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The Dragon and the Crescent: Nine Centuries of Welsh contact with Islam.
Wednesday 8th June 1.15 – 2.15pm National Library’s Drwm venue
The celebrated Welsh author and poet, Dr Grahame Davies, examines Wales’s relationship with Islam. The presentation is held in conjunction with our current exhibition commemorating the 400th anniversary of publishing the King James Bible. Free admission by ticket.

Its Hay time! Seren have a number of authors speaking at Hay this week:
Event 275: Mavis Nicholson talks to Sarah Crompton (What did you do in the War, Mummy?) Thursday 2nd June 2011 6.45pm
Event 291: Brenda Maddox, Peter J Conradi and Tom Bullough (At the Bright Hem of God: Radnorshire Pastoral) Friday 3rd June 2011 10am
Event 340: Grahame Davies talks to Meryl Wyn Davies (The Dragon and the Crescent) Saturday 4th June 2011 10am

The Poetry Society has recently heard that the Arts Council will withdraw its regualr funding. The Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has invited 30 fellow poets to take part in an evening celebrating the best of contemporary British poetry to benefit the Poetry Book Society.

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 Friday 3rd June 2011 7pm The Logan Hall, Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL

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“At the time of the ACE cuts to the PBS and to several much-loved festivals and important publishers of poetry, many poets and readers felt a sense of anger and grief. This event is intended to put a spotlight on the passionate support there is in the UK for our poetry institutions and to share, through poetry and audience, our love for our national art” – Carol Ann Duffy

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Readers include: Elaine Feinstein, David Harsent, George Szirtes, Gillian Clarke, Imtiaz Dharker, Daljit Nagra, Rosie Bailey reading for U A Fanthorpe, Ruth Fainlight, Clare Shaw, Carol Rumens, Patience Agbabi, Annie Freud, Christopher Reid, Mimi Khalvati, Fiona Sampson, Caroline Bird, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Jane Draycott, John Agard, Michael Symmons Roberts, Jacob Sam La-Rose and Luke Wright
 

Pascale Petit has been shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2011 for her latest collection What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo.
Literature Wales announced the 2011 shortlist in both Caernarfon and Cardiff.
Pascale Petit, who was born in Paris and grew up in France and Wales, was named one of the Next Generation Poets by the Poetry Book Society and Arts Council in 2004. What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo (Seren, 2010) was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and was a Book of the year in the Observer.  She has published five poetry books, three of which were shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and which were also Books of the Year in the Times Literary Supplement, Observer and the Independent. Her second collection The Zoo Father was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was published in Mexico in a bilingual edition. A poem from it was shortlisted for a Forward Prize.
See who else made the shortlist – click here

Seren author Grahame Davies speaks to Roy Jenkins from BBC Radio Wales show All Things Considered, about his new book The Dragon and the Crescent: Nine Centuries of Welsh Contact with Islam.
In the early twenty-first century, the relationship between the West and Islam has, due to recent political events, become the subject of intense study, curiosity and tension. Get a copy of this major new study of Welsh and Islam – BUY NOW
You can catch up with the show by clicking here

Graham Mort’s collection of short stories Touch has been short-listed for the Edge Hill University short story prize 2011.
Touch includes the Bridport prize winning story ‘The Prince’, which was described by novelist Tracy Chevalier as “..the writing is word perfect..”.
From a young child adrift on an ice-filled lake to an ageing farmer facing life alone, the twenty-one stories display a deep sensitivity to both the natural world and to human relationships. In skilfully crafted prose, vivid with detail, Mort examines the strength and fragility of life and the ties that hold us within it.
See the Edge Hill Univeristy Short Story Prize 2011 shortlist – click here

Thursday 12th May, 8.00 pm. Three Seren poets will be reading as part of the ‘Four Poets’ event at Lauderdale House in May. John Haynes, Fiona Sampson and Tim Liardet will be joined at the event by Carole Satyamurti.
Tickets: £5.00/Concessions: Concession: £3.00Concessions are available for students, people on benefit and over 60s. Proof must be provided when collecting tickets.
Lauderdale House, Waterlow Park, Highgate Hill, London N6 5HG Telephone: 020 8348 8716
Email: [email protected] 
Website: www.lauderdalehouse.co.uk

Bruce Cardwell launches his latest book Noteworthy: Images of Welsh Music at Pontardawe Arts Cenntre, Swansea.
Noteworthy is one man’s view of the acoustic music scene in Wales, illustrated with black and white photography to present the musicians in context in their surroundings.
Join Bruce for an evening of music with harpist Delyth Jenkins and her daughter, fiddle player Angharad Sian from Calan. Enjoy the exhibition from the Noteworthy project, with a glass of wine.
Tuesday 10th May 2011 6pm

Mavis Nicholson will be opening an exhibition of new work by portrait artist Lorraine Bewsey in the Cynon Valley Museum and Gallery in Aberdare at 7.00pm on Friday 6th May.
Entitled ‘Olympians and Others’, the exhibition features the first set in a series of portraits of Welsh Olympic athletes which Lorraine is working on in the run-up to 2012. The exhibition runs until 25th June.
For more information contact Lorraine Bewsey: 01639 730108 / 0787 985 7975 Email:[email protected]

Join Seren at Chapter Arts Centre tonight with guest poet Nerys Williams, who will be reading from her debut collection of poetry Sound Archive. Sound Archive is the strikingly original first collection of poems from Nerys Williams. Using formal strategies similar to modernist painting: abstraction, dislocation, surrealist juxtaposition, the poet conjures a complex music, intriguing narratives, and poems full of atmosphere that query identity, gender, and the dream of art as a vehicle for emotion and meaning.
Followed by Open Mic – Thursday 5th May, 7.30pm £2 Media Point Room, Chapter Arts Centre.