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Seren News - January 2013
Happy New Year!
Have you made any New Year resolutions? If, like us at Seren, those new resolutions havent quite gone to plan, lets all make one promise together: 'In 2013, we'll read good quality books!
And you dont have to look much further than the Seren forthcoming titles list . Seren fiction starts 2013 with a headlong dive into the tricky but hugely enjoyable world of the short story, with The Scattering - a scintillating first collection from acclaimed Irish author and playwright Jaki McCarrick (March) followed by All the Souls , a haunting collection of tales set in Wales and Brittany, from Aberystwyth author Mary-Ann Constantine (April). Watch out for a wonderful first novel from Francesca Rhydderch (May). Set in Hong Kong in the second World War and post war-West Wales, The Rice Paper Diaries is a story of war told from the edges, and the havoc it wreaks on individual lives.
Seren poetry titles for the first half of 2013 include: Marianne Burton's beautifully intelligent first collection, She Inserts the Key ; a second collection from London-based American poet Kathryn Maris, God Loves You , in which she pointedly subverts religious clich while borrowing formats and tones from scripture.
Other News
 | Congratulations to two Seren poets on their recent appointments. Judy Brown is the 2013 Poet in Residence for the Wordsworth Trust. Judy won the prestigious Manchester Poetry Prize and her first collection Loudness , was shortlisted for the Forward Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection in 2011 and the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. As well as her own work, Judy will be involved in the contemporary literature programme, running the monthly Dove Cottage Poets group, mentoring local poets and acting as a judge in the 2013 Michael Marks Awards. Judy will move into the Wordsworth Trust site in January and her first public appearance as Poet in Residence will be on 26th January, at the Arts and Book Festival. She will offer a Beginners Poetry Workshop and, later, read from her work. |
 | Also, poet Rhian Edwards was recently awarded the Writer in Residency position at Aberystwyth Arts Centre from March to June 2013. Her debut collection Clueless Dogs was shortlisted for the Forward Prize Best First Collection 2012. Rhian also won the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry 2011/12. |
Beyond the Pampas: In Search of Patagonia by Imogen Rhia Herrad is Waterstones Welsh Book of the Month (Jan 2013). Beyond the Pampas is an entrancing and highly unusual account of a journey to the ends of the earth in search of a dream. Imogen Herrad sets off in search of the descendents of the nineteenth century colony of Welsh settlers in Patagonia, in the deep south of Argentina, and discovers that Welsh-speaking communities, proud of their heritage, still exist there today. She also discovers a country and a way of life hugely different from her European experience.
You can order your copy from the Seren website now .
Tony Conran (1931-2013)
We were saddened to have the news of the death of Tony Conran, at the age of 81. Poet, translator, dramatist, teacher and literary commentator, much of Tony's fifty plus year career was spent at the centre, or perhaps the interface would be a better word, of English and Welsh language cultures. Though he was never afraid to ask the awkward question, or to follow a difficult argument, he was a generous teacher, collaborator and person. His translations from Welsh poetry stretching over a thousand years were landmarks, and testimony to his ability to empathise with writers and writing across centuries of differing experiences and conditions. Tony's own poetry was often demanding, sometimes almost mesmerising in its craft and conviction. He was able to take poetry to more places than most poets in the second half of the twentieth century, as those whose starting point was his truly memorable Elegy for the Welsh Dead, killed in the Falkland Islands would quickly discover. A distinctive writer and critic, his intelligent contribution to the literary life of Wales will be missed.
Forthcoming Titles
| Newspaper Taxis: Poetry After the Beatles (Ed) Phil Bowen, Damian Furniss and David Woolley 9.99 Pbk You know they caused a revolution - 50 years ago the Beatles transformed the face of music, youth, and popular culture. In January 1963 their single 'Please, Please Me' shot to number one, heralding the start of both Beatlemania and the swinging sixties. In the next few years the Beatles wrote the template for pop music. Their songs defined popular culture at a time when it was inspiring social change in Europe and North America, and this book collects poems that both respond to the music and to their influence on the way we lived then and the way we live now. Literally hundreds of millions of people around the world have listened to, and loved, the Beatles' music. Their impact on musicians, writers, film-makers and ordinary people has been simply, enormous. With contributions from a myriad of poets, young and old, including Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy, Elaine Feinstein, Peter Finch, Adrian Henri, Philip Larkin, Lachlan Mackinnon, Roger McGough, Sheenagh Pugh, Jeremy Reed and Carol Rumens, this book is a response to the Beatles' creativity and capacity to influence successive generations. |
Meet the Author
Wednesday 23rd January 2013, 7pm: Rhian Edwards reading from her debut poetry collection Clueless Dogs at the Word 4 Word National Theatre of Wales, Clwb y Bont, 85a Taff Street, Town Centre, Pontypridd, CF37 4SL
Thursday 18th January 2013, 1pm: Art Lunchtime Talk with Tony Curtis, who will be discussing Jonah Jones and the image of writing at the National Museum of Wales.
Thursday 7th February 2013, 7.30pm: First Thursday literary evenings at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff. We celebrate the release of the anthology Newspaper Taxis: Poetry After the Beatles . Editors Phil Bowen and David Woolley will read a select few poems. Also poets featured in the anthology will be reading, including Rhian Edwards.
Sunday 10th February 2013, 12-3.30pm: Self-Portrait with a Pen: themed writing workshop for Coffee-House Poetry at the Troubadour, Earls Court London.
We were sad to see Robin Grossmann, who was editorial assistant for Poetry Wales magazine, leave his post at the beginning of January. Robin is now working at University Wales Press, and we wish him all the best in his new role.
What are the Seren staff up to?
Penny has been trying and failing to avoid the sales. Still no Kindle, but print purchases of The Beloved by Toni Morrison and Midnight's Children , from Burway Books, an independent bookshop based in Church Stretton.
Victoria is detoxing from the festive period and has banned chocolate from the office. Shes also been visiting the Liberty Stadium to watch Swansea, and is eagerly awaiting the 2nd leg of the Capital One Cup game against Chelsea.
Simon has been listening to Beach House, Tame Impala, Grizzly Bear, The Flaming Lips and Do the Pop: Australian Garage-Rock 1976-87 (3 vols).
2013 has been full of new beginnings for Rebecca as she has taken up the role of Editorial Assistant at Robin's departure as well as continuing to work on subscriptions and marketing for Poetry Wales. She also took up the trapeze this month and hopes to fly by the end of the year! She is currently reading: Gossip from the Forest by Sara Maitland and Collages by Anais Nin.
Amy has dived headfirst into 2013, after flu-detour in the first week. Christmas gifts included 'pocket' leather edition of Poems from Keats and Shelley selected by Sidney Carleton Newsom: teacher of English in the manual training High School, Indianapolis, Indiana, and published by Macmillan, New York, 1923. New Year's Resolution: Carry Keats/Shelley for a week instead of ubiquitous digital devices, consult instead of 'twitter'.
Mick has had a sombre start to his reading in 2013, catching up with Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Patrick Suskind's Perfume . Suggestions for jollier reading welcomed!
Clancy is currently listening to a lot of Welsh language rock/pop from the late 20th century whilst writing and researching her book on the Sin Roc Gymraeg (Welsh Rock Scene) to be published by Seren next year. She has just finished reading Luke Haines hilarious memoir Post Everything and is now revisiting The Great Gatsby and wishing she was at one of his fabulous parties instead of looking out of the window at the snow.
Poem of the Month
Thirteen in Sixty-Three
We were all thirteen in sixty-three.
Profumo and a Russian spy using the same Marylebone mews.
After Love Me Do came Please Please Me.
From Me to You soon to be MBE.
The man in the mask. Christine Keeler in the news.
We were all thirteen in sixty-three.
Staying up late with TW3.
Stephen Ward picking up the tab the Establishments dues.
After Love Me Do came Please Please Me.
Harold Wilsons white heat of technology.
Macmillan in the mud on the grousemoor in his trews.
We were all thirteen in sixty-three.
Jack Kennedys Promised Land across the sea
From an island full of noises; John Lennon had lit the fuse.
After Love Me Do came Please Please Me.
The Shrimps dress four inches above the knee!
One of the great train robbers on the boat to Santa Cruz.
We were all thirteen in sixty-three.
After Love Me Do came Please Please Me.
Phil Bowen
Taken from the forthcoming anthology Newspaper Taxis: Poetry After The Beatles
