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With just a week to go before the start of our Seren Cornerstone Poetry Festival, our Friday Poem is from of the authors performing – Yvonne Reddick. ‘Vésuve 1857’ is taken from her Mslexia Prize-winning pamphlet, Translating Mountains.

The poems of Translating Mountains are multi-layered compositions. They tell of grief for a beloved father as well as a close friend, who both died in mountain-climbing accidents. The author’s own love of mountaineering comes through with her vividly described sections of action: grappling with tie-lines, slopes and ravines, of aspiring to glorious heights while coping with treacherous and changeable weathers.
These poems are also hymns to stunning landscapes, with mountains and place names often in a craggy, atmospheric Gaelic. Full of tension, emotion and action, this is writing that grips and holds our attention.

Catch Yvonne Reddick at the Seren Cornerstone Poetry Festival on Sunday 10 February alongside a chorus of Mslexia Prize-winners – tickets available now.

Translating Mountains is available on the Seren website: £5.00

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

Literature Wales has just announced its investment in new writing and literary talent with its list of 2019 Writers’ Bursaries and Mentoring Scheme recipients. 
Among the writers being supported this year is Seren poet Rhiannon Hooson, whose debut collection The Other City was published in 2016. 20 of the 26 writers are first-time recipients of a bursary, and 14 are unpublished authors.
Literature Wales Chief Executive, Lleucu Siencyn, said: “This year’s Bursary and Mentoring recipients represent the strength and diversity of writing in Wales, and outstanding literary talent. My tip for literary agents who are talent spotting and seeking the next big thing – look at these distinctive voices from Wales. Through encouraging creativity, experimentation and risk-taking, we look forward to a wealth of new writing from Wales.”
See the full list of bursary and mentorship recipients on the Literature Wales website.
 
 
 

Renowned Welsh photographer David Hurn is returning to document the 2019 Seren Cornerstone Poetry Festival, which is taking place 8-10 February.
David Hurn began his career in 1955, and gained his reputation as a photojournalist for his documentation of the Hungarian revolution of 1956. He returned to Wales in the late 1960s, initially living in a van for a year photographing the country. In 1973 he set up the School of Documentary Photography in Newport. He continues to live and work in Wales, and has donated a large collection of photographs taken by him and other leading contemporary photographers, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, and Bill Brandt, to the National Museum of Wales. Seren has published two collections of Hurn’s photography: Living in Wales (2003) and Writing the Picture (2010).
Thinking of attending the Seren Cornerstone Poetry Festival? Tickets are on sale – book yours now.
 
 

Banish the January blues and enjoy our January Sale – all our books are half price this week.
If you’re a reader of poetry, you’ll love Paul Henry’s remarkable new collection, The Glass Aisle,with its musical lyrics, landscapes and history. Or why not treat yourself to Jonathan Edwards’ second collection, Gen, which follows his Costa Award-winning debut, My Family and Other Superheroes (all only £4.99 this week). 
Looking for a brilliant biography? Try the remarkable, definitive biography of Caradoc Evans, the controversial Welsh author whose books were burned in the streets of Cardiff. Caradoc Evans: The Devil in Eden by John Harris is extensively researched and brilliantly written – and only £9.99 in the sale.
Or, if you’re hungry for new fiction, we recommend Christopher Meredith’s captivating book of short fictions, Brief Lives, which will propel you through time and circumstance, from the South China sea in 1946 to the end of time. 
The January Sale ends midnight, Sunday 20 January. Take advantage of our half price offer while you can – have a browse of our poetry, fiction and non-fiction (you never know what hidden gems you might uncover!)
 Forthcoming titles are excluded from the sale.