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With his new novel Hummingbird out in hardback this month, Tristan Hughes is our Author of the Month for May 2017.

Hughes has published various novels, three of which are set on Anglesey, Wales: The Tower (2004), Send My Cold Bones Home (2006) and Revenant (2008), each reflecting his interest in the landscape and history of the island. His fourth, Eye Lake (2012) turns attentions to northern Ontario. In his latest novel, Hummingbird (2017), Hughes braves through the Canadian wilderness: familiarising the landscape of his youth in a poetic coming-of-age story about death, life, and the changes they bring.

I’m feeling something deeper too. A fizz in my stomach, a slight edge of fear. It suddenly doesn’t feel that long since my Dad died. I wonder —in the off way people who do not believe in the afterlife might wonder—if my Dad will hear me reading about him. If he’d be happy to fill the room with me, if our voice will carry.

I hope so. Because at the very least, I want him to be proud. The same way he was proud to see my first poem published in a school anthology. I remember him saying that he didn’t understand it but that it looked nice on the page, neat and important.

And, for those of us still alive, I hope this collection will help to start a conversation too. One about loss or addiction or fathers. I hope the poems will offer a small, collective invitation to peer into the dark things in life and talk about them.

For those interested, please do come along to one of my national launches, readings or events and say ‘hello’. Let’s get this conversation going.

'Moonlight washes across the entire, exposed landscape of this poetry collection. The ‘white eye’ orbits from the first page to the last, with a quiet, ancient glint amid the frail unfolding of melancholy lives. Swansea-born writer Natalie Ann Holborow levels the lunar gaze onto a sudden first kiss, violence at a party, memories of past love, wretchedly drunken taxi rides, and a bundle of other tender, inflamed moments. Each is conjured in imagery that aches.'

'And Suddenly You Find Yourself is somehow both meticulous and raw, as if Holborow has mulled infinitely on how best to describe the act of stripping us to our simplest selves.

[...]

'Shoot for the moon? Holborow has landed, roamed its face, dipped into the craters, and gathered an armful of stars while up there.'

Sophie Baggott reviews Natalie Ann Holborow's debut poetry collection And Suddenly You Find Yourself for Wales Arts Review.

Alys Conran is based in North Wales, where she writes fiction and poetry. Her debut novel Pigeon is one of 6 books by writers aged 39 and under shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize 2017. 'An exquisite novel by a great new writer' – M.J Hyland   Last year a Welsh language adaptation of Pigeon (Pijin by Sian Northey) was published at the same time as the English original. This year Pigeon will be released in India by Bee Books. Alys Conran's short fiction has been placed in the Bristol Short Story Prize and the Manchester Fiction Prize. She completed her MA in Creative Writing at Manchester, graduating with distinction,...

Booker prize short-listed author M J Hyland  read Alys Conran's first novel Pigeon as a proof for Parthian a year ago. She considered it 'An exquisite novel by a great new talent.' Today it been included on the short-list of six for the Dylan Thomas Award. It has been widely reviewed in Wales in both the English and Welsh media as a ground-breaking novel about the power of language, identity and Wales. Alys Conran recently took part in a Free Word event at the the London Bookfair focusing on how writers from the margins can engage with readers and writers. And asking...