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The Seren Poetry Podcast is a series of in-depth interviews and readings with Seren poets. Each episode dives beneath the surface of the poets’ latest books, offering readers deeper insight into their creative processes. In Episode 1 we chat to Polly Atkin about her second collection Much With Body. 
Available to listen to now on all podcast platforms, Polly chats in-depth about her poetry, Dorothy Wordsworth, frogs, nature, inspiration and her writing process. 
To subscribe, simply search ‘The Seren Poetry Podcast’ is you favourite podcast app. Click follow or subscribe to have all future editions delivered straight to your podcast feed. 
Special thanks goes to Chris Gregory from Alternative Stories for producing series 1, and to Wordsworth Grasmere for allowing us to record several episodes, including this one with Polly, in their learning centre. You can listen to a special bonus interview with one of their curators Melissa Mitchell in our preview editions.  
Episode 2 featuring Ilse Pedler will be released on Thursday 12th October. 

We’ve been publishing outstanding poetry at Seren for more than 40 years. 2022 saw the dawning of a new era with the appointment of Rhian Edwards and Zoë Brigley as our joint poetry editors. We’re now looking ahead to the next 12 months with the announcement of our 2023-24 poetry list.

Our forthcoming list includes three debut collections, as well as long-awaited new work from established, award-winning poets. It also sees the exciting advent of a new selection of Seren pamphlets. With an eclectic mix of themes, styles and voices, poetry lovers everywhere will find plenty of collections worth exploring.

“We are delighted to announce these new and exciting voices for our 2023/24 list,” says Rhian. “Each of these poets brings a unique idiolect and watchful eye to the poetry landscape. We are proud to represent such a rich diversity of talent from Wales and beyond.”

Zoë adds: “I am encouraged by the range of work represented here, including writers from groups traditionally marginalized in the publishing industry. We have excellent new work from established Seren poets like Kathryn Gray, Nerys Williams, and Damian Walford Davies, as well as new voices like Taz Rahman and Zakia Carpenter-Hall. The new pamphlet series is an exciting vehicle for shorter projects. Altogether, we have the best of Welsh poetry and writers across the U.K.”

Find the full list of forthcoming collections below.

Keep an eye on the Seren website, newsletter and social media channels for further updates in the coming months.

New Seren Poetry publishing in 2023-24

February 2023
Republic – Nerys Williams
In Orbit – Glyn Edwards

April 2023
You’ll Never Be Anyone Else – Rachael Clyne
Say It With Me – Vanessa Lampert
Into the Same Sound Twice – pamphlet by Zakia Carpenter-Hall

July 2023
Viva Bartali! – Damian Walford Davies
Octopus Mind – Rachel Carney

October 2023
Hollywood or Home – Kathryn Gray
The Turpentine Tree – Lynne Hjelmgaard
God’s Little Artist – pamphlet by Sue Hubbard

February 2024
Cormorant – Elizabeth Parker
Animal Wall (working title) – Taz Rahman

We’re excited to announce that on National Poetry Day, 6th October, we’re launching The Seren Poetry Podcast; nine interviews across nine weeks with Seren poets about their craft and inspiration.
Recorded on location at the Seren office, in the poets’ homes and at Wordsworth Grasmere, each episode will delve beneath the surface of the poets’ latest books with a healthy dose of poetry mixed in. Featured poets for series 1 include Polly Atkin, Kim Moore, Ben Wilkinson, Rosalind Hudis, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Christopher Meredith, Rhian Edwards, Ilse Pedler and Eric Ngalle Charles.
To subscribe, simply search for ‘The Seren Poetry Podcast’ in your favourite podcast app. We’re available on all podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Several previews of what’s to come are already available to listen to and download.
Special thanks goes to Chris Gregory from audio production company Alternative Stories for working with us to produce series 1. 

We’re delighted to once again publish the winner of the Mslexia Poetry Pamphlet Prize. The 2021 winner, chosen by our former poetry editor Amy Wack, is Sammy Weaver with her pamphlet Angola, America. 
Angola, America takes its name from a prison in Louisiana in the southern United Sates. In these strikingly original, thoroughly contemporary, and deeply moving poems, we are immersed in the world the inmates must endure. From the first poem, when we witness a home-made tattoo and understand that this scarring and incision is a “map in the connective tissue of pain and loss”, we are drawn into this world in a way that is carefully observed and beautifully empathetic. Read Sammy’s poem ‘[ exhibit : electric chair ]’ and a comment from Sammy on ‘How she did it’ on the Mslexia website. 
The Mslexia Poetry Pamphlet Prize is awarded annually for an unpublished pamphlet written by someone who self-identifies as a woman. The 2022 prize is now open for entries. The new judge is Imtiaz Dharker and the winning pamphlet will be published by Bloodaxe Books. Find out more here.

Seren poet Polly Atkin has been longlisted for the prestigious Laurel Prize 2022 with her second collection Much With Body.
The Laurel Prize, established by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, is an international prize awarded annually to the best work of nature poetry published in English. 
The prize said that this year’s judges Glyn Maxwell, Elena Karina Byrne and Tishani Doshi enjoyed submissions from all over the planet with the very best in nature and ecopoetry being represented.
Much With Body, which considers nature and the environment through its relationship to the body, is longlisted alongside 20 other collections. The full longlist can be viewed on the Laurel Prize’s Twitter account. @laurelprize.
The shortlist will be announced later this month and the prize ceremony is due to take place on Friday 9th September at the Birmingham Hippodrome as part of the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival. 
Fiind out more about the prize at www.laurelprize.com.

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Case History’ by Christine Evans, also from A Last Respect: The Roland Mathias Prize Anthology for Contemporary Welsh Poetry.

A Last Respect celebrates the Roland Mathias Prize, awarded to outstanding poetry books by authors from Wales. It presents a selection of work from all eleven prize-winning books, by Dannie Abse, Tiffany Atkinson, Ruth Bidgood, Ailbhe Darcy, Rhian Edwards, Christine Evans, John Freeman, Philip Gross, Gwyneth Lewis, Robert Minhinnick, and Owen Sheers. It is a who’s who of contemporary poetry which shows the form in good health in Wales.

The fifty-four poems included are wide-ranging in style and subject – relationships, nature, environmental issues, mortality, time, war, Wales, poetry itself, even the minefield of parents’ evenings. They are inventive, experimental, formal, original and, as prize-winners, of the highest quality.

Two accompanying essays provide the context in which the poets work. In her Introduction, Jane Aaron writes about Roland Mathias: a poet himself, but also an influential editor and cultural commentator who did much to foster and develop poetry in Wales. A Last Respect is a continuation of his legacy. Daniel G. Williams’ Afterword is an incisive discussion about poetry in Wales over the past sixty years: where it started from and how it changed. 

This combination of prizewinning poems and informative commentary makes A Last Respect a must-have book of writing from Wales.

The Last Respect: The Roland Mathias Prize Anthology of Contemporary Welsh Poetry is available on the Seren website: £9.99

Christine Evans has also published Selected Poems which features this poem. Available now for £9.99.

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

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘A Marriage’ by Dannie Abse, from A Last Respect: The Roland Mathias Prize of Contemporary Welsh Poetry.

A Last Respect celebrates the Roland Mathias Prize, awarded to outstanding poetry books by authors from Wales. It presents a selection of work from all eleven prize-winning books, by Dannie Abse, Tiffany Atkinson, Ruth Bidgood, Ailbhe Darcy, Rhian Edwards, Christine Evans, John Freeman, Philip Gross, Gwyneth Lewis, Robert Minhinnick, and Owen Sheers. It is a who’s who of contemporary poetry which shows the form in good health in Wales.

The fifty-four poems included are wide-ranging in style and subject – relationships, nature, environmental issues, mortality, time, war, Wales, poetry itself, even the minefield of parents’ evenings. They are inventive, experimental, formal, original and, as prize-winners, of the highest quality.

Two accompanying essays provide the context in which the poets work. In her Introduction, Jane Aaron writes about Roland Mathias: a poet himself, but also an influential editor and cultural commentator who did much to foster and develop poetry in Wales. A Last Respect is a continuation of his legacy. Daniel G. Williams’ Afterword is an incisive discussion about poetry in Wales over the past sixty years: where it started from and how it changed.

A Last Respect: The Roland Mathias Prize Anthology of Contemporary Welsh Poetry is available on the Seren website: £9.99

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

Congratulations to Kim Moore who has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection with her second collection All The Men I Never Married.
Published last October, All The Men I Never Married has been reviewed widely to much acclaim with The Yorkshire Times hailing it as “a work of immense focus, intelligence and integrity”. Pointedly feminist, challenging and keenly aware of the contradictions and complexities of desire, the 48 numbered poems take us through a gallery of exes and significant others where we encounter rage, pain, guilt, and love. 
All The Men I Never Married is shortlisted alongside four other collections, Pilgrim Bell by Kaveh Akbar, Sonnets for Albert by Anthony Joseph, Cain Named the Animal by Shane McCrae and The Illustrated Woman by Helen Mort. The winner will be announced in a prize ceremony on the 28th November 2022 at the Contact Theatre in Manchester. 
Find out more about the Forward Prizes on the Forward Arts Foundation website www.forwardartsfoundation.org. 

We’re delighted to announce that we’re partnering with Storyville Books in Pontypridd for Independent Bookshop Week 2022. Running from Saturday 18th – Saturday 25th June, Independent Bookshop Week is a great chance to support your local independent bookseller and celebrate what they do for their community. 
Storyville will be showcasing Seren books in store throughout the week and some of our local authors will be visiting the shop (watch this space for details). Our Sales Manager Simon will also be there on Wednesday 22nd June, getting some first hand experience as a book seller. He’ll also be pleased to chat about publishing, so pop in and say hello.
Storyville Books is Pontypridd’s only independent bookshop. Owned and run by Jeff and Cerith they are passionate booklovers bringing the latest fiction, non-fiction and the classics to the town. Find them at 8 Mill Street, Pontypridd, CF37 2SN or online at storyvillebooks.co.uk.
There will be events taking place in store throughout the week including an event with Angela V. John to discuss a new edition of Spring’s Green Shadow by Cecily Mackworth (published by Honno), and a visit from some local school children. You can also get your hands on a bookish goodie bag if you visit on the 25th June! ​
Find out how else to get involved in Independent Bookshop Week on the Books Are My Bag website. 

Michael O’Brien was notoriously falsely imprisoned for the murder of a Cardiff newsagent in 1988. His sentence was overturned in 1999 and he successfully sued South Wales Police, eventually receiving a large financial compensation in 2006.
On 23rd May, Crime + Investigation airs a new two-part crime documentary called British Injustice with Raphael Rowe. Episode one examines O’Brien’s case, that of the so-called ‘Cardiff Newsagent Three’, taking an in depth look at the investigation that led to the conviction, and wrongful imprisonment, of O’Brien and his co-defendants Ellis Sherwood and Darren Hall.
O’Brien has previously written extensively about his case, most recently in his book The Dossier. He is also a campaigner against miscarriages of justice and The Dossier also details nine other miscarriages of justice in South Wales between 1988 and 2016. 
British Injustice will premier exclusively on Crime + Investigation at 9pm on Monday 23rd May. The episode reveals shocking police threats and coercion that led to the arrest and incarceration of the three men accused. Plus, for the first time ever, the victim’s sister and nephew break a 35-year silence and reveal exclusive insights into the case.
The presenter Raphael Rowe also spent 12 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and fronts the popular Netflix series Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons. Episode two of the show looks at the unjust conviction of John Kamara who spent 19 years in prison for the shocking killing of Liverpool betting shop manager John Suffield.
In each episode, Rowe unveils the investigations that shattered the lives of the wrongfully accused and unveils the repeated failures within the British criminal justice system.
British Injustice with Raphael Rowe will premiere on Crime+Investigation on 23rd May at 9pm and will be available to stream on C+I PLAY from the 24th May crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/play