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Congratulations to Siobhan Campbell, who has won First Price in the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition’s Open category with ‘Framed’. Siobhan’s most recent poetry collection, Cross Talk, was published by Seren.
Judge’s statement:
‘The standard of the entries for the inaugural Oxford Brookes Poetry Competition was very high – I was spoilt by poems to choose from. Many of them seem to emerge from a broad range of life experiences, and some of the finest had a sense of urgency to them, of needing to be written.
The First Prize winner in the Open category, ‘Framed’, had exactly this sense, of witnessing, or testimony to a very strange course of events, and that is what I loved about it – the range of movement in the story it tells, from Guyana to the docks of England to the Inner Hebrides.’
View the full list of winning poems here.

Graham Clifford will be at the Teesside International Poetry Festival for the long-running Black Light Engine Room: a night of poetry from special guests, also including Amir Darwish, JK Ihalainen, Mark Robinson, Helianne Kallio, Steve Ely and Julie Hogg. Graham is the author of The Hitting Game and Poetry Wales Purple Moose Prize-winning pamphlet Welcome Back to the Country.
T-Junction is a four-day poetry festival of readings, workshops, performances, debates, master-classes, guest-lectures and book-launches in Middlesbrough, running from 14th to 17th April. Find out more on the T-Junction website.

Books last longer than flowers, so why not say ‘I love you’ with some well-chosen words? 
Poetry is food for the soul, and so for Valentine’s Day we have hand-picked a few poetry collections your partner will fall head-over-heels for. All our Valentine’s picks are 35% off until midnight, February 14th.
My Family and Other Superheroes by Jonathan EdwardsWinner of the Costa Poetry Award 2014, this vibrant and dynamic debut introduces one of Wales’ most intriguing new voices. The superheroes in question are a motley crew. Evel Knievel, Sophia Loren, Ian Rush, Marty McFly, a bicycling nun and a recalcitrant hippo – all leap from these pages and jostle for position, alongside valleys mams, dads and bamps, described with great warmth. This is a post-industrial valleys upbringing re-imagined through the prism of pop culture and surrealism. 
Original price: £9.99 Sale price: £6.49
The Man at the Corner Table by Rosie ShepperdRosie Shepperd’s debut poetry collection crackles with the unexpected. The voice is one of urban sophistication; a merciless charm that teases and tempts us with sensual evocations of food and place. The reader is surprised with tastes, scents, colours and textures. There is a winning insistence on detail offered with an irony that blends into satire.These poems are exquisite meals, to be devoured amidst surprising intimacies.
Original price: £9.99 
Sale price: £6.49
Infragreen by Kate BinghamPerceptive, persuasive and intricately made, these poems take the reader on a startling and unfamiliar journey through everyday experiences and phenomena. Her keen eye, reflectiveness and quiet wit endow her subjects with a shimmering freshness.In Bingham’s hands, the familiar sights and hypnotic routines that normally lull the brain into unthinking acquiescence are the starting points for finding new richness in the world around us and our participation in it.
Original price: £9.99 Sale price: £6.49
Masculine Happiness, David Foster-MorganThe thoughtful and winning debut collection from Wales-based David Foster-Morgan. Complex, ironic, layered, fashioned with an acute and subtle intelligence, these poems are as likely to reference Elvis as Borges. Humour, astute satire and insightful character poems are combined here in this collection of beautiful, multi-layered poems.
Original price: £9.99 Sale price: £6.49
Playing House by Katherine StansfieldA concise wit, a distinct voice and an unsettling view of the domestic characterise these poems whose subjects are the ordinary as viewed through the author’s satirical yet sympathetic eye. John Lennon’s tooth, an imaginary ‘Canada’, bees in Rhode Island, cats and office politics are all peculiar grist to this author’s mill. She presents both historical subjects such as Captain Scott of the Antarctic, and common objects, such as household bleach, from a skewed perspective, adding humour, drama and a quietly distinctive pathos.
Original price: £9.99 Sale price: £6.49
Cohabitation by Kate BinghamA brisk wit and intelligence characterises these poems by Kate Bingham. Her subjects are friends, family, work, the experiences of any day, but her keen and compassionate focus brings these moments vividly to life. Her gift is a point of view that is startling, moving and humorous.Reflective and playful, intimate and exuberant, these poems have a wry, deliberate logic of their own which makesCohabitation an engaging as well as an illuminating first collection.
Original price: £9.99 Sale price: £6.49
 
For Valentine’s deliveries, we recommend ordering before Thursday 11th February.
Why not share your love for poetry with us on Twitter? Use the hashtag #BooksForMyBeloved to tell us what you and your partner will be reading on Valentine’s Day

Significance by Jo Mazelis, a winner of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015, has been chosen by Wordery as one of the top ten independent fiction books of 2015. Other titles listed include Marlon James’ Booker Prize-winner, A Brief History of Seven Killings, and Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter. You can see the full list here.
 
About Significance:
Lucy Swann is trying on a new life. She’s cut and dyed her hair and bought new clothes, but she’s only got as far as a small town in northern France when her flight is violently cut short. When Inspector Vivier and his handsome assistant Sabine Pelat begin their investigation the chance encounters of her last days take on a new significance.
Lucy’s death, like a stone thrown into a pool, sends out far-reaching ripples, altering the lives of people who never knew her as well as those of her loved ones back home.
“With Significance Mazelis has set her novel-writing bar at a breathtaking height.”– Rachel Trezise, Agenda

Following a popular campaign from Welsh publishers, authors and supporters throughout the UK and beyond, Ken Skates and the Welsh Government have announced that the proposed 10.6% cut to the Welsh Books Council will not go ahead. 
The announcement that there will be no funding cuts to the Welsh books industry for 2016/17 makes clear that our voices have been heard, and that the Welsh Government understands how detrimental the cuts would have been to Welsh literature and culture.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in organising the campaign, and to everyone who showed their support either by signing the online petition or by engaging with the #WelshBooksMatter conversation on Twitter. Special mentions should go to Kathryn Gray, who was a driving force behind the campaign’s success, and to Richard Houdmont, Chair of our Board of Directors, who spoke today at the Wales National Assembly. Authors Philip Pullman, Sarah Waters and Gillian Clarke were among the many well-known names to publicly lend their support to the cause. David Williamson of Wales Online, The Guardian’s Alison Flood, Natasha Onwuemezi from The Bookseller and Carolyn Hitt of Wales Online are just some of many who gave excellent media coverage to the issue. 
Finally, thanks must go to Ken Skates and the Welsh Government for overturning the cuts. This is a great day for Welsh publishing and literature, and we couldn’t be happier.

The future of publishing in Wales and with it ‘a distinctive literature from Wales’ could be under threat if the Welsh Government agrees a proposed 10.6% cut to industry funding, and we at Seren stand with our fellow publishers, with authors and with the literary community of Wales in opposition to these cuts.
The unprecedented 10.6% cut (£374,000) to the Welsh Books Council is more than twice that of planned cuts to other cultural organisations such as the Arts Council of Wales. Coming after a decade of standstill funding, grants to Welsh publishing in English will have been cut by 21% – £158,050 – in the last three years if these latest plans go through.
Wales’ small but vibrant and diverse publishing industry produces everything from Costa prize-winning poetry titles to young adult novels, from books about sporting and music legends to Welsh history and art, from prize-winning literature: fiction, biography, travel and memoir, academic titles and Welsh classics, to richly illustrated titles and books for children, in English and Welsh.
Its independent publishing companies are spread across the country, providing skilled work for an estimated 1000 plus people, from authors to publishers, freelance editors, designers, illustrators, printers, booksellers and many others, often in areas of high unemployment.
Publishing is an essential part of a vibrant and dynamic Welsh culture within a diverse UK, which can cover all aspects of life from literacy to putting great Welsh writing on the world stage. Welsh Government support, via the Welsh Books Council, contributes towards a ‘level playing field’, allowing publishers like Seren to compete by publishing attractive, high-quality titles which have an important economic, educational and cultural impact.
To safeguard the future of Welsh publishing, please stand with us in opposition to the proposed cuts. Sign the petition online now.
You can join in with the conversation online by using the hashtag #WelshBooksMatter. Why not tweet directly to Ken Skates (@WG_CultureMin), Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, the name of a favourite title by Welsh publishers?
 

After a break this month, First Thursday will return on 4th February! 
First Thursday is our monthly celebration of new poetry and fiction, held at Chapter, Cardiff. February’s event will feature Peter Finch, whose new book The Roots of Rock, from Cardiff to Mississippi and Back charts the evolution of popular music, and Mulfran author Jenny Lewis.
Tickets are £2.50 on the door and redeemable upon purchase of a book.

The New Year has arrived and with it, our January sale. For one week only, please enjoy 50% off all our books, including even the very newest titles!
If you’re a poetry reader, then why not buy a copy of Kim Moore’s acclaimed debut The Art of Falling, and a copy of Tamar Yoseloff’s highly anticipated new and selected collection A Formula for Night? Jonathan Edwards’ Costa Award-winning My Family and Other Superheroes is also sure to delight. For non-fiction fans, why not investigate one of Wales’ most haunting unsolved murders with Steve Adams in his gripping Murder at the Star: Who Killed Thomas Thomas? Or dive into the history of popular music in Peter Finch’s highly entertaining new book, The Roots of Rock, from Cardiff to Mississippi and Back. If instead you’re on the hunt for new fiction, then Mary-Ann Constantine’s stunning Star-Shot, set in Cardiff, is a great selection. Newly available too is The World, the Lizard and Me, a novel of testament to the plight of children caught up in the wars of Central Africa, written by Gil Courtemanche, author of A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (Canongate).
 
The sale ends at midnight on Sunday 10th January, so don’t wait to take advantage of this fleeting offer.