Search results for ""parthian""

A collection about the fluidity of time and place, Rebel Sun charts our gradual unraveling; the compulsion to transform and shape-shift, to slowly unwind roots from the earth - grow fin and feather, know water and sky.Michael Sheen performed a poem Sophie McKeand had written for the 50th Anniversary of the Abarfan Disaster at Wales Millennium Centre in 2016:http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/michael-sheen-gives-moving-recital-12018594.Following the success of our crowdfunder for Cawl by Sion Tomos Owen in 2016, this is our next crowdfunder in 2017. Support this project here. Sophie McKeand is a mesmerising performer and TED talker. She has gigged regularly across the UK and will make videos and offer some very special perks for those wanting to pledge their support.

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In these poems, women raise their voices and subvert the age-old tales told on their behalf: Roman goddess Salacia explores her tumultuous relationship with Neptune; Gwen Ellis, the first woman hanged for witchcraft in Wales, reflects on her impending fate; a Queen bee is usurped by her daughter and depression visits in the emaciated form of an old and forgotten friend.

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FROM THE AUTHOR OF A VAN OF ONE'S OWN When Biddy Wells's elderly mother is suddenly struck down with a mysterious illness, Biddy moves her into the spare bedroom, little knowing how long the period of convalescence will last. Through the months that follow, the two women have to re-inhabit the close domestic proximity that they'd abandoned decades before and learn how to co-exist within a tangled web of emotional need, resentment and dependence. Eventually, Biddy manages to find a supported flat that's ideal for her mother. She settles quickly and, abandoning her morbidly stoic outlook on life, falls passionately in love with another resident. Biddy can only watch from the sideline as her mother embarks on an unlikely romance. Told with humour, wry insight, and refreshing honesty, Scrabble in the Afternoon examines the complicated, frustrating and ultimately rewarding story of how a daughter can come to terms with caring wholeheartedly for a mother. It also shows how a mother and daughter relationship can change and develop as life continues to offer fresh challenges and joys.

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"Portugal is not all that far away, or exotic, or dangerous, but it felt like a huge stretch for me to leave my partner, family, job and home and just go off. An overland solo trip lasting months in an ancient little campervan was not the kind of thing I did. But it was something I was about to do."In her debut memoir A Van of One's Own, Biddy Wells tells the story of how, propelled by a thirst for peace and quiet, for a modest adventure and, perhaps, for freedom, she left for Portugal on her own, with only her old campervan, Myfawny, and her GPS, Tanya, for company. Having left just about everything behind, her solo trip forces her to face her fears, her past, and herself. The road provides the perfect canvas to connect the dots between a past breakdown and her present need for freedom, as she reflects on her own life, her relationship, her family and the world around her - to see whether her life still has room for her in it. As she meets wise and not-so- wise people, members of the campervan community and friendly locals, her outlook on life begins to shift, and a chance meeting in a bar leads to the person who will put her on the right track.But will she go back home, to Wales?And what is the meaning of 'home? 'A Van of One's Own is a journey through the breath-taking scenery of France, Spain, and finally Portugal, populated by colourful characters and the roar of the ocean, the taste of fresh fish and the grind of the asphalt; but more importantly, it is a journey through past memories and present conflicts to inner peace.

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For around twenty years, Nick Fisk believed that one day he would find a letter on his doormat from Cardiff City FC requesting his services on the football pitch. When he realised it was unlikely he was ever going to be offered the role of groundsman, he decided the next best thing would be to write about the club instead. A former member of the not especially notorious non-hooligan gang, The Sad Crew, Fisk has plenty of experience to draw from, in terms of going to football matches, and coming up with ridiculous chants that nobody ever joins in with. In The Blues Are Back in Town Nick charts the 2014/15 season, following the team and its fans, and trying to rediscover his passion for the recently relegated club, while at the same time, reflecting on the good old days. The blog he kept, The Fisk Report, gave an insight into not just what it's like to be a typical fan, but what supporting The Bluebirds is like through the eyes of a Fisk. It is a funny, enigmatic and personal book about the passion and belief of being a football fan.

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With passion, humour and remarkable insight Gwyn Thomas captures the world of South Wales in the 1830s during the turbulent years of the Merthyr and Newport Risings. As the newly-built foundries enter their first decline, a travelling harpist from the rural north arrives in one of the new towns to find his friends caught in a fiercely-fought industrial dispute, a dispute which quickly spirals out of control. A powerful and sweeping novel by one of Wales's great literary figures, 'All Things Betray Thee', tells the epic story of a people, their joys and victories, but also their sorrows and defeats.

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At the heart of Dai Country - the central valleys of twentieth-century South Wales from the 1930s to the 1970s - was the metropolis of Pontypridd, and it is from this vantage point in time and space that Alun Richards cast his baleful eye on the personal relationships and social ambitions of the inhabitants of this much-fabled country. In this compendium volume, the best of his short stories, as funny and savage as they are scathing and compassionate, are combined with his entrancing autobiographical memoir "Days of Absence" to take us to the core of those incomparable valleys, with their lived experience stripped bare for once of their usual cloak of cliche and sentiment.

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An experiment into the sources of the human brain through the mind of a young woman has gone horribly wrong. She has seen the great god Pan and will die giving birth to a daughter. Twenty years later feted society hostess Helen Vaughan becomes the source of much fevered speculation. Many men are infatuated with her beauty, but great beauty has a price, sometimes you have to pay with the only thing you have left. The Great God Pan was a sensation when first published in 1894. Its author, Arthur Machen, was a struggling unknown writer living in London. He had translated Casanova's memoirs and was living on a small inheritance. He immediately became one of the most talked-about writers of the last years of the nineteenth century, while the publication marked the start of his ongoing influence on modern fantasy and horror. Machen's dark imaginings of the reality behind ancient beliefs feature again in the acclaimed, mesmerising short story 'The White People' and the curious tale 'The Shining Pyramid', also in this volume.

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One of Merthyr's Victorian brickyard girls, Saran watches the world parade past her doorstep on the banks of the stinking and rat-infested Morlais Brook: the fair-day revellers; the chapel-goers and the funeral processions. She never misses a trip to the town's wooden theatres, despite her life ruled by the 5 a.m. hooter, pit strikes, politics and the First World War that takes away so many of her children. Her Glyn will work a treble shift for beer money; her brother Harry is the district's most notorious drinker and fighter until he is 'saved'. The town changes and grows but Saran is still there for Glyn, for Harry, for her children and grandchildren. In his 1935 novel "Black Parade", writer, soldier and political activist Jack Jones creates a superbly riotous, clear and unsentimental picture of Merthyr life as his home town reels headlong into the twentieth century.

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The Alone to the Alone unites Gwyn Thomas's lyrical and philosophical flights of narrative in a satire whose savagery is only relieved by irrepressible laughter. It is Gwyn Thomas' most shaped work: the underlying meaning of South Wales' history is not so much documented as laid bare for universal dissection and dissemination. The novel, with its distinctive plural narration, is a choric commentary on human illusion and knowledge, on power and its attendant deprivation, on dreams and their destruction.

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In Phenomena (translated from the Latvian, Paradibas) Eduards Aivars' wry observations transform the mundanity of the everyday into words of quiet, thought-provoking beauty. Following his innovative principle of composition, the collection features many poems with long, expositional titles, which then culminate in a select few words, for example, 'The sad tale of the long-anticipated air pump', or 'The intense, but fleeting urge for domesticity and commitment'. Aivars talks about people, love and the life of a poet in this witty, reflective and unique collection. Phenomena is part of the 'Parthian Baltic' project. The project was launched at the Parthian poetry festival at the Wheatsheaf and the London Book Fair 2018 (focus region: Baltics).

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Ausra Kaziliunaite's poetry has been described as `post-avant-garde'; she is unafraid to shock readers with her surreal, ugly-beautiful imagery, alternative form, and regular resistance to the rigidity of social norms. In The Moon is a Pill, a collection of the best of Ausra's poetry, translated by Rimas Uzgiris, the reader discovers the extent of the poet's social engagement, mixed with a swirl of psychedelia through an existential lens. As she walks around her city, questioning God, stalked by an abandoned stuffed bird, finding a grubby child in an egg, searching for answers in bus stops and windows, her writing is intimate and personal, yet never reassuring, never fluffy, and often with a quiet nod to the complex political past of her country: who can stop you from writing what you want?/ we must understand that his times were those of censorship/ we now live in a greenhouse like some kind of tomato... from `Freedom'. The Moon is a Pill is part of the Parthian Baltic project which will be launched on time for the London Book Fair 2018. The poetry collections were launched at the Wheatsheaf Parthian Poetry Festival in April 2018.

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Translated by Marta Ziemelis Narcoses (translated from the Latvian Narkozes) is a collection of fresh, powerfully feminine and open poetry, never derivative nor contrived, but inspired by Gruntmane's direct and honest personal experience. Full of life and love, joy, and pain, Narcoses is written with keen psychological insight and a courageous amount of self-awareness, to establish an intimacy and trust between poet and reader. Narcoses is part of the 'Parthian Baltic' project. The project was launched at the Parthian poetry festival at the Wheatsheaf and the London Book Fair 2018 (focus region: Baltics).

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Marius Burokas' collection for Parthian, Now I Understand, translated and selected by Rimas Uzgiris, reveals the unbreakable connection he feels with Vilnius, as well as the comfort he finds within literature: books are my/ paths/ and garden/my shelter /and clinic.

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Censored in Latvia until 2003 Translated by Jayde Will. Originally written in 1967 and not released in its uncensored form until 2003, Bels’s infamous novel, Insomnia, has become a classic of Cold War writing and continues to exert a major influence over Latvian literature. The story is filtered through the thoughts, emotions and fantasies of the main character, a man of detachment who is content to observe his fellow tenants and the wider world around him from the tired luxury of his apartment and daily routines. When a young woman, fleeing some unknown threat and in desperate need of help, comes into his orbit, he’s forced out of this inertia and into the active role of protector. There begins a quest which, for both of them, has the power to jolt them into a new way of being and living. This edition contains the official transcripts of the investigative reports regarding the banning of the book, as well as a statement by Bels himself. Translated from the Latvian by Jayde Will. Insomnia is part of the Parthian Baltic project which was launched on time for the London Book Fair 2018. The poetry collections were launched at the Wheatsheaf Parthian Poetry Festival in April 2018.

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One of the great novel sequences of the British working-class people framed in the valleys and coal-mining villages of south Wales in the early decades of the twentieth century.

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The poems in Natalie Ann Holborow's Little Universe are an exploration of tumultuous human emotions and nature's ever-present rhythms.

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A music scholar makes an unlikely friend in a retired sea captain. In the trenches in WW1 France, a soldier befriends a young Tommy before they both go over the top. A poet uses sumptuous imagery to take us on a journey from summer to autumn.

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Stories in The Missing Woman circle around women who are either literally missing or who are missing some metaphorical piece of themselves. Burns asks questions about balance - safety with adventure - dreams with practicality - grief with joy - and challenges the reader to take a journey, make choices...

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Wiltshire 1860: One year after Darwin's explosive publication of The Origin of Species, sisters Anna and Beatrice Pentecost awaken to a world shattered by science, radicalism and the stirrings of feminist rebellion; a world of charismatic religious movements, Spiritualist seances, bitter loss and medical trauma.

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Dream On is a black comedy, a flashlight noir thriller, a meditation on the lives and stories that connect up the frayed wires in the business of living.

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Tapestry of a Desert Nomad brings together a selection of amateur naturalist and austringer Eric Morrisey's reflections -on flora and fauna, his own roots in the Welsh Valleys, and world events...

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A serial killer is on the loose in a sleepy, Welsh seaside town. The year is 1947 and three young men have recently been demobbed. They share the favours of Lilian Ridetski, who runs more than a high class hair salon in the town. When she and others are found brutally strangled, suspicion falls on all of her customers.

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Disappearances, displacements, separations: Anna Lewis's startling first collection is populated with characters who move through the liminal space between departure and arrival.

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It all begins in a small town in Belgium on the morning of the festival of St. Woelfred. There are dead fish scattered everywhere, blown in by the wind. Are the fish a sign from the saint or a trick played by Contexture, the dance group who once got naked at the Vatican? The lives of six people who live in the town are about to be changed forever

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A collection of short stories and poetry by twelve writers from around the world on the theme 'After Dark'.

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Intends to translate the mystery of Chimera into poetry and short fiction from experienced women writers. From the disgruntled serpent in the Garden of Eden to the reaches of outer space, from the bright lights of Hollywood to the coast of Kenya, this title features contributions that present an intrinsic vision of the writer's imagination.

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Twenty-first century women have it all. We can do what we want, when we want and with whom we want. Can't we? This book is a collection of life stories by women in their 20s to 70s. It is about how we live: our desires, discontents, ambitions and commitments.

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Features poems about settling, building and planting in a country where the author is a stranger. His chosen forms - lyric, ode, sonnet, eclogue, elegy, epithalamium - point to an engagement with British tradition.

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Features poetry of ten poets, each with an American background and an active, creative engagement with Wales. This title deals with the 'matter of Wales' and the 'matter' of being Welsh-American, developed through divergent poetics and perspectives. It features Jon Dressel, Denise Lever, William Greenway, and William Virgil Davies.

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Presents a comic drama, where four international experts converge at a luxurious Cardiff hotel to each bid to save a language on the verge of extinction. As personalities clash and opposites attract, the decision on which language should be saved becomes impossible to make.

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A collection of poetry, prose, visual art, and photography, this volume reflects the Cardiff-born author's unique style and use of language as he deals with themes such as war, hijacking and suicide, and drugs and pop music.

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This volume includes the plays Little Sister, Giant Steps, and Killing Kangaroos."

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Men Alone is a meditative vision from a unique voice that explores the many often confounding permutations of modern masculinity

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When a local common is threatened with development, one poet explores its secrets, discovering extraordinary natural treasures and wonderful people fighting to defend them. Can they save this uncommon common?

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This collection brings together leading voices from female writers, artists, commentators and academics to reflect on how devolution has affected them and altered our political and social landscapes. Here,a series of creative and personal responses explore the true impact of devolution on the lives of women living and working in Wales.

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Set in Zimbabwe during the early 2000s, amidst a backdrop of political turmoil, Fox Bites is a dark coming-of-age horror fantasy about pain, loneliness, and stepping back from the abyss.

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Texts from Gorwelion will be made available as digital contributions to events at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties COP26 in Glasgow, 1-12 November 2021, representing voices from the UK and India in uniting the world to tackle climate change, where the book will also be launched and available to buy. * Produced in collaboration with Sustainable Wales/ Cymru Gynaliadwy Gorwelion follows on from Sustainable Wales' initial project 'Our Square Mile', created to help us imagine the future.

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These sensual stories by prize-winning author John Sam Jones reveal lucid prose and complex lives. Moving through city steam rooms, rugged North Wales mountains and estuaries facing other places. Risky sex, new romance and easy understanding, a mortgage on a semi or keeping a lid on it all for the sake family, status and belief...

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Gwyn Thomas was born, the last of twelve children, into a Rhondda mining family in 1913. After a childhood marked by the strikes of the 1920s, he went off to study Spanish at Oxford University and in Madrid, where he met the poet Federico Garcia Lorca and witnessed the turmoil which would lead to the Spanish Civil War. On his return, amidst the economic mire of the 1930s and his own burgeoning teaching career in Barry in the 1940s, he picked up his pen and began to write. For more than forty years, until his death in 1981, as novelist, screenwriter, master of the short story, and prizewinning playwright, Gwyn Thomas delivered compelling and comedic portraits of his world of South Wales. His creative genius earned enduring fame on both sides of the Atlantic and on both sides of the European Cold War divide. As a provocative and insightful broadcaster, he embraced the possibilities of radio and television, whilst leaving his hosts and guests alike in fits of knowing laughter. This landmark biography, enriched with unrivalled access to private papers and international archives, tells the remarkable story of one of modern Wales's greatest literary voices.

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Kisses Sweeter Than Wine is an honest and absorbing memoir from a man who has emerged as one of Wales’s major cultural figures. Boyd Clack is a man of many talents: a writer, actor, singer, musician, enthusiast, and with this first book picks apart a challenging upbringing in Tonyrefail, his wanderings to Australia, Amsterdam and London, and his experimentation as a young man with drink and drugs and love. This is Boyd’s story, told with candour and perception and skill that will absorb anyone interested in what it was to be young and Welsh – and are now older and maybe a little wiser. ‘Boyd is a brilliant actor and writer, truly unique, a genius by any definition of the word.’ – Rhys Ifans ‘I love Boyd’s unique take on life.’ – Rob Brydon “Awesome and hilarious... I cannot recommend this moving, truthful, funny and endearing roller coaster of a ride enough.” – Eve Myles

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A man's own story from the Rhondda. Jeffrey Weeks was born in the Rhondda in 1945, of mining stock. As he grew-up he increasingly felt an outsider in the intensely community minded valleys, a feeling intensified as he became aware of his gayness. Escape came through education. He left for London, to university, and to realise his sexuality. From the early 1970s he was actively involved in the new gay liberation movement and became its pioneering historian. This was the beginning of a long career as a researcher and writer on sexuality, with widespread national and international recognition. He has been described as the 'most significant British intellectual working on sexuality to emerge from the radical sexual movements of the 1970s'. His seminal book, Coming Out, a history of LGBT movements and identities since the 19th century, has been in print for forty years. He was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Jubilee Honours in 2012 for his contribution to the social sciences.

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In Windfalls, Wild writes of fruit blown down by the wind, of unexpected and unearned gains which renew the beauty and joy of life. Here flying trampolines disrupt trains, apples carpet gardens, the Balloon Girl rises and the red moon sinks. In a city of ups and downs the Handkerchief Tree rare-blooms, fists and knickers are flung, crestfallen angels consider dates, carnivores go hungry, wedding vows are made and a pandemic honeymoon is cancelled. These are also stories of heroines who fall or jump from pedestals, taking risks in a world that is often dangerous for women, but refusing to settle for the conventional. Wild continues to bring us her refreshingly slant world view, whether unpicking the domestic, the political or the environmental.

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This is his first full biography, describing the early years of the Blaenclydach grocer's son, his abhorrence of chapel culture , his bohemian years in Fitzrovia, his visit to the Lawrences in the south of France, his unremitting work ethic, his patrons, his admiration for the French and Russian writers who were his models, his love-hate relationship with the Rhondda, and above all, the dissembling that went into Print of a Hare's Foot (1969), an autobiographical beginning , which proves to be a most unreliable book from start to finish.

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A Fox in the Yard is a remarkable sequence of poems centred around an enduring and hard-earned sense of place, combined with a deep respect of the natural world, its mysteries and our perception of them.

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