Blogs

Splendid picture story in the Llanelli Star about the Ashburnham golf club ladies golf centenary dinner staged at Parc y Scarlets stadium.
Smashing picture story in the Llanelli Star about Llanelli Rotary Club's newest member - Cerith Owens, of Loud Applause Productions.

Subsequent research has established that the winner of this year's Portland Lovespoon is none other than JANE BUCH of Florida who purchased her tickets at this years North American Festival of Wales in Scranton P.A.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Jane and thank everyone who contributed to the West Coast Eisteddfod. If you were not the lucky winner this year fear not, 2013 is just around the corner and we will be announcing new and exciting plans as the WCE goes into its fifth year.

We would also like to express our deepest gratitude to Dave and Laura for their continued support and for creating such a unique and beautiful work of art. Special thanks are also due this year to Jen Delyth and Chris Chandler for their invaluable contributions.

The spoon this year has been the result of artistic collaboration across state and national boundaries and the result is little short of breathtaking. For pictures and a full account of the process please see David Western's Portland Lovespoon Blog

Howl Griff Fragile Diamond (album)
Release date: 15 October, 2012
Label: Dockrad Records
Catalogue No. Dockrad CD028
Distribution: Online iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp etc

Anglo-Welsh-American psychedelic rockers Howl Griff celebrate the Mon 15 Oct release of their album Fragile Diamond with an MPfree Fortnight.

Starting on that Monday, the band will allow one track per day to be downloaded free of charge for 10 minutes only. The time of free availability will be announced simultaneously on their Twitter feed http://twitter.com/HowlGriff and Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/HowlGriff .

Now it will be easier to check and send messages on AmeriCymru. Check out the new notification icon and message dropdown on the ning bar at the top of the page.

COMING SOON!!! A radical redesign of the blogging feature on AC. Watch this space for further details

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Reproduced with kind permission from David Western's Portland Lovespoon Blog

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Spoon Draw Coming!!

Due to a surge of last minute entries for the West Coast Eisteddfod 2012 lovespoon, we couldn't get the tickets ready in time for a draw during the actual event on Saturday night. Sorry about this delay!!! To everybody who is waiting to see if they have won, we are going to hold the draw tomorrow in downtown Portland. We will be selecting a person from the lunchtime crowd (completely at random) to make the draw and will film it so that everyone knows the draw is completely above board!!!

So the good news is: YOU"RE STILL IN WITH A CHANCE!!!

Stay tuned for the blog tomorrow announcing the winner and hopefully showing some pics from the event!

Hello America,

I enjoyed this year's crop of short stories very much, and I think the quality was more even than ever before, which made my job as judge really difficult. There was very little to choose between you all, and since the whole process is subjective and arbitrary I could have picked names out of a hat and come up with an equally valid list of winners. So do carry on writing if you're not in my top three this year; I've had some severe beatings from judges over the years and I've learnt to just get on with it and enjoy myself. Judges are nearly always morons, we all know that. Myself excepted, of course.

Since he came up with not one but two charming stories, New Shoes and Too Many TVs , I'm going to give the top prize to Thomas Morris. Good stuff, Thomas, and if you haven't been published before I would urge you to write some more stories with a view to presenting your work to a Welsh publisher; I would be happy to introduce you to a commissioning editor.

Second prize goes to Natalie Grigson for Compulsion , and third prize goes to Samantha Priestley for Driving Barefoot .

As for the rest of you, there wasn't a duffer among all the entries. Good luck to you all, and do carry on scribbling.

Adjudication by Peter Thabit Jones:-

Americymru Poetry Competition 2012

First prize: When You Smile You'll Be a Dog No More by Paul Steffan Jones

Second prize: Bourdon by Paul McMahon

Both will be published in THE SEVENTH QUARRY Swansea Poetry Magazine in February 2013, Issue 17.

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I enjoyed reading this years entries and I would like to also mention the following:

Edges by David Cooke

Vacancy Signs by Darrell Lindsay

Untitled poem by Meg Eden

16.7.12 by Coralie Donkers