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Our Friday Poem this week is ‘The Fabulists’ by André Mangeot from his new collection Blood Rain. André is appearing twice at the Seren Cardiff Poetry Festival on Saturday 15th February to read from his collection as part of the New Poetry Showcase and Poems for the Planet.

Resonant, complex, rich in heft and texture, these are mature poems that grapple with serious themes. Beautifully crafted, and partly inspired by his love of the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia, they address the natural world, its endangerment and other pressing global issues from multiple perspectives, and with great lyrical power.

‘A thought-provoking book for turbulent times.’
– Matthew Caley

Blood Rain is available on the Seren website: £9.99

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

ITV will soon begin filming a new three-part drama series starring Hollywood actor Luke Evans based on The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Bullseye Killer by Steve Wilkins and Jonathan Hill. 
The mini-series will tell the real-life story of how Steve Wilkins and his team of detectives brought serial killer John Cooper to justice following a cold case review. Developments in DNA and forensic science meant that John Cooper was finally convicted in 2011 of shooting dead Peter and Gwenda Dixon on a coastal path in Little Haven, Pembrokeshire in 1989. His appearance on Bullseye was used as crucial evidence to match him to witness descriptions. He was also found guilty of murdering sister and brother Helen and Richard Thomas in their home near Milford Haven in 1985.
Jonathan Hill said, “It’s a huge thrill to see such a gripping Welsh story brought to a UK audience with such amazing talent behind the project. This incredible story touched so many lives that it was really important that it was developed in a sensitive way.”
The series is written by Nick Stevens (In Plain Sight) directed by Marc Evans (Manhunt, Safe House) and produced by Ed Talfan (Hinterland, Hidden) for Severn Screen.  ITV Studios’ World Productions – makers of Bodyguard and Line of Duty – are behind the making of the drama. 
On being cast in the drama, Luke Evans said, “It is a privilege to be playing the role of Steve Wilkins in The Pembrokeshire Murders and working again with Simon Heath, his team at World Productions and ITV. It’s a huge responsibility for me as the drama depicts a true crime which to this day still affects the families of those whose lives were tragically taken.”
Filming alongside Luke Evans are Keith Allen as John Cooper and David Fynn as Jonathan Hill.
ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill said, “Nick Stevens script is a fascinating and insightful account into how and why the Dyfed Powys Police team reopened this cold case and brought a serial killer to justice after he’d evaded capture for nearly two decades. I have wanted to work with Luke Evans again since we made The Great Train Robbery, which Simon Heath and World Productions also produced. I’m delighted that The Pembrokeshire Murders is that project, as Luke will be incredible as Steve Wilkins and this is going to be an unmissable drama for our ITV audience.”

This week (13th – 17th January), enjoy 50% off all our books* in our half-price January sale! What are you waiting for? Get browsing. 
*Marked titles only, subject to availability. 

The 2020 Seren Cardiff Poetry Festival is set to be the biggest yet, with 21 fantastic events over the course of this 3-day winter weekend.
The Sunday evening headline event sees Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield discuss his Desert Island Poems with the BBC’s Huw Stephens.
We’ll be announcing the winners of the very first Wales Poetry Award, and hosting the inaugural Meic Stephens Lecture, with Kieron Smith discussing the extraordinary career of renowned documentary maker and poet John Ormond.
Deryn Rees-Jones will be reading from her T.S. Eliot-shortlisted collection Erato, and there will be workshops with leading poets including Sandeep Parmar, Carrie Etter and the newly appointed Editor of Poetry Wales, Jonathan Edwards.
This year the Festival has relocated from Cornerstone to the Temple of Peace in Cathays Park. This art deco gem provides more dedicated spaces for workshops and events, as well as a bookshop and a bar and café situated in the impressive Marble Hall. The catering is provided by Oasis Cardiff, a charity dedicated to helping Refugees and Asylum Seekers integrate within their local community, and the menu reflects their ethos, packed with flavours from around the world.
There will be workshops for aspiring writers and events featuring film, music, art and, of course, poetry from both established and new authors. Also returning to the festival will be Lucy Smith, creator of the Talking Ink podcast. Lucy will be speaking to emerging authors throughout the festival, hosting exclusive interviews that you will be able to listen back to once the event is over.
The Festival is dedicated to presenting some of the finest poets working in Wales, the UK and beyond. With lower ticket prices than in previous years, our events are accessible for all. We’re also scheduling ‘free’ poetry readings in the café between main events.
None of this would be possible without the support of our excellent sponsors and we give special thanks to the Rhys Davies Trust who are supporting the festival and its growth for the next three years. The Trust is a registered charity first set up by Meic Stephens, with funds provided by Lewis Davies, brother of writer Rhys Davies (1901-78). Its objectives are to promote the writer’s work and foster English and Welsh writing in English, especially in the valleys of south Wales and in the genres in which Rhys Davies wrote.
Festival organiser Amy Wack says:
“Poetry is one of the major art forms. Moreover, it’s a form currently enjoying a surge in popularity, readership and participation, with widespread coverage in print, broadcast and digital platforms. Recent years have seen a burgeoning of poetry festivals, expanding from rural locations like Ledbury, Aldeburgh, and Stanza in Scotland to newer urban festivals in Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Newcastle and Bristol. As we build on the success of our two previous Festivals, and with a schedule for growth running to 2022, Cardiff can stake a claim to be a cultural centre on a par with these English cities.”
View the full programme and buy tickets at www.cardiffpoetryfestival.com.
 
Authors and Events include:
Vinegar Valentines, a workshop on love-gone-wrong poems with the popular Rhian Edwards.
Festival Open Mic with guest-host Mike Jenkins, and guests Eric Ngalle Charles, Ifor ap Glyn and singer Eädyth.
Poetry Book Society spring recommendation, Marvin Thompson, with a workshop on Form and Rhyme.
The uproarious Cardiff-based performance poet Peter Finch with his new collection The Machineries of Joy.
A film featuring Cardiff-based rising poet Eric Ngalle Charles.
Ailbhe Darcy hosts an evening of Irish Women Poets with jazz accompaniment in the Cardiff Poetry Experiment.
A Poetry Wales Party featuring the winners of the inaugural Wales Poetry Award.
Zoë Skoulding with her PBS Winter recommended title, Footnotes to Water, accompanied by ambient soundscapes.
Daljit Nagra reading from his collection British Museum.
Poems for the Planet with Carrie Etter, author of The Weather in Normal, 2019 Mslexia Pamphlet Prize winner Jane Lovell (This Tilting Earth) and André Mangeot with his new collection Blood Rain.
An event to remember the wonderful Welsh poet Dannie Abse with Robert Minhinnick, Lynne Hjelmgaard and those who knew him.
Plus much more…
Please, join us for a fabulous weekend of art, music, discussion, film and of course POETRY!

From the 16 – 20 December our Christmas pop-up shop will be back at Chapter in Cardiff to satisfy all your last minute present buying needs. 
You’re guaranteed to find something for everyone amongst the books on sale so come along and have a browse. From stocking fillers like our fantastic regional poetry pamphlets, to gripping new fiction like Alexandra Ford’s What Remains at the End and fascinating non-fiction titles like the new Wild Places UK by Iolo Williams. Or for something extra special, why not trust us to do the choosing for you with one of our mystery fiction or poetry bundles? 
Already got all your presents? Then come along and top up your 2020 to be read pile or find some fantastic books to fill the blissful amount of reading time you’ll have over the holidays.  
We’ll see you there!

We are delighted to finally be able to share that Erato by Deryn Rees-Jones has been shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2019.
Seren poetry editor Amy Wack said: “The poetry of Deryn Rees-Jones is vividly sensual, keenly intelligent, both rapt and thoughtful. ‘Erato’ as the title implies, is an embrace of our fractured, error-prone humanity. We’re delighted that it has a place on the shortlist alongside nine other amazing poets.”
The ten poets on this year’s shortlist were chosen from over 150 collections submitted by British and Irish publishers. Featuring new voices, veteran poets, and covering an extraordinary range of themes, the shortlist comprises five men, four women and one trans non binary; one American, one Russian-American and one Canadian, as well as poets of Trinidadian, Cypriot and Sri Lankan extraction.
Judge John Burnside said:
“In an excellent year for poetry, the judges read over 150 collections from every corner of these islands, and beyond… Each had its own vital energy, its own argument to make, its own celebration or requiem to offer, and we knew that settling upon ten from so many fine books would be difficult.Nevertheless, as our deliberations progressed, the same titles kept coming to the fore, culminating in a list that brings together work by some of the finest and most fearless poets working today.”
See the full shortlist on the T. S. Eliot website.
 
The T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings will take place on Sunday 12th January 2020 in Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall as part of its literature programme in an event hosted by Ian McMillian. You can purchase tickets by calling Southbank Centre’s ticket office on 0203 879 9555 or via www.southbankcentre.co.uk/literature.
The winner of the 2019 prize will be announced in a ceremony on Monday 13th January 2020.
 
To keep up to date with information on all of the shortlisted poets and to see specially-commissioned videos, readers’ notes and reviews, subscribe to the T. S. Eliot Prize newsletter: https://tseliot.com/prize/subscribe-to-the-t-s-eliot-prize-newsletter/
 
Erato is available from the Seren website: £9.99

We’re delighted to be able to share that Zoë Skoulding’s forthcoming collection Footnotes to Water is a PBS Winter Recommendation. Publishing on the 21 October it is Zoë’s fourth individual collection of poetry for Seren. 
The PBS Winter 2019 selections are dominated by female poets and celebrate the most diverse range of independent publishers yet including flipped eye, Peepal Tree Press, Carcanet, Arc and Seren.
Sandeep Parmar, one of the PBS Book Selectors said, “Choosing books for PBS members over the past two years has made it crystal clear where the risks are being taken in poetry – to expand the language and to forge new forms. My fellow co-selector and I were joyfully overwhelmed every quarter by the exciting work being done by independent, small presses and in particular by women and poets of colour. It has been hugely gratifying to bring much-deserved attention to all these incredible works.”
Read the full list here. 

To celebrate their 25th anniversary of National Poetry Day the Booksellers Association and Forward Arts Foundation joined together to announce Poetry Booksellers Love, a list of 25 favourite poetry books from the last 25 years as nominated and voted for by booksellers in the UK and Ireland. 
Amongst the 25 titles chosen is Jonathan Edwards’ collection My Family and Other Superheroes, which won the Costa Poetry Award in 2014.
The five poetry books with the most booksellers’ votes are: Alice Oswald’s Dart, a book-length poem that dramatises a West Country river through the words of those who live and work by it, The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, Maya Angelou’s The Complete Poetry and two anthologies, Staying Alive edited by Neil Astley and The Rattle Bag, edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes.
Find out more and view the full list here.