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If the recent bout of bad weather has scuppered your plans to shop the sales, don’t worry! Curl up in the comfort of your armchair and grab a bargain in our online sale with terrific deals on a range of fiction, art, phography and poetry, with books from just £1.99.  Shop now

It’s a new year, new beginnings and a new Seren Short Story of the Month for January 2014, appropriately enough with birth as its theme.
As part of our commitment to publishing the best new writing we are bringing you a new short story on the Seren website every month this year, including work from published and unpublished authors. We know there is a wealth of short story-writing talent in Wales and hope that featuring some of this work here is one way in which we can highlight this.
Seren has published many short-story collections and anthologies over the years with more in the pipeline for 2015. January’s short story of the month  Life is a Song comes from prizewinning author Roshi Fernando.

Have you left your Christmas shopping to the last possible moment? Don’t worry! Our pop-up shop in Castle Arcade, Cardiff is open until Christmas Eve for all your last minute shopping needs. We have great offers in store including 3 for 2 on selected titles, £5 off beautiful art books and 10% off if you know our secret code word (not so secret if you follow us on Facebook and Twitter).
Perhaps you’d just like to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the last minute shopping crush. This week Peter Finch, Grahame Davies, Damian Walford Davies, Dai George and Parthian author Rachel Trezise will all be in store. Join us for poetry, stories, mince pies and mulled wine.
Author Events @ The Seren Christmas Pop Up Shop

Monday 16th December – Grahame Davies, 11am
Grahame will be stopping by the shop at 11am on the 16th for a meet and greet. Grahame is the author of several books including, The Dragon and the Crescent, Everything Must Change, Real Wrexham, The Chosen People and Lightning Beneath the Sea as well as co-editing The Big Book of Cardiff with Peter Finch.

Wednesday 18th December – Peter Finch, 2pmReal Cardiff  series author Peter Finch will be reading from his latest book Edging The Estuary, leading us on a journey from Maisemore to Worms Head on Gower, taking in villages and cities, power stations and fishermen, castles and caravans, leg-aching walks and deckchairs on the beach, along some of the most beautiful coastline in Britain,
 
Friday 20th December Damian Walford Davies, 11amDamian will be signing copies of his latest poetry collection Witch. With the narrative pull of a novel and the vibrancy of a play for voices. Witch offers a thrilling portrait of a Suffolk village in the throes of the witchcraft hunts of the mid-seventeenth century.

Saturday 21st December – Dai George, 2pm
Dai George will be calling in to the pop up shop at 2pm. His brilliant début poetry collection, The Claims Office, mixes straightforward narrative with elaborate and strange textures and imagery. This rich surface is undercut by an interesting attitude: a mix of rebellious energy and unflinching satire. His ‘nature’ poems are often anti-nature poems, there are lively pieces about London and New York and skewed love poems.

We have a great line-up of authors reading at the Seren pop-up shop in the run up to Christmas. The shop in Castle Arcade, Cardiff, has already hosted readings by novelists, poets and essayists including Francesca Rhydderch (Rice Paper Diaries), David Llewellyn (Ibrahim and Reenie) and Kate Hamer, author of the Seren Short Story of the Month ‘1976’, which is available to read on the Seren website.
This week we are welcoming Wales Book of the Year winner Rhian Edwards on Wednesday at 2pm, and on Thursday photographer Phil Cope tells us about the ancient myths and magical tales behind the sacred wells on the English/Welsh border.
Friday the thirteenth sees poet Ivy Alvarez read from her new collection Disturbance and on Saturday we have our second festive fiction event with short story readings from Maria Donovan (Pumping up Napoleon) and Mary-Ann Constantine (All the Souls) at 2pm.
And in the week before Christmas take a break from shopping with readings from Grahame Davies, Damian Walford Davies, Peter Finch and Dai George. And stick around after Dai’s event for a couple of readings from Parthian’s Rarebit anthology. Parthian books are also available from the shop from this week.
The shop is open every day from 10am – 5pm. Look out for  in store discount codes on our Facebook and Twitter accounts
Author Events @ The Seren Christmas Pop-Up Shop:

Thursday 12th December – Phil Cope, 11am
Phil Cope will be in to tell us about the ancient myths and magic tales behind the sacred wells in the disputed Borderlands between England and Wales. Beautifully illustrated in colour throughout, the wells from Cheshire to Monmouthshire, from the Dee to the Severn are displayed in all their glory, be they in remote countryside or city centre.
Friday 13th December – Ivy Alvarez, 2pm
Ivy will be reading from her debut collection Disturbance, a novel in verse that chronicles a murder case, in which the family was gunned down by its patriarch. Each poem plays out like a piece of evidence, slotting together to give us the full case. We hear from the family, the neighbors and the authorities who all could have acted to avoid this tragedy.
Saturday 14th December – Short Story Season, 2pm
Maria Donovan and Mary-Anne Constantine will be reading from their short story collections on the 14th. These bite sized stories are perfect for reading in a spare 15 minutes with a cup of coffee and a biccie. Pop in and join us for a minced pie.
Monday 16th December – Grahame Davies, 11am
Grahame will be stopping by the shop at 11am on the 16th for a meet and greet. Grahame is the author of several books including, The Dragon and the Crescent, Everything Must Change, Real Wrexham, The Chosen People and Lightning Beneath the Sea as well as co-editing The Big Book of Cardiff with Peter Finch.
 Wednesday 18th December – Peter Finch, 2pmReal Cardiff  series author Peter Finch will be reading from his latest book Edging The Estuary, Taking us on a journey from Maisemore to Worms Head on Gower, taking in villages and cities, power stations and fishermen, castles and caravans, leg-aching walks and deckchairs on the beach, along some of the most beautiful coastline in Britain,
 
Friday 20th December Damian Walford Davies, 11amDamian will be signing copies of his latest poetry collection Witch. With the narrative pull of a novel and the vibrancy of a play for voices. Witch offers a thrilling portrait of a Suffolk village in the throes of the witchcraft hunts of the mid-seventeenth century.
Saturday 21st December – Dai George, 2pm
Dai George will be calling in to the pop up shop at 2pm. His brilliant début poetry collection, The Claims Office, mixes straightforward narrative with elaborate and strange textures and imagery. This rich surface is undercut by an interesting attitude: a mix of rebellious energy and unflinching satire. His ‘nature’ poems are often anti-nature poems, there are lively pieces about London and New York and skewed love poems.

Seren will be opening a pop-up shop in Castle Arcade, Cardiff throughout December.
The National Theatre of Wales have very kindly let us invade their shop front at 30 Castle Arcade, for the month of December, while they are busy promoting their latest project, Silly Kings.
In addition to selling great books, we will be hosting many author events with Francesca Rhydderch, Ivy Alvarez, Peter Finch, Phil Cope and David Llewellyn all due to make an appearance – A signed book will make a great present for that special someone.
We will also be giving out a secret daily discount code to be used in the shop, so keep you eyes on our twitter and facebook accounts!
The shop will be open from 30th November, so come and join us for some great author events, offers and a mince pie!
We will be open Monday – Sunday, 10am – 5pm every day up until Christmas.

For more information about Silly Kings visit: http://nationaltheatrewales.org/sillykings

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Candy Neubert has been announced as the 2014 judge for the Guernsey Poetry Prize.
Candy will choose six finalists from each of the three categories:  Open Poetry, Channel Island’s Poetry and Young People’s Poetry as well as 15 other outstanding poems to be used as part of the ‘poems on the move’ campaign and displayed on buses, in museums, libraries, at street festivals, at the airport and even on the beach, but always on the move, in impromptu exhibitions all over Guernsey.  The winner of the Open Poetry category will also receive a £300 prize.
Candy is the author of several poetry collections, as well as two novels publishd by Seren, Big Low Tide and Foreign Bodies.
Any one is eligible to submit unpublished poems, no more than 20 lines long. Entries close on December 1st 2013.
Find out more and enter here

Seren are giving you the chance to win a limited edition New Stories from the Mabinogion box set of all 10 titles, signed by the authors.
In New Stories form the Mabinogion 10 top Welsh authors including Owen Sheers, Gwyneth Lewis and Horatio Clare re-worked the ancient myths of the Mabinogion and transported us to places weird and wonderful. We’ve reached the orbit of Mars, the Tower of London and the edges of India, travelled in time to WW2 and forward to the near future, seen Iraq in drug-addled dreams, and viewed Wales aslant, from its countryside to its council estates. We’ve touched on nation-building and personal tragedy, bravery and betrayal
To be in with the chance of winning simply register to attend our Cardiff finale. The winner will be announced on the night by Assembly Member Mark Drakeford at our event in The Senedd, Cardiff Bay, from 6:00pm.
Register here!

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To get you in the mood for Halloween, Seren are offering some of our spooky titles at prices so good, they’ll send a shiver down your spine.

Witch £2.99Damian Walford DaviesA striking portrait in verse of a small town in England struck by the ‘Witchcraft’ panic of the 17th century.
All The Souls £2.99Mary-Anne ConstantineA poignant collection of stories set in Brittany and Wales, inhabiting the world of superstition and legend and giving voices to ghosts and the dead.
Sing, Sorrow Sorrow £2.99Gwen DaviesA chilling collection of supernatural myth and otherworldly horror stories from some of Wales’ most exciting new and established authors.
Blood – Free EbookJacki McCarrick
 Shabby academic Fred Plunkett is working alone in his aunt’s house in Ireland when his peace is disturbed by Lara in her tight lampblack dress, sheer chocolate-brown tights with a seam, and high plastic heels. His hackles rise at the intrusion and at first he laughs when Lara says she is researching a bizarre theory of how dracula might have fled Transylvannia for a refuge right there in the Cooley Mountains. But something has changed in Fred’s put upon life, and the scent of blood is in the air…

Pascale Petit has been awarded the Manchester Writing Prize for Poetry 2013. Pascale received the award ahead of other shortlisted poets Abigail Parry, Wayne Price, Victor Tapner, Carolyn King and Debra Marquart at an awards ceremony held in Manchester on 18th October.
Judges Bernard O’Donoghue, Adam O’Riordan and Fiona Sampson  were unanimous in their decision to award Pascale the prestigious prize for a collection of unpublished poems from her forthcoming collection Fauverie, which will be available from Seren later in 2014.
The Manchester Writing Competition was devised by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and her team at Manchester University. The prize was designed to attract the best new writing from around the world, and to establish Manchester as the focal point for a major literary award. Since it began in 2008, the Competition has awarded more than £50,000 in prize money and includes Anthony Rowland, Leseley Saunders and Mandy Coe amongst its previous winners.
You can read Pascale’s winning poems here

A brave youngster from downtown Splott in Cardiff and a mysterious clinic in a remote borderlands town are the unlikely subjects to complete Seren’s ground-breaking series of New Stories from the Mabinogion. 
From the pens of acclaimed authors Trezza Azzopardi and Tishani Doshi, the final two novellas in the series, The Tip of My Tongue and Fountainville are launched this month in London, Swansea and Cardiff.
And on October 21st we are inviting you celebrate at a grand finale launch, featuring our Mabinogion authors in the wonderful setting of Somerset House on the Strand. Tickets are £7 with £2 redeemable against the price of a book. Expect and evening of wit, entertainment and excellent prose with our marvellous panel of Owen Sheers, Niall Griffiths, Russell Celyn Jones, Gwyneth Lewis, Horatio Clare, Fflur Dafydd andCynan Jones  as well as our 2013 authors.
There will also be a further chance to hear Tishani Doshi at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Wales on October 29th and Tishani and Trezza Azzopardi will launch their books at the Senedd in Cardiff on November 5th.
The series, which began in 2009, has been hailed as maybe the greatest service to the Celtic myth cycle of the Mabinogion since Lady Charlotte Guest (the Guardian). Since then we’ve been on a rollercoaster journey from the land of giants, heroes and magical beasts out to the orbit of Mars, back to WWll and the Tower of London, journeyed to the edges of India and and forward to the warm and war-torn UK of the near future; seen Iraq in drug-addled dreams, and viewed Wales aslant, from its countryside to its council estates. We’ve touched on nation-building and personal tragedy, bravery and betrayal.
In The Tip of My Tongue, Trezza Azzopardi’s retelling of ‘Geraint and Enid’ transforms a medieval heroine who won’t be silenced into a 1970s girl who, no matter how difficult the circumstances, always seems to get the last word. Trezza says:
‘Greek myth, fairy tales, modern literature and horror films are full of such interdictions: don’t look back, don’t stray from the path, don’t open the door, don’t pick up phone… and for Enid, it was: don’t speak. This particular interdiction harks back to the bible: ‘Let your women keep silence… for it is not permitted unto them to speak’ (Corinthians); and it resonates through our culture, from the medieval Scold’s Bridle right up to the recent tirade of verbal abuse heaped upon feminist and women’s rights activist Sandra Fluke by the Republican ‘talk radio’ host Rush Limbaugh…. In the voice lies power.’
And Tishani Doshi’s take on Arthurian myth The Lady of the Fountain, transports the reader to the bizarre, opium-fuelled world of Fountainville, established in 1501 but ignored by the powers that be until Luna becomes the assistant to Begum, Lady of the Fountain, the magical powers of which are soon to attract the attentions of the reserved and haughty Mr Owain Knight.
Tishani writes: ‘In India, where I grew up, myths are everywhere; they are pervasive and alive in the most wonderful and frightening ways, and they survive in multiple retellings. We stake ownership in them because they inform our most basic ideas of vice and virtue. Myths are, ultimately, personal. And that’s why I believe it’s somewhat dangerous to meddle with other people’s myths.
When I was asked to retell ‘The Lady of the Fountain,’ I suffered all the usual outsider’s misgivings.’
But myths are, ‘ forever open, ready to be transformed and reinterpreted. For this reason, and perhaps, to tap into my latent Welshness, I agreed to enter the world of the Mabinogion…’
Trezza Azzopardi was born in Cardiff to a Maltese father and a Welsh mother. She studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and is currently a lecturer there. Her acclaimed first novel, The Hiding Place (2000), is the story of a Maltese family living in Cardiff during the 1960s. It won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for both the Booker Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction). The book was also adapted for BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime and has been translated into 14 languages. Her second novel, Remember Me (2004), centres on 72-year-old Lilian (also known as Winnie), a homeless woman, in search of her stolen possessions and her troubled past. Her most recent novel is The Song House (2010).
Tishani Doshi was born in Madras, India, in 1975 to Welsh-Gujarati parents. A poet, dancer and writer, she has a Masters in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Tishani’s debut book of poems, Countries of the Body, won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2006. Her second collection Everything Begins Elsewhere is published by HarperCollins (India); Bloodaxe (UK) and Copper Canyon (USA).She has an Eric Gregory Award, and has won the All-India Poetry Prize. Her first novel, The Pleasure Seekers (Bloomsbury) is translated into several languages and was shortlisted for the Hindu Best Fiction Award and longlisted for the Orange Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary award.