Illuminated by Anthony Arrowsmith’s beautiful photography of the Loughor estuary, this anthology of prose on the theme of ‘restored memory’ and showcasing writing of place and blended nonfiction, features Angela Evans, in the second of her series celebrating the Wales Coast Path. Here, she uncovers the landscape’s secret stories: a skeleton coast, Bonaparte’s niece and Amelia Earhart’s emergency landing. Meanwhile, we present five of the prose writers who rose to the top of the spring’s New Welsh Writing Awards: Rheidol Prize for Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting. These are two nonfiction writers who combine place with memoir and focus on restored and distorted memory. One is Tim Cooke, this year’s Awardswinner, whose ‘River’ (featured in The Bookseller) uses Ogmore River edgelands as a setting for poignant themes of lost children and ‘dark play’. The other is the young woman who scooped our category for 18-25 year olds, as well as being placed second in our competition, Hattie Morrison. Her ‘Venus as a Spinster’ takes an experimental approach, combining an elliptical approach to recovering her own memories of living in a former wool-industry community with a documentary approach to what she sees as the erasure of women from the history of that industry. In fiction, we present ‘Taxi’, a preview from the Costa-winning poet Jonathan Edwards’ satirical short-fiction collection, Valleys World. This hyper-empathetic story of two men in a Newport cab creates a private imagined moment in what became a public tragedy of rock history. Plus we showcase two fiction newcomers, Eleanor Williams and Rae Leaver, and continue, in travel writing, with Steven Lovatt’s prescient series on Hungarian culture, mores and habitats, ‘Haunted Landscape’. Finally, we have a bumper crop of eleven poets, including the marvellous Hilary Menos, and preview poems from autumn collections due out with Seren and Parthian, by Julia Bell, Bryony Littlefair, Mari Ellis Dunning and Rhiannon Hooson.
Table of Content
TOP WRITERS IN THE NEW WELSH WRITING AWARDS 2022 RHEIDOL PRIZE FOR PROSE WITH A WELSH THEME OR SETTING
River Memoir/writing of place by Tim Cooke, set along the Ogmore River edgelands, about lost children and ‘dark play’
Venus as a Spinster Selected vignettes from an essay and memoir by Hattie Morrison, on the erasure of women from the Welsh wool industry
Anna and the Angel A feminist retelling of the biblical story of Tobias and the Angel, set in contemporary Cardiff and Newport, by Eleanor Williams
Taxi Preview from Jonathan Edwards’ story collection, ‘Valleysworld’
Revival Rae Leaver’s novella is a homage to Allen Raine’s Queen of the Rushes, set during the Edwardian Nonconformist revival in Cwm Rhondda
ADDITIONAL NONFICTION
Tidelands: Burry Port and the Loughor Estuary Angela Evans (in the second of a series celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Wales Coast Path) reports on a skeleton coast, Bonaparte’s niece and Amelia Earhart’s emergency landing
Haunted Landscape Steven Lovatt’s third part in his series of travel writing, ‘Notes from a Hungarian Journal’
POETRY
The Sheep Show Hilary Menos
Bait Bryony Littlefair
National Eisteddfod, Carmarthen, 1975 Julia Bell
The Fir Church Rhiannon Hooson
July 2nd, 15:08 Mari Ellis Dunning
Burning Alive a Sack of Cats James Appleby
Emperor Penguins Rhiannon Fielder-Hobbs
Conscription Vicky Morris
Reverdie Rory Waterman
Awash Laurinda Lind
Notes on The Resurrection, iii & iv Christine Hamm
About the author
Doorstop, 2020) was a winner in The Poetry Business International Book & Pamphlet Competition 2019-20. Her second collection is Red Devon (Seren, 2013). Other pamphlets include Extra Maths (SmithMore ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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