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Theme: Literature

Beyond/Tu Hwnt – Film

Get your copy of ‘Beyond/Tu Hwnt’ now!   AM is proud to have co-produced a film with Lucent Dreaming to celebrate ‘Beyond/Tu Hwnt’, which is published today. ‘Beyond/Tu Hwnt’ is a bilingual anthology edited by Bethany Handley, Megan Angharad Hunter a Sioned Erin Hughes, featuring work by 31 Deaf and Disabled writers. This film is […]

Children’s Book Cover of the Year 2024

To celebrate and recognise the contribution of illustrators and designers in bringing stories to life, our Young People’s Panel have selected 8 book covers from Wales that they believe deserve the title Children’s Book Cover of the Year 2024.

The designer/illustrator of the winning cover in each category will win or share a cash prize of £500.

Speak Back

This opportunity welcomes applications from under-represented Wales-based poets and spoken word artists to attend a free-of-charge course to further develop their craft. The week will explore themes of identity, climate emergency, climate justice and social justice. The tutors are Taylor Edmonds and Kandace Siobhan Walker.

Course Dates: Monday 3 – Friday 7 March 2025.

Closing date: 5.00pm, Tuesday 26 November 2024.

How to apply – https://www.literaturewales.org/our-projects/speak-back/speak-back-how-to-apply/

FAQs – https://www.literaturewales.org/our-projects/speak-back/speak-back-faqs/

Pennod 52 – ‘Cyfaill ac Anwylddyn’: Beibl Bach 1630

‘Friend and Dear Person’: The Little Bible of 1630

In order to understand to development of Welsh literature in the seventeenth century, we have to discuss the Bible again. Following the publication of William Morgan’s Bible in 1588, a revised version was published in 1620.

These were ‘pulpit bibles’, big books used in the church which were too expensive for most Welsh people to buy. But a very different one was published in 1630, the Beibl Bach or ‘Little Bible’, one which was quite a bit smaller in size and thus cheaper. While discussing its significance in this episode, we examine the Beibl Bach’s introduction, an extremely intersting piece of writing which urges the reader to let this bible live in the house with him ‘like a friend’ and ‘like a dear person.’ From the point of view of Welsh religious history, this was a milestone which would encourage Puritanism eventually. And from the point of view of Welsh literary history, this publication would encourage literacy considerably.

Cyflwynwyd gan: Yr Athro Jerry Hunter a’r Athro Richard Wyn Jones
Cynhyrchwyd gan: Richard Martin
Cerddoriaeth: ‘Might Have Done’ gan The Molenes

The Borzello Trust Poetry Prize

In our tenth year of the New Welsh Writing Awards we are delighted to open a new category supporting the development of poets living, working or from Wales with thanks to the generous support of The Borzello Trust.

This year competition ask the entrants to explore the theme of ‘Welsh Churchyards’ in one of their submitted poems. The other five poems entered shall be of any theme of their choosing, however as part of the winning prize included a development publishing contract we ask that entrants also submit a short proposal (200 words) on the themes that they’d wish to develop in a full poetry collection. Please read our call for entries here and for eligibility and full terms and conditions here.

There is a £10 fee for entries, however we have a number of supported entry places for low-income writers, earning £16,000 or less a year. If you wish to apply for one of these places please email newwelshreviewawards@gmail.com.

Good luck!

Submit your poetry to The Borzello Trust Prize for Poetry here. Entries open for the 2024 prize on the 1st of September 2024 and closes at midnight on the 31st of January 2025.

The Rheidol Prize: For Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting

The Rheidol Prize: For Prose with Welsh Theme or Setting has championed new voices and the development of writers for the past ten years with thanks to the generous support from R. S. Powell. We are delighted to continue the award this year calling for entries of new fiction and prose writing up to 5,000 words in length.

Open to new and established writers based in the UK, as well as writers from across the globe if they have been educated in Wales for a minimum of six months.

As part of the winning prize includes a development publishing contract with Parthian Books we also ask that entrants submit a brief book proposal (200 words) on the manuscript they’d wish to develop. Please note the form, genre and themes explored of your intended work.

Please read our call for entries here and for eligibility and full terms and conditions here.

There is a £15 fee for entries, however we have a number of supported entry places for low-income writers, earning £16,000 or less a year. If you wish to apply for one of these places please email newwelshreviewawards@gmail.com.

Good luck!

Submit your prose to the Rheidol Prize for Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting. Entries close at midnight on the 31st of January 2025

Booktober: The Journey – Maggie Ogunbanwo

Want to read more but don’t know where to start? Join the Booktober Challenge!

The challenge is to read one Quick Reads book a week during October.

This special series of short books by well-known authors offers the perfect way to delve into a book. Priced at £1, and at around 100 pages each, the books are perfect for a train trip to work, a lunchtime read or ten minutes with a cuppa. New titles are published each year to add to the series.

Maggie Ogunbanwo’s journey has taken her from Lagos in Nigeria to Penygroes in north Wales., with family and food inspiring her at each step of the way. Here Maggie shares her story of raising a family in the UK, building successful businesses, learning the Welsh language, and publishing award-winning cookbooks, accompanied by favourite recipes to give you a flavour of her experiences. 

Pennod 50 – Bardd Mewn Dau Fyd:Richard Hughes, Cefnllanfair

A Poet in Two Worlds: Richard Hughes of Cefnllanfair

As we record our 50th episode, we celebrate the milestone by discussing one of the most interesting poets of the early modern period, Richard Hughes of Cefnllanfair in Llŷn.

We note that he was one of several Welsh poets who spent a great deal of time in London in the age of Elizabeth I. Richard Hughes was a footman who served the queen herself, but in addition to spending time in the court in London he also visited his old home frequently, as his poetry demonstrates.

Indeed, his work is wonderfully varied, including poetry in both free and strict metres and, as far as themes are concenred, including: courtly love poetry and poems which treat sex in an extremely bawdy manner; poems about life in London and ones about Pen Llŷn (including a lively englyn to the Bardsey Island boat); poems which pay tribute to individuals and ones which satirize other people. And, yes, discussing the poetry of Richard Hughes enabled Richard Wyn Jones to learn an old Welsh word for toilet – cachdy (shit-house)!

Her yr Hydref: Deffro’r Ddraig – Rygbi Cymru 1995 – 2024 gan Seimon Williams

Mae Her yr Hydref yn eich annog i ddarllen un llyfr o gyfres Stori Sydyn bob wythnos yn ystod mis Hydref.

Mae’r gyfres arbennig hon o lyfrau gan awduron poblogaidd yn cynnig cyfle gwych i bori mewn llyfr. Gyda’r llyfrau yn ddim ond £1 yr un, ac yn rhyw 100 o dudalennau o hyd, maen nhw’n berffaith ar gyfer taith trên i’r gwaith, darllen dros amser cinio neu ddeg munud gyda phaned.

Llyfr am rygbi Cymru yn yr oes broffesiynol yw Deffro’r Ddraig gan Seimon Williams.

Mae’r gyfrol yn edrych ar y gemau mawr, y prif gymeriadau a rhai o’r prif straeon sydd wedi lliwio’r gamp ers i’r gem droi’n broffesiynol bron dri deg mlynedd yn ôl. Daw’r stori i ben drwy edrych ar y garfan ifanc a thaith yr haf i Awstralia yn 2024.

Darllenwch y bennod gyntaf AM DDIM yma!

Ar gael o’ch siop lyfrau leol nawr.

Booktober: Piebald by Nicola Davies

Want to read more but don’t know where to start? Join the Booktober Challenge!

The challenge is to read one Quick Reads book a week during October.

This special series of short books by well-known authors offers the perfect way to delve into a book. Priced at £1, and at around 100 pages each, the books are perfect for a train trip to work, a lunchtime read or ten minutes with a cuppa. New titles are published each year to add to the series.

Piebald, is a crime fiction thriller by Nicola Davies

Moxie has a lot on her plate, caring for her little brother, Ryan, and sick mother, all in a town which the world has more or less abandoned. But life seems to take a turn for the better when a horse called Piebald and Dylan, Moxie’s long-lost dad, turn up out of the blue. But Dylan brings trouble to Moxie’s door in the shape of drug lord Sunny Spells; Moxie must get out of town to keep Ryan safe, and Piebald turns out to be more help than Moxie could ever have imagined.

Read the first chapter here:

Available now from your local bookshop.

Chwarae’r Chwedlau: Cabaret

Chwarae’r Chwedlau: Cabaret returns for one last edition in 2024! 

If you missed the National Eisteddfod this year, don’t worry; we’re bringing some of the wonderful acts from their queer programme, Mas ar y Maes, to The Queer Emporium!

Line-up includes Caitlin McKee, Tom Kemp, Betsan and Welsh Ballroom Community!

Please buy tickets whenever you can because the support helps, selling queer Welsh nights are difficult and it helps reduce our anxiety!

Beach of Dreams

TAPE is currently part of an exciting project called Beach of Dreams; we are part of a network of organisations, artists, and communities in a shared mission to explore and respond to the pressing climate challenges facing the UK’s coastal regions. 

We have been working with Jason Singh, an artist, nature beatboxer, producer, DJ, curator, facilitator and performer. He has worked with the likes of the BBC, Tate Britain, and the National Trust to name a few! 

TAPE Sound will work alongside Jason to capture sound from various sources in Colwyn Bay and the surrounding areas to be part of an immersive sonic experience. He will also be looking to capture stories and perspectives from the local community. 

TAPE is proud to be part of this coastal celebration alongside commissioned artists and local communities across the UK!

Join Booktober!

• Want to read more but don’t know where to start?
• Can’t find the time to read?
• Fancy an autumn challenge?

Pennod 49 – Cariad, Protest ac Ideoleg Mesur: Y Canu Rhydd

Episode 49

Love, Protest and the Ideology of Meter: the Free-Meter Poetry
We begin in this episode by considering something many of us in Wales take for granted, namely the difference between Welsh-language strict-meter poetry and free-meter poetry.

We suggested that there are social and ideological dimensions to this fundamental metrical difference. We concentrate on free-meter poetry composed during the sixteenth century and early in the following century and discussing the two kinds of free-meter verse provides an opportunity to consider big questions concerning the relationship (and difference) between the old and the new and the ‘native’ and the ‘foreign’. We note that female voices appear in this new body of poetry and we look at a poem which protests passionately against the deforestation of the valleys of South Wales (and which puts the blame on ‘the English’ for this ecological destruction).

Pennod Arbennig: Ysgrifennu am ryfel yn Gymraeg . . . yn America!

Special Episode: Writing about war in Welsh . . . in America!

This is an episode which was recorded before a live audience in Storyville Books, Pontypridd during the 2024 National Eisteddfod.

As he had just finished reading it, Richard Wyn Jones wanted to discuss his co-presenter’s latest book, Dros Gyfiawnder a Rhyddid [‘For Justice and Freedom’]. It’s a volume which relates the history of a particular Welsh community during the American Civil War, concentrating in narrative fashion on the men in the army while also considering their relationship with their home community in Wisconsin.

This story is told through the original Welsh words of these Welsh Americans, and according to Richard Wyn Jones, ‘it’s amazing’ that it’s possible to present so much of this exiting history in this manner. As a number of the story’s main characters were born in the United States and raised speaking Welsh as their first language, it’s also an interesting chapter in the social history of the Old Language. And as Richard Wyn Jones notes, the way in which they write about war in Welsh connects this material to a great deal of medieval Welsh literature which was discussed in the first series of this podcast.

Buy ‘Dros Gyfiawnder a Rhyddid HERE

Issue 12: Submissions Open Now!

nawr is awaking from a slumber; opening our eyes and looking around to take stock of where we now stand. This new, first print issue to feature the work of our contributors , is a fresh start, but also is the culmination of those dreams we have kept note of in the night. To ‘awaken’ […]

Pennod 48 – Coblyn o Ddadl: Ymryson Edmwnd Prys a Wiliam Cynwal

One Heck of an Argument: The Bardic Debate between Edmwnd Prys and Wiliam Cynwal

The ymryson held between Edmwnd Prys and Wiliam Cynwal in the 1580s is the longest bardic debate in the entire history of the Welsh language. It contains 53 poems in the strict-metre cywydd form and more than 4,000 lines, and it was only the death of the old bard Wiliam Cynwl which brought the contention to an end. We discuss this amazing ymryson in this episode, explaining its origin before examining the essence of the argument.

Edmwnd Prys received his education in Cambridge while Wiliam Cynwal was a traditional bard who graduated in an eisteddfod, and we see that two kind of learning are contending, one new and the other old. It’s possible to see this as a struggle over the future of Welsh poetry. Yet despite the esoteric subjects and cultural themes woven through these debate poems, the two also engage in personal insults at times, with Edmwnd Prys calling Wiliam Cynwal old and the bard suggesting that Prys is fat.

Cynrychioli Cymru | Representing Wales 2025-26

Apply now for the fifth round of Representing Wales!

Representing Wales is a 12-month programme which provides development opportunities for writers currently underrepresented in the literature sector in Wales. Individuals from under-represented backgrounds who wish to develop their creative writing skills and their professional careers as writers are invited to apply. The programme will run from April 2025 to March 2026.

Over the course of the year, Literature Wales will support a cohort of 14 writers by offering the following:

  • A bursary of £3,000

  • A travel and ticket fund
  • An intense training programme on craft and on professional career development featuring world-renowned writers as tutors and guest speakers including online writing rooms and writing masterclasses, one of which will be a residential weekend at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre
  • A personal mentor
  • Regular opportunities for the cohort to share creative work and feedback
  • Networking opportunities throughout the year, online and in person
  • Dedicated support from Literature Wales including advice, signposting and identifying opportunities
  • A bespoke aftercare programme

Closing Date: 12.00pm midday, Thursday 10 October 2024.


Informal Drop-in Sessions


Literature Wales staff will be available to answer your questions during two informal drop-in sessions between 6.00 pm -7.00 pm on Thursday 29 August and Tuesday 10 September 2024. Click on the dates highlighted to book your free ticket through Eventbrite.

Pennod 47 – ‘Swydd y Beirdd sydd heb Urddas’: Beirdd, Dyneiddwyr a Karl Marx

The Job of the Bards is without Dignity’: Bards, Humanists and Karl Marx

This episode concentrates on the factors which were undermining the Welsh bardic order during the second half of the sixteenth century. We discuss three challenges specifically, beginning with the fact that the pool of patronage was shrinking and making it more difficult for a bard to earn a living by composing praise poetry.

We also consider the challenge posed by the ideas and attitudes of the humanists and the struggle between two kinds of learning in the period.

Finally, we note the way in which the new technology of the printing press was presenting a different kind of challenge.

You’ll hear an anecdote about an uchelwr who showed his contempt for a praise poet in a memorable manner and there is ample opportunity to explore a Marxist analysis of these changes in the course of our literature’s history.

QueerAF Partnership: Queering cognition and the rise of the neuroqueer

More and more people are coming to terms with not only their queer identities, but also their neurodiversity – and for many of us, both.   I first came across the term “neuroqueer” in an article about a local writer and it captured my imagination.   It is a framework that intersects the fields of […]

Pennod 46 – Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg yr Eidal a Gwasg Anghyfreithlon yng Nghymru

Italy’s Welsh-language Literature and an Illegal Printing Press in Wales

As we’ve been looking recently at the relationship between humanism, Protestantism and the Welsh language, here’s an opportunity to look at the other side of the Reformation’s coin.

In this episode we discuss some of the Welsh-language Catholic literature of the sixteenth century, concentrating on two extraordinary friends, Morris Clynnog and Gruffudd Robert. These two men from north-west Wales had to flee to the continent because of there religion when the Protestant queen Elizabeth I came to the throne.

Publishing Welsh books in Milan, fighting between the Welsh and the English in Rome’s English College, producing a Welsh-language Catholic book on an illegal printing press in a cave in Wales – these Welsh exiles were connected with some of the most amazing chapters in the history of the Welsh language.

Ailddyfeisio’r Prif Gymeriad | Reinventing the Protagonist

Literature Wales, in partnership with Disability Arts Cymru, is once more delighted to invite Deaf and/or Disabled and/or Neurodiverse writers based in Wales to apply for a space on our Reinventing the Protagonist virtual creative writing course for winter 2024 – spring 2025.

Deadline to apply: 12.00pm, Thursday 29 August

Course dates: 6, 13, 20, 27 November 2024, with one-to-one tutorials and final sharing session taking place in January and February 2025 . A mutually convenient time will be decided upon with the selected writers, closer to the course dates.

Informal drop-in sessions: Wednesday 24 July 1.00pm-2.00pm, Tuesday 6 August, 1.00pm-2.00pm.

Neil Collins: International Velvet book launch (free)

Thursday 12 September 2024

Tickets

We’re excited to be hosting Neil Collins in conversation this September, marking the publication of his new book on Welsh music, International Velvet: How Wales Conquered the ’90s Charts. If the story of Wales in the 1990s was a movie plot, it would all seem so far-fetched. Thankfully, it was all true…

This is a free, ticketed event featuring Neil in conversation about the book, followed by an opportunity to purchase the book itself. Neil is a Cardiff-based writer and known as co-host of Welsh Music Podcast. He is the author of the Liverpool FC books Make Us Dream and Red Mist.

The 1970s and 1980s were a bleak time for much of Wales: the closure of steelworks and mines led to mass unemployment while the country’s culture and language was disregarded by politicians and the music industry alike. Some bands even travelled across the Severn Bridge to make sure their records arrived at the London offices sporting an English postmark.

The 1990s changed everything. Wales was already known for Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Male Voice Choirs. But suddenly bands such as Catatonia, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Super Furry Animals, 60ft Dolls and Gorki’s Zygotic Mynci exploded into the charts and showed the UK population the breadth of what this small but inherently musical nation could offer. Meanwhile, S4C – the Welsh-language television channel – became increasingly prominent and a new Welsh Assembly was on the horizon.

Featuring fresh analysis and new interviews, International Velvet charts the UK in a decade where ‘Cool Cymru’ won over the masses and shows how it inspired the still-vibrant Welsh music scene into the 21st century and beyond. This summer marks 25 years since the peak of the Cool Cymru scene including No 1 albums, huge gigs and the paid finale to the 90s with Manic Millennium. Other key moments discussed include the Stereophonics 1999 gig at Morfa Stadium, the Manics’ landmark 1994 album The Holy Bible and their Glastonbury headline set five years later and, not to be outdone, Tom Jones’ 1999 renaissance with Reload!

Pennod 45 – ‘Cymraeg iawn i’r Cymry i gyd’: Beibl 1588

‘Proper Welsh for all of the Welsh People’: The 1588 Bible 

In this chapter we discuss William Morgan’s amazing achievement, the 1588 Welsh Bible. Not ignoring its obvious religious significance, we concentrate on the significance of this milestone from the point of view of the history of the Welsh language and its literature. 

One of the things which makes Welsh such an incredibly rich language is the variety of registers available to authors writing in Welsh, and it was the 1588 Bible above all else which ensured that it has an enduring elevated literary register. This linguistic unity has proven to be extremely important in the context of Welsh identity as well. We all get a chance to note the reactions of some contemporary Welsh people, include a poem of praise by the bard Rhys Cain which draws attention in a memorable fashion to William Morgan’s linguistic feat.

Seren Esgynnol/Rising Star: featuring Phil Jones

Seren Esgynnol/Rising Star is a focus on early career talents from the world of poetry. Phil Jones is a poet, writer, and musician. His debut pamphlet “Summer’s Work” has been published by Green Bottle Press. His band plays under the name Dusty Cut.

Seren Esgynnol/Rising Star: featuring Laura Sheldon

Seren Esgynnol/Rising Star is a focus on early career talents from the world of poetry. Laura Sheldon is a spoken-word performer, poet and writer from Llantwit Major. She is also one of the organisers of the These3Streams arts festival (https://these3streams.uk/). As a children’s author, she has published several titles with Firefly Press and Gomer Press.

Issue Four

Editorial    A Sequence of Poems and Images by John Kinsella: Out of the Forest Killzone and into the Corn Crop Ambush   Two Poems about Foxes: Corinna Board, ‘My uncle brings back a fox tail from the fields’ & Amanda Rackstraw, ‘Vixen’   Two Poems for Gaza: Abeer Ameer, ‘At Least’ & Naomi Foyle, […]

Creative Non-Fiction – Sarn Helen, Tom Bullough (Granta Publications)

Tom Bullough grew up on a hill farm in Radnorshire, Wales, and lives in Bannau Brycheiniog with his children. He is the author of four novels – A (Sort Of Books), The Claude Glass (Sort Of Books), Konstantin (Penguin Books Ltd), and Addlands (Granta). Sarn Helen is his first work of nonfiction. Tom is a climate activist and a freelance tutor in creative writing, and runs regular courses on climate.

Sarn Helen is illustrated by Jackie Morris.

Buy now