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Theme: Literature

Pennod 2 – Y Llawysgrif Gymraeg gyntaf (sydd wedi goroesi!)

The Black Book of Carmarthen, the Book of Taliesin, the history of writing Welsh and the nature of manuscripts:

This episode begins by considering some of the earliest examples of Welsh writing which have survived, and noting that the language has always been a medium for discussion various kinds of learning, including science. We discuss medieval writing technology and emphasize that manuscripts are rare, fragile and valuable. Then we take some time with the Black Book of Carmarthen, the earliest surviving Welsh manuscript – that is, the earliest surviving manuscript written entirely in the Welsh language. Who was the monk who planned and created this collection of Welsh poetry, much of it connected to the legendary poet Myrddin for whom the place was supposedly named? Is it possible to say that Myrddin competes with that other legendary poet, Taliesin, for supremacy in the literary tradition? And what about that important manuscript connected with the competitor, the Book of Taliesin? Why is so much of this Welsh poetry prophetic in nature, and how do people from Penymynydd in Anglesey interpret the Mab Darogan or prophesied saviour?

The Barn Owl – Hilary Evans

A poem in response to ‘Barn Owl’ by R.S Thomas.   Motionless but for a revolving head, waiting palely, a faint outline in the brooding darkness suddenly rends the air with a psycho scream, penetrating, threatening. A ghostly flight as it sweeps the ground waiting silently, a sentinel of the dying light, seeking the future […]

Brief Encounter – Norma Procter

The sky is indigo. Against its depth Sudden Autumn leaves on the cherry Took my breath away. I stared, silent. How long did I stand there in late sun? How long did I stare in disbelief. I must Have seen it before or did I always Look downwards as I walked. Today It was glorious. […]

Barn Owl – after R.S.Thomas

A poem written in response to ‘Barn Owl’ by R.S Thomas. A terrified mouse in the corner of the window Frozen stiff for half a century and more Neither dead nor alive, Year after year Framed and hung upon my wall I wonder if it knows it’s safe from the barn owl caught in flight […]

Barn Owl – Gaynor Rawson

A poem written in response to ‘Barn Owl’ by R.S Thomas. Glide silently by soulbird of legends, freezing the lifeblood with your cry. Though your face is heart shaped you are heartless, clinically dispatching voles and mice. Ghostly wise one watching and waiting, the night your kingdom. You require no servant to attend your needs. […]

Republic by Nerys Williams

Republic is our March Book of the Month. Poet Nerys Williams gives us an insight into the music which accompanied its writing and shares the book’s playlist.

Issue Two: Installment One

Poetry   Abeer Ameer, ‘The Ring’   Elin ap Hywel translated by Laura Fisk, ‘Cyn y don nesaf / Before the next wave’   Cath Drake, ‘The Dolphin Standards Institute’   Prose   Richard Gwyn, ‘Mochyn Daear’   A nonfiction reflection on our relationship with creatures and the more-than-human   Poetry   Michael Goodfellow, ‘Motifs’   Pascale Petit, […]

TYTO ALBA – Gareth Culshaw

Poetic responses to ‘Barn Owl’ by R.S Thomas.   Her arrow flight feathers start to unstitch. I look into her eyes see the shape of the sky bouncing back. Wings tilt as a surfer on a wave. I watch the head mould my day into her bottomless beak. The field tries to stay low as […]

Owl – Mike Catling

I heard the owl call, much like God does, distant and unseen. Tempted as I am to leave the well- trodden path in twilight, I know he will remain elusive, hidden, calling always from one tree further into the distance as I seek to approach. Looking down at me as I cannot look up at […]

International Women’s Day

Today, 8 March 2023, marks International Women’s Day.

Here are a selection of books that explore and celebrate the experiences of women in Wales.

Jeff William Acosta: How I Wrote ‘of thee I sing’

So I was intrigued by the Gershwin reference in ‘of thee I sing’. In Gershwin’s original, it’s almost a political campaign song and perhaps a bit cynical about whether relationships are genuine or not. I wonder what made you start with this in the title? To tell you honestly, I haven’t seen or heard Gershwin’s […]

North Wales Wildlife Trust – Wild Words

The Wildlife Trusts are a grassroots movement of people working together for wildlife. The Wildlife Trusts cover the UK to improve places for wildlife and influence governments to ensure a future for wildlife.   Wild Words is a feature from Wild North Wales, where readers are encouraged to explore and respond to a poem featured […]

Paul Deaton: How I Wrote ‘Harvest’

“I find that some poems I write, luckily, just seem to happen – I might get a first line, like a fish biting, and then, if I have time, I let the poem unfold itself, and see where that line takes me”

Content warning: mentions of depression/depressive thoughts


Paul Deaton‘s debut collection, A Watchful Astronomy (Seren 2017) was a PBS Recommendation and a National Poetry Day selected title. He won a Society of Authors Award in 2019, most recently co-edited with poets Ben Wilkinson and Kim Moore an anthology of running poems, The Result is What You See Today published by The Poetry Business.

You can find him on Twitter @pauldeaton28 and on Instagram @pauldeatonthisrunninglife

Interview by Zoë Brigley

Galwad Agored: Panel Pobl Ifanc / Open Call: Young People’s Panel

Are you between 17 and 20 years old? The Books Council of Wales is looking for individuals who enjoy reading, as well as individuals who dislike reading.

Joining the Young People’s Panel is a great opportunity for enthusiastic individuals who are eager to make their voices heard. We will discuss reading experiences, how to promote reading, as well as identifying potential areas and themes that need to be targeted within future publications.

The panel will meet three times a year (once in person in a venue to be confirmed, followed by two virtual meetings).

A fee of £100 is offered for attending each meeting.

If you are interested, please complete THIS FORM and return to children@books.wales by 6 March 2023.

For further information, please contact children@books.wales

Podlediad Siarad Cyfrolau

Yr awduron Elidir Jones ac Alun Davies sy’n ymuno a Ilid Haf i drafod ail-ddychmygu ein chwedlau.

The Sleeping Stones by Beatrice Wallbank

Gruff and his new friend Matylda live on a small island off the Welsh coast, where legends are beginning to stir. Islanders find themselves irresistibly drawn to the Sleeping Stones, a line of rocks like stepping stones out to sea, and Gruff and Mat soon realise they must risk everything to save each other and their community from a terrifying storm driven by an ancient, magic anger.  

Author Beatrice Wallbank reads an extract. 

Available now from your local bookshop.

Yr Hen Iaith

A fun introduction to the history of Welsh literature, with Jerry Hunter, a boy from the Midwest in America teaching Richard Wyn Jones from Anglesey about the treasures of his own language

Aaron Kent: How I Wrote ‘Between all of us like a Wavy Halo Form’

“After the brain haemorrhage I was put on very heavy sleeping tablets, and when they kicked in I began to write poetry, then I’d wake and find streams of subconscious thoughts, odd typos, and nonsense words which I’d later edit into a poem while conscious.”


Aaron Kent is a working-class writer and insomniac from Cornwall. His work has been praised by the likes of JH Prynne, Gillian Clarke, Andre Bagoo, Andrew McMillan, and Vahni Anthony Ezekiel Capildeo. Aaron was awarded the Awen medal from the Bards of Cornwall in 2020, then subsequently suffered a brain haemorrhage a few months later. Coincidence? Probably.

You can find him on Twitter and Instagram both as @GodzillaKent, and at www.brokensleepbooks.com/aaron-kent

Interview by Zoë Brigley

Adam Cairns: How I Wrote ‘Mum Dancing’

“The sonnet seems like a safe room to me. It has known dimensions, the four walls of its rhymes and the turn.”

Adam Cairns is a poet and photographer who lives in South Wales. His poetry is widely published in journals and is working towards a first collection. He is currently studying for an MA in Poetry Writing at The Poetry School and Newcastle University.

You can find him on Twitter @AdamAcorns, and on his website www.adamcairns.co.uk

Interview by Zoë Brigley

How (Not) to Do It All – Energise Your Life by Dr Emma Short

Hello, I’m Dr Emma Short and I work as a consultant histopathologist in the NHS. I’m the type of doctor who diagnoses diseases by examining tiny pieces of tissue under the microscope. I also have a PhD in cancer genetics – I spent five years looking into the reasons why some people are genetically predisposed […]

Camille Francois: How I Wrote ‘Let us go down, and there confound’

“I like to think of poems as machines crafted to destroy what we know, in order to access forms of wisdom or something archaic about our nature which we might not otherwise have consciously encountered.”


Camille Francois holds a PhD in British literature and has taught literature and translation at Cambridge and several French universities. She now lives near Paris and teaches at an international secondary school. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The North, Wild Court, Anthropocene, Magma, Under the Radar, and elsewhere.

You can find her on Twitter @Cam_Francois_

Interview by Zoë Brigley

New Year! New Books!

Here are five books out in 2023 from publishers in Wales, that you won’t want to miss.

Mat Riches: How I Wrote ‘Tomato Plants’

“I’d love to say that was a deliberate choice, that it was a way of showing the protagonist is boxed in like the tomatoes, or like the holes you cut into a tomato growbag, but I’d be lying.”

Mat Riches is ITV’s unofficial poet-in-residence . Recent work has been in Wild Court, The New Statesman, The Friday Poem and Finished Creatures. He co-runs Rogue Strands poetry evenings and has a pamphlet out with Red Squirrel Press in 2023.

You can find him on Twitter and Instagram, both @matriches. You can also find him on his blog Wear The Fox Hat

Interview by Zoë Brigley

Awydd darllen mwy yn 2023?

Awydd darllen mwy yn 2023, ond ddim yn siŵr iawn ble i ddechrau?

Dyma ambell syniad ac awgrym allai eich helpu.

Faint O Lyfrau Da Ni’n Darllen Mewn Blwyddyn?

Blwyddyn newydd dda a chroeso i bennod gyntaf 2023.

Trafod faint o lyfrau da ni’n darllen mewn blwyddyn, pwysigrwydd ac apêl cloriau llyfrau ac wrth gwrs be da ni wedi bod yn darllen dros y mis diwethaf.

Megan J Arlett: How I Wrote ‘Fresh Meat’

“My poems often float around in fragmented and incomplete drafts until that first, encapsulating line arrives on the page”

Megan J. Arlett was born in the UK, grew up in Spain, and now lives in New Mexico. The recipient of two Academy of American Poets Prizes, her work has appeared in Best New Poets 2019, Best New British and Irish Poets, The Kenyon Review, Ninth Letter, Passages North, Prairie Schooner, and Third Coast.

You can find her on Twitter @mjarlett, on Instagram @megjessie, and on her website https://meganjarlett.wordpress.com/

Interview by Zoë Brigley

Modron Magazine Launch

Here is the film from Modron Magazine’s launch event at Kenfig Nature Reserve. Funded by the Books Council Wales, Modron is a literary magazine in response to the ecological crisis the world faces today. Please visit the website to read the contributions and find out more about the project.

Issue One: Installment One

Taylor Edmonds: ‘My Magnolia Tree’   Rachael Li Ming Chong: ‘The Grasshopper as Thermometer’   Paul Henry: ‘Five Trees Fell’   Karishma Sangtani: ‘lichens’ Community Article: Leanne Wood: ‘The Best Time is Now: Community Energy’ Former Plaid Cymru leader, Leanne Wood, explains her new role facilitating communities to take control of their own energy.   […]

Bethany Handley: How I Wrote ‘Cling Film’

Interview by Zoë Brigley

Poetry provides the space for readers to bear witness to ableism. This calling out of ableism in poetry can be unsettling for audiences if they recognise their own attitudes or behavior.

Bethany Handley is a young Disabled poet based in Cardiff. Her work has been published in publications including Poetry, Poetry Wales and on the Poetry Foundation. Her work explores the ableism she encounters, especially as a part time wheelchair user.

You can find her on Twitter @Bethany1Handley and on Instagram @ScoutForCulture

Modron Magazine

Founded by Kristian Evans and Zoë Brigley, MODRON seeks to publish the best established and emerging writers whose work absorbs and responds to the implications and challenges of climate change and the ecological crisis. MODRON embraces an ethic of dwelling with care, and an openness to the more-than-human, rejecting narratives of conquest and domination. Poetry […]

Sgen I’m Syniad… am ‘dolig

Trafod llyfrau da ni wedi bod yn darllen a beth sydd ar ein rhestr ar gyfer Siôn Corn.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Kim Moore: ‘All The Men I Never Married’

In this edition we speak with Kim Moore, winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2022. Her winning collection All The Men I Never Married is pointedly feminist, challenging and keenly aware of the contradictions and complexities of desire. The 48 numbered poems take us through a gallery of exes and significant others where we encounter rage, pain, guilt, and love and the ‘easy misogyny’ of everyday life.