News, readings, events
Weds. 11th September 2024, 12.00, Ebbw Vale Works Museum. Presentation of a copy of the Library of Wales edition of Shifts and a framed print of the cover to the museum. With Prof. Diana Wallace. Free but space is limited.
Sunday 8th September, 2024, 3.00 pm, Llansantffraid Church, near Talybont-on-Usk. Concert and poetry reading: Siegfried Sassoon & Henry Vaughan, with Martha Powell (harp) and others. EVENT SOLD OUT.
Wednesday 17th July, 2024, 7.30 pm, El Rincon Tapas Bar, 298 North Street, Bristol. 'Under the Red Guitar', poetry reading. EVENT SOLD OUT.
Saturday, 22 June, 2024, 1.00 - 3.00 pm, Cynon Valley Museum, Depot Road, Aberdare. Reading & discussion, focusing mainly on industrial/historical connections: short fiction from Brief Lives, the novel Shifts and some poetry.
Saturday 25 May, 2024, 1.00 - 3.00 pm. Book-ish Bookshop, 55a Frogmore Street, Abergavenny. Book-signing: Shifts and Brief Lives.
Wednesday 24th April 2024. 7.00pm. The Plaza, Port Talbot. Shifts: Welsh steel in literature, history and heritage'. readings and discussions, with Prof. Louise Miskell.
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8.30 pm Sat., 20th April 2024. Reading for the Vaughan Association's 29th Vaughan Colloquium, at the Old Rectory Hotel, Llangatwg, near Crughywel.
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Weds., 13th March 2024, 11.30 am. Reading, discussion, with Carly Holmes and Diana Wallace (chair), The Library (LRC) University of South Wales, Trefforest Campus, Pontypridd.
7.30pm Mon. 20th Nov. 2023Reading: Tiger Bay Poets, with Helen McSherry and open mic, at the Casablanca Club Cafe, Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff.
Weds. 15th Nov. 2023, 7.30 pm, Llangynidr Primary School. Lecture: 'A.J. Cronin and me'. For Llangynidr Open Forum.
A talk on Cronin's 1937 popular novel The Citadel and the 1938 film adaptation, and their alleged connections with the founding of the NHS.
Weds. 11th Oct. 2023, 7.00 pm. Reading: Counter-rhythms/Gwrth-rythmau, y Gaer, Brecon, with Paul Henry and Rhiannon Hooson. A poetry reading of work connected with the landscape around the Black Mountains and David Jones, to complement y Gaer's major exhibition of David Jones's artwork, Hill-rhythms/Rhythmau'r Bryniau.
Thurs. 5th Oct 2023, 6.30 pm, The Hours Bookshop & Cafe, Cathedral Close, Brecon. Book launch for the Library of Wales 2023 edition of Shifts, with a new Foreword by Diana Wallace. The author in conversation with Diana Wallace. Free admission
Reading: Poetry Upstairs, at the Melville Centre Abergavenny, Tuesday 12 September 2023, 7.00 pm, with Mike Jenkins and Liz Pearce. Bar. £5 entry.
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Readings and music: Parti Codi Arian y Gaer Big Benefit Bash, Weds. 26 July 2023, 7.00 pm, with Gareth Writer-Davies and music by Jane Williams. A fundraiser for future events at y Gaer, Brecon. In the Atrium, £5 entry with glass of wine.
Reading/concert: 'Starlight Order', Sunday 16th July 2023. 4.00 pm, at Llansantffraid Church, near Talybont, Powys. Readings from The Sleeping Lord and In Parenthesis by David Jones, with Hilary Davies (reading and introducing), and Martha Powell (harp).
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Reading: Wednesday 17 May 2023, at The Poetry Bookshop, Hay on Wye, 6.30 pm for a 7.00 start. Free event.
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Podcast: Seren Poetry Podcasts - 56 minute interview with readings, with Chris Gregory, released 20th October 2022. Available on all platforms. Listen here.
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Poems in:
Scintilla 27, autumn 2024
Wild North Wales/Natur Gogledd Cymru, spring 2023
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Interview with Martha O'Brien in Nawr Magazine, Issue 8, spring-summer 2022
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Recent anthology contributions in:
D. Alma (ed.) The National Trust Book of Nature Poems National Trust Books/HarperCollins, 2023
Mike Jenkins (ed.) Gwrthryfel/Uprising Culture Matters, 2022
Robert Minhinnick (ed.) Gorwelion: Shared Horizons Parthian, 2021
Tony Curtis (ed.) Where the Birds Sing our Names Seren, 2021
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2023 edition of Shifts
A new edition of the 1988 novel Shifts appeared in the Library of Wales imprint (Parthian) in October 2023 (Series Editor, Kirsti Bohata). Reset, with a new Foreword by Diana Wallace.
"A first novel of consummate skill" Sunday Times
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"A novel so good it is hard to believe it is his first" Western Mail
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"Written ... superbly, with a poet's eye, mind and voice" The Guardian
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"Arguably the pinnacle of Welsh (post) industrial fiction" Aleksander Bednarski in Orbis Litterarum
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"the more one probes it, the more one uncovers the complex patterning of a poetic novel of ideas" -Richard Poole in the Afterword to the Seren Classics edition.
Cover: detail from Hot Strip Mill by Norman Hepple, courtesy of Ebbw Vale Works Archival Trust (Photo, V.A. Meredith)
Winner of the Welsh Arts Council Fiction Prize
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Shortlisted for the title of Greatest Welsh Novel of All Time by Wales Arts Review
RECENT BOOKS
‘to publish two such accomplished and deeply rewarding books simultaneously is a remarkable achievement’ – Planet
Still
Poetry, from Seren, 8th April, 2021
'Deeply intelligent and moving' - Wales Arts Review
'A wonderful experience' - London Grip
'Superb' - Buzz Magazine
'Haunting and resonant' - Acumen
'A major achievement' - Yorkshire Times
Please - a novel, published by Seren simultaneously with Still - 8th April 2021
Octogenarian language geek Vernon, who’s never written a book, tries to find a way to write the story of his long marriage to Hannah. Under the comic surface of Vernon’s pompous voice hides a story of obsession, passion and regret. A verbally brilliant tragicomic short novel with some surprising twists and a moving conclusion.
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'A tour de force' - PN Review
'Flawlessly constructed...A virtuoso performance' - Western Mail
'Elegant, funny, and moving' - Buzz
'Stunningly good' - The Common