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Meic Stephens was one of the most influential Welsh writers in English, who passed away at the age of 79. He was born in Trefforest in Pontypridd to Arthur Stephens (a power station worker) and Alma Stephens. His career held such a variety, from journalism in Cardiff to joining the newly designated Wales Arts Council in 1967, in which he was a literary director for 23 years. With no background in arts administration, Meic established his own publishing imprint, Triskel Press, then in 1965, he launched Poetry Wales. With the success of his editorship, Poetry Wales became the “second flowering”...

Kate Noakes' seventh poetry collection The Filthy Quiet launched at The Poetry Cafe in London on World Poetry Day this week, with an appreciative audience of poets and poetry lovers and flowing Côtes du Rhône. Mark Blayney (Loud Music Makes you Drive Faster) and Susie Wild (Better Houses) brought both filth and quiet in their support sets before the queen of the night, Kate Noakes, read from her deeply personal autobiographical new collection to much applause and subsequent book sales and signings. The Filthy Quiet explores the pain of losing a long-built life and the joys of exploring a new one. This...

The Thirty-First Annual Conference of the Association for Welsh Writing in English Friday 10 – Sunday 12 May 2019, Gregynog Hall, Newtown. This conference invites contributions that engage with questions about mental and emotional lives across the full range of the English-language literature of Wales. There is a call for papers to be submitted that surround the issue of mental health and wellbeing and the study of Welsh writing in English into such discussions that are the essence of humanity. Alongside this recent growth in scholarship on mental health and cognitive/neurological diversity, Ingeborg Jandl et al. argue in their 2017 volume Writing Emotions that...

When I was asked to join the Parthian team for The London Book Fair I was elated. I had never been to London, let alone the renowned book fair. Stepping through the doors of the Olympia I was greeted with the stock market of publishing, it was filled with stands, agents and publishers, it was overwhelming, to say the least. Wales at London Book Fair stand was a combination of members from Welsh publishers, Literature Wales, Literature Across Frontiers, Wales Arts Council and more. I was shocked to find out how recent the Welsh stand had been included in the book fair but was...