New Welsh Review  was founded in 1988 as the successor to The Welsh Review (1939-1948), Dock Leaves and The Anglo Welsh Review (1949-1987) and is Wales’s foremost literary magazine in English, offering a vital outlet for the very best new fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry, a forum for critical debate, and a rigorous and engaged reviewing culture. New Welsh Review Ltd is supported through core funding by the Welsh Books Council and hosted by Aberystwyth University Department of English and Creative Writing. The magazine’s creative content was rebranded as  New Welsh Reader in May 2015, with reviews moving entirely online.

AmeriCymru spoke to New Welsh Review/Reader editor, Gwen Davies about the re branding and the magazines future direction.

AmeriCymru: Hi Gwen, and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. What is the New Welsh Review? How would you describe its mission statement?

Gwen: New Welsh Review , is a literary and cultural magazine working across Wales with eleven publication dates in different formats including print, app, epub and online, through the media of text, photography, video, audio, graphic poetry and animation. This national magazine with international readership and horizons has contributors including Terry Eagleton, Michael Longley, Patricia Duncker, Stevie Smith, Jem Poster, Richard Gwyn, Rory MacLean and Tessa Hadley. Our USPs are that we publish newcomers alongside established writers, are highly professional, develop the work of students and emerging writers, and that we pay contributors. We rebranded in May 2015 to publish creative work and literary essays in the New Welsh Reader (print, app and epub formats), and to publish reviews and comment in the New Welsh Review (online only).

AmeriCymru: Where can American readers go to read more or subscribe?

https://www.newwelshreview.com/

https://www.newwelshreview.com/newsub.php

AmeriCymru: With regard to the recent name change / re branding...what is new in Welsh Reader? Has there been a change of focus?

Gwen: The emphasis, noted above, of creative work in New Welsh Reader, has been appreciated by readers who perhaps aren't so interested in reviews or like to get their reviews more quickly online. Our readers tell us that highlighting our creative work – poetry, creative nonfiction, short stories, novel previews, illustration, photography, graphic books and longer literary essays – in this way gives this type of work more status and room for contemplation, which print, in particular, favours. Publishing eight online supplements of reviews and comment allows us to respond more quickly to new books and topical issues without worrying about the production process. These supplements are published under the old umbrella, New Welsh Review. This move, of course, also saves money in a climate of public funding cuts.

AmeriCymru: What, for you are the highlights of the latest edition of New Welsh Reader?

Gwen: As it happens, am American contributor, Peter E Murphy www.murphywriting.com , whose essay is a fictionalised family memoir about  his family's connections to Wales. His father and grandfather, longshoremen Eddie and Teddy Murphy, were billeted together in Newport and Belgium during the Normandy landings. Teddy was a nasty piece of work and Eddie was a tall-tale-teller of the first order. Other highlights in our autumn edition are former British serving officer Daniel Jones' story about an Afghanistan posting, and newcomer Crystal Jeans' dirty urban story about how a mother's sexual fantasy of Bukowski propels her to seduce the local alcoholic tramp: 'I lean over to my knicker drawer and pull out a condom. Bukowski wouldn't use a condom. Or he would, but right at the end he'd yank it off, sink his d*** back in and say, "You can have my seed and like it, you w****.' But you can take something too far.'

AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about the New Welsh Writing Awards program. Are there any upcoming publication plans? What will be the theme for next year?

Gwen: To elaborate on the rebranding you mentioned above. We rebranded around the term 'New Welsh' since that encapsulates all our work, and we have further sub-brands of the  New Welsh Writing Awards which this year ran under the banner of writing for nature and the environment and was sponsored by WWF Cymru with further support from CADCentre (a software company working with early school leavers) and writing centres Ty Newydd and Gladstone's Library in north Wales.

The Awards' USP is that it celebrates essays or books of at least 10,000 words and part of the prize is publication in Kindle ebook form. Our fourth brand is New Welsh Rarebyte which is our new ebook imprint and publishes the winner of our writing award, this year (publishing on 15 October) 26-year old Eluned Gramich's Woman Who Brings the Rain , A Memoir of Hokkaido, Japan. It's available for pre-order internationally here as a Kindle ebook via Amazon. We are currently seeking sponsors to run next year's Awards, either from commerce or from education as we are looking into the possibility of combining work on the Awards with a university placement programme that would give experience to students, either with a literature background or in business or marketing, to work on a large event such as running a prize and ceremony. We hope that we will get enough funding next year to run an extra category, so that would be nature and the environment as before plus memoir. The prize should interest expats with a Welsh connection as our Terms & Conditions welcome international entries by people who were born in Wales or educated here.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?

Gwen: The publishing climate for journalism is very hard as we are hit five times over by the change in reading patterns caused by the internet, ie people accessing free stuff; writers having become willing to publish their work for free, thus undermining their own value and that of  curated publications who see payment as part of the professional service they offer; the democratisation of the internet which, despite its many positive points does undermine the old hierarchy of choice and curation which publishers offer; the feedback and sense of community offered to writers by social media which used to be provided by magazines and authors' societies, and, finally, the current British austerity climate which has led to public funding cuts in the arts as elsewhere. We really do feel, in respect of our current mix of subscriber-exclusive and free-to-view content, that we are sucking it and seeing. We don't know how things will develop, how much will people pay to read in future in a world in which originally only very few of the big newspapers opted for the paywall model.

At New Welsh Review, however, we have been working creatively to track down alternative funding sources. Mainly this has been with the institution in which we are physically housed, our host and sponsor Aberystwyth University, to create a student work placement scheme producing a multimedia programme that provides us with audio and visual features, clips, reviews, interviews and creative showcases that exercise the students' skills in research, presentation, camerawork, editing, performed reading, animation, graphics, getting on with authors and working as a team as well as being responsive to an editor's demands and real-time deadlines. This relationship gives us a home and allows us to pay and develop the skills of a greater range of contributor. For the university, it ticks their employability boxes. To AmeriCymru I would humbly ask: does anyone want to sponsor an exciting Awards scheme and/or work with us to replicate our student placement model over the pond? Last year, during the Dylan Thomas centenary, many Americans learned of or visited the many beautiful west Wales locations associated with the poet. In Aberystwyth we are just down the coast from Laugharne and New Quay. If you would like to sponsor or develop any of the ideas outlined above to further strengthen the links of Wales and the US, and to put our mutual traditions of great writing on both our maps, contact me at editor[at]newwelshreview.com.

AmeriCymru has more than 3800 site members and many thousands of additional followers on Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms. There are more than 4000 blog posts on AmeriCymru. Every site member has their own blog accessible from their home page.

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Phil Rowlands

Huw Llywelyn Rees

Philip Evans

John Good

The Rugby World Cup is nearly upon us and there’s no better time to put your rugby knowledge to the test . Rugby Mania , published by Gomer Press, is a fun, fact-filled quiz book for all fans. Topics range from the history of rugby to its record-breakers and its stars the world over, testing both general and anorak knowledge! Divided into handy sections, from kick-off to post-match, the book includes 80 quizzes off the pitch about those 80 minutes on it. The perfect companion on the bus to the match, half time, or even the pub, there is plenty here to keep supporters scratching their heads. Do you know in which year was the first ever Test between Australia and New Zealand played or the first ever player to reach 100 caps as captain? Or what about the first player to be shown a red card in the Rugby World Cup tournament or the first overseas coach of the British and Irish Lions? Find out the answers and much more between the covers of this handy quiz book.

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About the author

Tomos Morse is originally from Tonteg, near Pontypridd, and now lives in Cardiff with his wife and their three children. He is a producer with the BBC, and in his spare time, he’s a cinema and biography buff. But his favourite pastime is going down to Sardis Road to watch his beloved Pontypridd play.

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AmeriCymru Hi Neil and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. What can you tell us about the forthcoming US Tour? Has the Band toured the US before?    

Neil: Thanks Ceri for taking an interest and sharing this with the Americymru community.  The planned tour will take place between 12th February until 21st February 2016 and with the current proposed scheduled cover the five States of Virginia, Delaware, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and  New Jersey. We have five confirmed concerts at present and are in discussions for another potential booking.  We are delighted to be working alongside several Universities and Brass Bands in America to host and promote our tour.  This is an historic tour for the Cory Band as it will mark 40 years since our last visit to America when the band represented Wales as part of the Bicentennial celebrations in 1976.

AmeriCymru The Cory Band is one of the oldest and best known Brass Bands in the world. Care to tell us something about it's history?

Neil: The band was formed in 1884 as the Ton Temperance Band in Ton Pentre, Rhondda less than two miles from where the band are based today. In 1895, the ‘Ton Temperance Band’ was invited to play at the official opening of Gelli Colliery Library in Ystrad. Sir Clifford Cory, the highly influential son of John Cory performed the ceremony. He was so impressed by the standard of the Band’s performance that he offered to provide financial assistance and provide suitable employment to enable the Band to engage a first class conductor. The ‘Ton Temperance Band’ changed its name to reflect the generous financial assistance from Sir Clifford Cory and his family business, ‘Cory Brothers’. Consequently, from 1895, the Band became known as ‘Cory Workmen’s Band’

In Cardiff on 19th July 1923, the Cory Workmen’s Band also took part in what is believed to have been the first radio broadcast of a Brass Band. By the mid 1950’s Cory Band had notched up an impressive two hundred and fifty (250) BBC Broadcasts.

Robert Childs became MD in 2000 and immediately made an impact.  During that year they won both the British Open and the National Championships and made history in taking the British Open Shield home to Wales for the first time in the contest’s 148-year history. This triumph was repeated in 2002, 2007, 2009 and 2011 when the band won their fourth British Open title. In 2008, 2009 and 2010 the band achieved a historic hat-trick of European Brass Band Champion titles.

The current Musical Director Philip Harper was appointed in June 2012. 2013 saw the band regain the European title, undertake a 10-concert tour of Australia and become the Champion Band of Great Britain at the Royal Albert Hall.

The band has been ranked the number one Brass Band in the World for the last 8 consecutive years.

AmeriCymru: Many people will be familiar with the Welsh choral tradition. How important have Brass bands been in the history of Welsh valleys society?

Neil: Brass Bands have been a proud rich tradition of Welsh valley life for generations and are a cultural movement strongly linked to the Coal Mining Industry in Wales. The Mines are now long gone but the bands play on.  Learning to play a Brass instrument has been part of the education system within schools in Wales for many years and community bands have supported this development by providing opportunity to use these musical skills and provide a social outlet for young people and also older people who continue to play after leaving school. A Brass and Voices concert, generally with male choirs is a regular favourite in Wales bringing our rich musical traditions together. 

After reading the rest of this article, let us transport you for a few minutes to the green green grass of home where you can watch us on Youtube performing alongside a modern famous Welsh choir, Only Men Aloud.

AmeriCymru: For the uninitiated can you describe the typical composition of the band or of Brass bands in general? How many musicians will be on the tour?

Neil:   The Brass Band repertoire is varied and not just marches or orchestral transcriptions although these still can form part of a concert. There are now many wonderful original Brass Band compositions which are firm favourites with Brass Band audiences around the World. Add to that a mix of jazz and popular music and you soon see that a Brass Band is really diverse in its capabilities. A total of 30 players will be travelling to perform this tour, 30 flights for people, luggage and instruments doesn't come cheap!

AmeriCymru: You have launched a Kickstarter appeal to cover some of the costs of the tour. Can you give us some idea of the logistical problems involved in arranging a tour like this?

Neil: There are many logistical problems in arranging a tour like this, luckily we have a member of ours called John Southcombe who was Tour Manager for us in 2013 when we went to Australia who is working on this tour again for us.  Now that the majority of the schedule has been fixed and flights reserved, the next major cost and logistical work is arranging the required VISAs to enable us to perform in America, at the moment this is endless telephone calls and emails to seek advise on the exact requirements but at this stage it looks like we need to get all our players to London for individual interviews to obtain the VISAs required.  After this we will be working on developing and recording a specific tour CD and merchandise to give our audience in America a truly unique Cory experience. After this we will have to finalise and pay for UK Coach Travel, Flights, Coach Travel in Amercia and Hotels but most importantly we will be working on our concert performances and brand new repertoire for the tour as well as developing masterclasses to inspire students and members of the brass bands in America to be the best that they can be. All in all we've got a busy few months ahead before we even get to February when the fun really begins!

AmeriCymru:  Of all the many titles and honours the Cory Band has earned over the years are there any in particular that stand out? What, for you, is the bands proudest moment?

Neil:   One of the greatest contest achievements that Cory achieved prior to 2000 was achieving a hattrick of wins at the National Championships of Great Britain at the Royal Albert Hall in London (1982,83,84) under the musical direction of Major Arthur Kenny.

Since the year 2000 the band has enjoyed the most successful period in its long history, and this sustained period of success has enabled the band to maintain the position as the number one ranked band in the World for the last eight consecutive years. The stand out achievement during this period was becoming Double Champions in 2000, which means winning the National Championship of Great Britain and also winning the British Open contest in the same year. The British Open win was the first time that this had been won by a non-English band in the 148 years that the contest had been in existence. 

There are so many proud moments that I can think of during my 20 years performing with the band, but I think being chosen as the band to represent Wales at the Queens Jubilee Celebrations in London in 2002 and also for me personally being part of the band that toured Australia in 2013 was a great experience. Many past players of the band have shared some great experiences of their tour of America in 1976 and that was definitely a proud moment in our history and it's fantastic that we now have an opportunity to take that same musical voyage 40 years later.

AmeriCymru:   How would you describe your repertoire? What kind of musical experience can audiences expect at your forthcoming US dates?

Neil: For our tour our repertoire runs through stirring British classics to favourite movie themes and classical music. Want a touch of Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust, followed up by the theme from James Bond, a flirtation with Star Wars and a little space travel with Holst’s Planets Suite? Yep, we do that. This brass band from the Welsh Valleys will send you into orbit with its extraordinary virtuosity, showmanship and heartfelt emotion. 

AmeriCymru:  What is your most recent recording? Where can readers go to buy your music online?

Neil: One of our most recent recordings which I'm sure your readers will enjoy is Cory in Concert Volume 5. This will provide a good example of the vast and varied repertoire that a band such as Cory can perform. Visit www.worldofbrass.com to purchase or visit our Youtube page to view some live performances www.youtube.com/thecoryband1884

AmeriCymru:  Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

Neil:   First of all thank you for taking the time to find out more about us, please say hello on Facebook or Twitter and let us know what you think and please share this with your friends, family and communities. We really do want to make this a tour a success and are busy currently with a Crowdfunding campaign to raise the required funds to pay for those expensive transport costs. If you can help in any way we would really appreciate it and there are some excellent rewards if you do get involved, please visit our Crowdfunding page

We hope to see lots of you in February but for now you can say Hello on:

We are proud to offer, as part of our Eisteddfod competitions at the North American Festival of Wales (NAFOW), the David G. Morris Memorial Competition for Solo Voice.  This is our signature competition, with the opportunity to win a cash scholarship ($3,500 US) for travel to compete in the 2016 National Eisteddfod of Wales.

This year’s David Morris Competition will be held Saturday, September 5, at the Hyatt Regency Columbus. It is open to singers (residents of the Americas) with some professional training, but whose income is derived only partially from performing. Several David Morris winners have gone on to great success in competing in Wales, including a first-place winner at the 2012 National Eisteddfod in Vale of Glamorgan More information can be found on the attached flyer.

Each competitor is required to sing two pieces from memory (contrasted selections drawn from art song, oratorio or operatic repertoire), at least one of which must be in Welsh.  (Competitors should note that participation in the National Eisteddfod of Wales will involve singing in Welsh.)

The NAFOW Eisteddfod entry form, including further details on the David Morris competition, is available here:  http://www.nafow.org/WNAA_NAFOW/PDFs/Forms/forms2015/eisteddfod_entry_2015.pdf . Entries must be received by August 20, 2015

For further information on this extraordinary opportunity, please contact us at any time (email: eisteddfod@nafow.org ; phone: 412-215-9161 ).