Nicholas Murray is a biographer, poet, novelist and critic. The author of acclaimed biographies of Matthew Arnold, Andrew Marvell, Aldous Huxley and Franz Kafka, he is also the Royal Literary Fund Writer for Queen Mary College University of London. Visit his website at www.nicholasmurray.co.uk
Books by Nicholas Murray
A Short Book About Love
Real Bloomsbury
Remembering Carmen
Jon Gower is a producer with Boomerang, one of Wales’ most dynamically creative TV and radio companies. He was BBC Wales’ Arts and Media correspondent from 2000-2006, when he also presented First Hand, BBC Radio Wales’ arts programme. Jon has also worked, variously, as public affairs officer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and as a current affairs journalist for HTV. He has written books about travel and local history, including An Island Called Smith (Gomer, 2001), about a disappearing island in Chesapeake Bay, which was a John Morgan Award winner. He has edited a further four volumes, as well as writing a collection of short stories, Big Fish (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2000).
Jon is currently working on a critical biography of the American actor Steve Buscemi and has recently published a book about his home town, Llanelli, for Seren’s ‘Real Wales’ series. He is an English language judge for the 2011 Wales Book of the Year.
Books by Jon Gower
Real Llanelli
Niall Griffiths lives near Aberystwyth, and has published seven fiction books to date. His 2004 novel, Stump, won the Welsh Book of the Year Award. He has been published by Bloomsbury and Cape and his work continues to receive strong critical acclaim throughout the UK. Niall is also the author of Real Aberystwth, Real Liverpool and The Dreams of Max and Ronnie (Seren) and is a regular reviewer for The Guardian and a commentator on contemporary writing for a number of magazines.
Books by Niall Griffiths
Real Aberystwyth
Real Liverpool
The Dreams of Max and Ronnie
Ann Drysdale is a prize-winning poet and former journalist on the South Wales Argus, with a wealth of knowledge of Newport and its people. Her ability to look at both from an oblique and humorous standpoint is unsurpassed.
Books by Ann Drysdale
Real Newport
Ellie Evans was born in Carmarthen and was educated in Llandeilo and Cardiff. After reading English at Oxford, she worked in publishing and for the Medical Research Council, before living in Hong Kong, teaching English. She has spent most of her adult life teaching in London, but now is based in Powys. She began writing poetry six years ago, and has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Bath Spa where she is finishing a Ph.D. Her poems have been published in several anthologies and in magazines including PNR, Poetry Wales, New Welsh Review, Red Poets, The Rialto and Acumen .Evans has given readings at the Bath Literature Festival, Bath Poetry Cafe, Dartington’s ‘Ways with Words’ and ‘The Muses’ Workshop’ on the island of Spetses, Greece.
Books by Ellie Evans
The Ivy Hides the Fig-Ripe Duchess
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
Originally from Pen-Y-Bont, Carmarthen in West Wales, Nerys Williams has published her original first collection of poetry Sound Archive (2011) with Seren. Nerys is a native Welsh speaker and had worked as a Sound Librarian at BBC Wales and is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholar’s Award at UC Berkeley.
A recent winner of the Ted McNulty Poetry Prize, she lectures in American Literature at University College, Dublin. She has published poems, critical essays widely and is the author of A Guide to Contemporary Poetry as well as study of contemporary American poetry, Reading Error.
Books by Nerys Williams
Sound Archive
Originally from Normal, Illinois, Carrie Etter lives in Bradford on Avon and teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University. Read Carrie’s blog atwww.carrieetter.blogspot.com Her debut collection for Seren, The Tethers, won the London Festival Fringe Prize for Best First Collection of Poetry 2010.
Pascale Petit was born in Paris, grew up in France and Wales and lives in London. Her latest collection What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo(Seren, 2010) was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and was a Book of the year in the Observer. Black Lawrence Press published a US edition in 2011. She has published five poetry books, three of which were shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and which were also Books of the Year in the Times Literary Supplement, Observer and the Independent. Her second collection The Zoo Father was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was published in Mexico in a bilingual edition. A poem from it was shortlisted for a Forward Prize. In 2004 the Poetry Book Society selected Petit as one of the Next Generation Poets.
Petit has won numerous awards, including three from Arts Council England. She trained as a sculptor at the Royal College of Art and was a visual artist for the first part of her life. She is widely travelled, including in the Venezuelan Amazon, China and Nepal. She co-edited Tying the Song (Enitharmon, 2000), the first anthology from The Poetry School, has worked as Poetry Editor for Poetry London and was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Middlesex University 2007 – 2009. She currently tutors poetry courses for Tate Modern, the Arvon Foundation and Ty Newydd.
Visit Pascale’s website and blog
www.pascalepetit.co.uk and www.pascalepetit.blogspot.com
View videos of Pascale Petit on our website.
For more information on Pascale Petit’s appearances and poetry readings check out our ‘Events’ category on our blog or search on our website.
Bruce Cardwell’s connection with horses goes back to his childhood in Ireland. A long career in the world of the horse includes work with organisations as various as William Hill and the National Trust, a stud farm in the Cotswolds, a millionaire’s stables in Greece and a rest home for horses in Buckinghamshire. He has also trained show-jumpers and owned horses to ride and drive. He has lived in West Wales for many years and is now resident in Aberystwyth
Books by Bruce Cardwell
We had a wonderful evening reflecting on the essays in ‘The Waters That Raised Us’ at @ffotogallery in Cardiff a few months ago. We were joined by contributors @tayloredmonds, @kathrynellentann, @cjwagstaff1, @moedwards_, @sofia_brizio and @joshuajoneswrites who read from their work and answered questions from the audience. If you’re yet to get your copy of this important anthology, you can find it in your local bookshop!
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#TheWatersThatRaisedUs #Events #SerenBooks #BooksFromWales #NewBooks #Cardiff #Water #Essays #LoveReading #CaruDarllen #NationalYearOfReading2026 #GoAllIn2026 #Ymgolli
We’re delighted that @bethanyhandley_ won an Eric Gregory Award for her poetry pamphlet ‘Cling Film’! Administered by @thesocietyofauthors the Eric Gregory Awards recognise outstanding collections by poets under 30, and are a valuable supporting step in their careers. ‘Cling Film’ is available now in all good bookshops!
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Photo by Adrian Pope.
Back in March we had a fantastic time celebrating publication of ‘Muslim Wales’ by @azimwales with an event at Cardiff University. Talking to @hananelizabethissa, he shared fascinating insights into the research underpinning his book in front of a packed lecture theatre. Thank you to Hana Zaman for capturing these snapshots of the event and to everyone who joined us! The event was also supported by @muslimwales. The book is available now from bookshops across Wales and beyond!
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#MuslimWales #Books #Events #Launches #SerenBooks #History #WelshHistory #BooksFromWales #Cardiff #CaruDarllen #LoveReading #NationalYearOfReading2026 #GoAllIn2026 #Ymgolli2026
We’re over the moon that @maggiepoet has been named winner of the #JhalakPoetryPrize 2026 for her collection ‘I Sing to the Greenhearts’. In the words of our poetry co-editors, “This vivid, powerful collection deserves this recognition... We’re proud to have published it and of Maggie’s connection to Wales.” Maggie’s book is available in bookshops and on our website!
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@jhalakprize @books.wales @inpressbooks #JhalakPrize #Poetry #PoetryLover #PoetsOfInstagram #PrizeWinner #SerenBooks #BooksFromWales #LoveReading #CaruDarllen #NationalYearOfReading #GoAllIn #Ymgolli
