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After the success of our first double book launch event at the Roath Park pub in Cardiff earlier in October, we bring you our new monthly reading event Picnic featuring guest readers published by Parthian and our friends and a spoken word open mic. This month's debut event features poet and novelist Rhian Elizabeth, essayist Dylan Moore and poet and fiction writer Mari Ellis Dunning. Free entry. 18+ Sign up for the open mic on the night, first come, first served. The open mic will be split across both halves of the evening, interspersed with the guests. Parthian books will also be on sale.

Our intern Ann went to the Edinburgh International Book Festival to represent Parthian Books. In this blogpost she describes her experience of the festival and gives a brief summary of the insightful discussion between authors Karmele Jaio (Her Mother's Hands) and Brian Conaghan (The Weight of a Thousand Feathers) on their books about children who must take care of their parents.

Don’t miss this last minute opportunity to enter the PENfro writing competitions. 

The PENfro Book Festival is now in its eighth year and the popularity of our writing competitions continues to grow. Entering competitions, daring to dip your toe into the water and compete with others, encourages writers to hone and develop their work. The benefits are obvious. Not only might you win a nice cash prize, or – better still – some professional editorial help, but you’re also taking steps to put your work out into the world. Whether it’s a poem, a play or the beginnings of a novel, entering a competition is great way to honour your work.

This year they have three writing competitions: their ever-popular poetry competition, a first chapter competition and a short radio drama competition. 

The extended deadlines are: First chapter to July 29, poetry and radio drama till 15 August. Enter via the web site: https://penfrobookfestival.org.uk

'Writers and poets from across the globe were celebrating tonight (Thursday 19 July) as the 2018 Authors’ Awards were announced by the Society of Authors at a ceremony at RIBA. Hosted by Stephen Fry with an introduction by the President of the SoA, Philip Pullman, eight awards were presented to 31 writers with a host of debut names joining recognised writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry to share a prize fund of £98,000.'

From left: Betty Trask Prize 2018 winner Omar Robert Hamilton, and Betty Trask Award 2018 winners Lloyd Markham, Eli Goldstone, Sarah Day and Clare Fisher (photographer: Tom Pilston)

Full story on the SoA website

Congratulations to Lloyd Markham for his Betty Trask Award and to all the other winners and thanks to the Society of Authors for hosting an enjoyable Summer Party!

Gary Raymond’s mystery set in Cyprus, The Golden Orphans, was released earlier this summer, and it has already garnered much attention and acclaim. Most recently, the Spectator’s crime fiction expert Jeff Noon reviewed the novel and wrote that “It’s a brilliant concept” and that the novel is “intense, unnerving and brilliant.” The Golden Orphans begins when the old painter Francis Benthem dies and the narrator, an artist himself and an old friend of Benthem’s, arrives in Cyprus to attend his funeral. Short on money and good fortune, the narrator agrees to take on Benthem’s job working for the Russian gangster...