Art RSS

Nazma Ali- The Life and Work of a Natural Artist by Cerys-Leigh Phipps  Being raised by her Pakistani mother with her six siblings in South Wales, Nazma has always found inspiration for her art. She describes her art style as extremely abstract, as she draws the majority of her inspiration from her imagination mixed with nature, in whichever form it finds her. Growing up in an overly grey Newport, Nazma recounts on how she would be able to find the smallest glimmers of colourful nature and how she grew these glimmers into artistic creations in later years. From seeing the newly...

The writer and artist Brenda Chamberlain lived on the Greek islands during the 1960s. This week, the writer and traveller Brenda Squires visited Ydra and helped with Parthian’s international distribution by calling into the bookshop and newsagents on Odoz N. Votsi street just up from the harbour with a few copies of Brenda Chamberlain’s memoir of island life A Rope of Vines: A Journal from a Greek Island, first published in 1965, now republished in the Library of Wales series. Brenda Squires, also an artist, has been working on a series of paintings of contemporary island life in her journal of...

After a successful debut at the Hay Winter Weekend 2017, Wales Book of the Year 2017 (Non-Fiction) winner Peter Lord is touring his new show 'A History of Welsh Art in 12 or 13 Pictures' across Wales in 2018. See him at the following venues and festivals: 8 April: Melville Centre, Abergavenny 11.30am, £8 6 June: Llansteffan Festival 27 June: Treorchy Arts Festival 13-15 July: Gwyl Arall 27 August: Presteigne Festival With many more to be announced. If you are interested in booking Peter for this talk which can be performed in Welsh, English or bilingually please contact susie@parthianbooks.com Buy The...

Congratulations to Alys Conran (Pigeon) and Peter Lord (The Tradition) who have both had their latest books shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2017, as announced on BBC Radio Wales this morning.

The Wales Book of the Year Award, administered by Literature Wales, is presented to the best Welsh-language and English-language works first published in the preceding year in the fields of creative writing and literary criticism in three categories: Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction. 

The Short List comprises of three books in each of the following categories in both Welsh and English: Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction.

The English-language poetry category, sponsored by The Brecknock Society is entitled The Roland Mathias Poetry Award. The English-language fiction category is sponsored by The Rhys Davies Trust, and is entitled The Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award. The English-language judging panel this year are: award-winning author Tyler Keevil; Senior Lecturer Dimitra Fimi and the Costa Poetry Prize winner Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards said: 'This shortlist offers a real celebration of just how exciting, vibrant and diverse literature in Wales currently is. There are books here for everyone: poetry collections which are novelistic in their scope and ambition, novels whose innovations in language might be traditionally expected of poetry. There are biographies which don't so much show you a life as let you amble round in a world, reference books which can put six centuries on your coffee table. To be part of the announcement of this list is to be proud to be Welsh; the country which moved these writers to such astonishing achievement.'

Lleucu Siencyn, Chief Executive of Literature Wales said: 'It’s one of the literary highlights of the year, and we at Literature Wales have been filled with excitement for the release of this year's Short List. With the announcement taking place during Libraries Week, we hope that readers will head to their local library to seek out these wonderful titles to enjoy the wealth and variety of modern Welsh literature. Readers will travel from the shadow of slate mountains to 60s London; they’ll be lost at sea; they’ll experience the pain of radiation therapy; will learn about the history of Welsh art, and journey through themes of loss, myth and memory.'

The winners of this prestigious award will be announced at an Award Ceremony held in The Tramshed, Cardiff on the evening of Monday 13 November, where a total prize fund of £12,000 is up for grabs. Each category winner will receive a prize of £1,000, and the main award winners in each language will receive an additional £3,000. Each winner will also receive a specially commissioned trophy created by the artist Angharad Pearce Jones. Tickets for the Award Ceremony are £6 and can be purchased online from http://tramshedcardiff.com.

At the Award Ceremony both the People’s Choice Award and Gwobr Barn y Bobl (the Welsh-language people’s prize) will also be presented to the reading public’s favorite title from the Short List. Visit Wales Arts Review to vote for your favorite English-language title.