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'For me the festival began on the Friday evening, with the Poetry Showcase – an opportunity to hear from a wide range of poets, including some I’d never heard before. I was laughing out loud at Rhian Elizabeth’s poems, from her newly published book The Last Polar Bear on Earth, but equally impressed by the more subtle work in Rhys Owain Williams’ collection That Lone Ship and the surreal world of Norse mythology in Ross Cogan’s Bragr. It was also good to hear again from Elizabeth Parker, Claire Williamson and Mari Ellis Dunning, all of whom I have heard before.' ...

The monumental Welsh classic Border Country by Raymond Williams has been translated into Italian for the first time. We're thrilled to see Welsh literature cross borders like that!

As she prepares to release her debut poetry collection the last polar bear on earth, Rhian will be writing a daily blog for us across September about her writing and her life, so here's an interview to get you all introduced...

There is clearly a lot going on in your poetry, what influenced you to write?

I know. It’s because there’s a lot going on in my head! What first influenced me to write in general is what still influences me to write now – it’s not any sort of influence as such, just the need to write. I’ve always written about things that I’m going through that are difficult. I’m not good at talking about my feelings so I write them down instead. In my first book I fictionalised growing up, being a teenager, the death of my father, friendships, music. This poetry collection is all about me having Multiple Sclerosis, being a mother, being gay, being in and getting over a violent relationship, making mistakes.

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.

If there’s one feeling I left the Eisteddfod with, it was pleasantness. There wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before, no new Welsh custom I was unaware of, no flashy cultural ritual that demanded my attention. Just thousands of people with regard for one another. And maybe that’s noteworthy unto itself.