to make a donation, however large or small, to the Number Five Project, a Guildford-based homeless shelter.

Number Five offers short-term emergency accommodation for homeless men and women over the age of 18; they provide a hot meal, a hot shower, a bed for the night and breakfast the next morning, as well as 1-2-1 key-worker support to all residents.

For those of us lucky enough to have never been homeless, we can’t possibly imagine just how awful homelessness is. People who are homeless are in danger of being attacked, abused or stigmatised, and as the weather gets colder, many homeless people will not survive the winter.

So if you can, attend the launch and make a donation – if you can’t make a donation, why not spread the word? You could make a difference!

 

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Charity Evening with Rosie Shepperd

On Monday 7th December at 6:30pm, there will be a charity launch of Rosie Shepperd’s debut collection, The Man at the Corner Table, at Waterstones Guildford.
The evening will include wine, canapés and a talk from Rosie about her collection. Though the event itself is free, any who attend are encouraged to make a donation, however large or small, to the Number Five Project. Number Five is a homeless shelter in Guildford which offers short-term emergency accommodation to men and women over the age of 18; any who are in need of the shelter are given a hot meal, a hot shower, a bed to sleep in and breakfast the next morning.
As the weather gets colder those who are homeless are at even more risk than they usually are, which means homeless charities and shelters like Number Five need all the support they can get. So why not go along to the event and make a donation? If you are unable, then spread the word – you could save a life!

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Friday Poem – Mermaid

This week’s poem is from Simon Mundy’s fourth collection, More for Helen of Troy, first published in 2012.

More for Helen of Troy, Simon Mundy’s new collection of poems from Seren, is suffused with the atmosphere of the landscapes that inspire him, the lush countryside of Powys, and a number of islands all over the world:Genada, Jamaica, Shetland, Italy. It is also deeply involved with many questions of desire: for the ideal of a beautiful woman, as ‘Mermaid’; for the hope of a good state, as in ‘The New Senedd, Cardiff’ for the vision of a pristine country and seaside, as in ‘Radnor Songs’ and ‘Aspects of Sea’. The tension between all these ideals, between lofty aims and inevitable disappointments, come together in the main title sequence, where an entire society must scheme and suffer for the allure of Helen. Helen is also emblematic: both a legendary figure and a imago for women from all times: pursued, desired, lonely, restless, she haunts the imagination of the poet. Sometimes keenly satirical, as in ‘Society Haiku’, and often poignantly lyrical as in ‘Translated Daughter’, these poems are both pointed and enjoyable. 

Mermaid

This rock, this divan of stone
Is too jagged for your tail, tearing
Young scales, the salt of sea and tears
Searing raw skin as you preen and comb,
Holding the pose for shipsful of men
Who pass in the morning.
What else can you do?
Hide in the cold northern waters that sparkle
On the surface but hold poisons that pock
Your fins with dirty sores.
Or you could hitch on board those ships,
Shed the tail, rejoice in legs and bush,
Bask on the warm sands of love
Before the mortal tides creep in
Across the disappointing strand.
No. Keep amphibious. Immortal
Beauty is worth a little weeping.

Order More for Helen of Troy from our website.

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(Holly) Jolly Good Deal!

Christmas is on its way, and this festive season we want to see you ten lords a-leaping for joy. So because we’re such good eggs, we have a very exciting Christmas deal for you!

grinchmas

Buy any two books from our website and you’ll receive a free copy of Christmas in Wales! You can dip in and out of poetry, fiction and memoirs that celebrate Christmas the Welsh way, or you can pass it on as a cheeky present to a friend or loved one.

This offer ends at midnight on the 24th December – don’t miss out!

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Anne Lauppe-Dunbar on BBC Radio Wales

Anne Lauppe-Dunbar, author of Dark Mermaids, joined Jamie Owen on BBC Radio Wales to discuss her debut novel and its subject matter– doping in sport. Anne’s interview aired on Sunday 15th November, but you can still listen to the radio show in full, here.
Dark Mermaids is a shocking story of the horrors of a political system that doped its youngsters to sporting superhero status, and then left them to fend for themselves. Shortlisted for the Impress and Cinnamon First Novel Prize, this East German noir thriller is set in 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In light of the recent Russian doping scandal, Anne’s research into the use of performance enhancing drugs in the former GDR is especially relevant. Have a listen as she tells Jamie what inspired her to write this dark, absorbing tale.

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Buy two books, get Christmas in Wales free!

This cover shows a small number of sheep in the foreground. Behind the sheep is a snowy farmhouse. The text reads: Christmas in Wales. An Anthology edited by Dewi Roberts.

Christmas is fast approaching, and as a little treat we’re giving away a free copy of Christmas in Wales when you buy two or more books from our website, to help you celebrate the festive season the Welsh way!
Christmas in Wales is a seasonal anthology of poetry, fiction, short stories and non-fiction, containing writing by the country’s leading writers, past and present. Edited by the late Dewi Roberts, this anthology has all the ingredients for the complete experience of the season of celebration. Christmas mass, the nativity play, turkey and plum pudding, the Mari Lwyd, presents, the weather, the shopping and post-festive blues are among the many subjects drawn from stories, poems, diaries and letters. R.S. Thomas, Dylan Thomas, Dannie Abse, Gillian Clarke, Catherine Fisher, Bruce Chatwin, Sian James, Kate Roberts and Leslie Norris are some of the many names you’ll find inside.
How do I claim my free copy? As soon as you add two books to your basket, your free copy of Christmas in Wales will appear alongside them. You then proceed to checkout, after which we will post the free book to you with the rest of your order. It’s as simple as that!
Offer ends midnight, 24th December.

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Jo Mazelis Nominated for Pushcart Prize

Jo Mazelis, author of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize-winning novel Significance, has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize for her short story, ‘Whose Story is this Anyway?’.
Since 1976 The Pushcart Prize has accepted nominations of poetry, short stories and essays exclusively from small magazines and presses across the world, where the select few will be chosen for publication in the latest edition of The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series. Next year’s collection, for which Jo’s story has been nominated, will be a celebration of 40 years of the prize.
Mazelis joins five other nominees from The Lonely Crowd, a magazine devoted to the short story which was founded by Wales Arts Review’s Fiction Editor Dr. John Lavin, including fellow Welsh author Stevie Davies. Jenn Ashworth, Medbh McGuckian, Nuala Ní Chonchúir and Matt Rader have also been nominated.

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Friday Poem – The Last Soldier

This week’s poem comes from Tony Curtis’ War Voices, first published in 1995.

War and its effects have been an enduring subject throughout the twenty-five year writing career of Tony Curtis. The resulting poetry might have been bleak but for the sensitivity with which Curtis handles the theme, and the bravery and dignity in the face of barbarism which he finds underlying conflict. Poems such as ‘Soup’, shortlisted for the Observer / Arvon Prize and ‘The Death of Richard Beattie-Seaman’, winner of the National Poetry Competition, are a measure of Curtis’s skill in addressing this difficult subject. From Flanders to Bosnia, via Russia and Suez, India and Ireland, Vietnam and the Cold War, these War Voices speak of protest, remembrance and commemoration.

The Last Soldier

The last soldier marches out of the jungle
to the gentlemen of the press and an official welcome.
He salutes, presents the sword
which his parents, thirty years before,
had him swear to use with honour
in war, or on himself. Swathed
in a white cloth, it does not glint in the lights.
The President orders a reception, magnanimously
pardons the crimes of his private war.
A chartered Jumbo flies him home:
his mother’s cheek is leather,
his father’s mind has split.
The crowds scream for a walking-history,
the last spirit of Empire. Too late.
In his absence the Dream has come
and gone.

The bright shells of cars litter his path,
blind-eyed towers monster above him;
selling lights dazzle, pattern unfamiliar streets.
The air cloys with a sweet choking sin.

Back in the jungle, the fronds of evening
finger a clear sky, rainbow birds dash
colours across the deep green.
Minutely, against the background of birds
and the timed whispering of the ocean
his abandoned radio crackles into life:
orders come through.

Order War Voices from our website.

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Cath Drake on 2015 Manchester Poetry Prize Short List

Cath Drake, author of the 2013 Mslexia/Seren Poetry Pamphlet Prize-winning pamphlet Sleeping with Rivers, is one of six poets who has been short listed for the 2015 Manchester Poetry Prize!
Judges Adam O’Riordan, Olivia Cole and Kei Miller were “delighted with the standard and range of entries”, and Cath joins five other women, Tess Barry, Kierstin Bridger, Linda France, Lindsey Holland and Lucy Ingrams, on this year’s short list. The winner of Carol Ann Duffy’s £10,000 prize will be announced at a ceremony on Friday 27th November. You can reserve a seat here if you’d like to attend the free event at Manchester Metropolitan University.
To read Cath’s poems, and the other poems on this year’s short list, click here.