Upcoming Events - 2022
26th January - Patrick Jones and Susie Wild
Wednesday 26th January 2022 | 1pm-2pm
Taliesin Create, Singleton Campus, Swansea University SA2 8PP
*Please note that this is an in-person event.*
Join Swansea alumni poets Patrick Jones and Susie Wild as they read from their latest collections ‘Fuse/Fracture (Poems 2001-2021)' and ‘Windfalls’
Patrick Jones is author of six plays, three spoken word albums, nine books of poetry and lyricist on the Even in Exile album (James Dean Bradfield). He is currently Writer in Residence with The Royal College of Psychiatrists in Wales and adapting his 2016 play, Before I Leave, into a film. He was born in Tredegar, Wales. His latest book is a special 20th anniversary edition Fuse/Fracture (Poems 2001-2021). He has four children and two cats and lives at the foot of a mountain.
patrick-jones.info
twitter: @heretic101
FUSE / FRACTURE (POEMS 2001-2021):
A 20th anniversary edition with a foreword by James Dean Bradfield. These are elegies, protest songs and battle cries as Jones speaks to and for the disaffected, bearing witness to contemporary and political concerns. 28 new poems also turn their gaze to the personal; haunted by ghosts of both the living and the dead. An inventory of scars where love once lived.
Susie Wild is author of the poetry collections Windfalls and Better Houses, the short story collection The Art of Contraception listed for the Edge Hill Prize, and the novella Arrivals. Her work has recently featured in Poetry Wales, Carol Ann Duffy’s pandemic project Write Where We Are Now, The Atlanta Review and Ink, Sweat & Tears. She is also Publishing Editor at Parthian Books specialising in poetry and fiction. She currently lives in a garret on a leafy avenue in Cardiff.
http://susiewild.blogspot.com
twitter: @Soozerama
WINDFALLS:
In Windfalls, Wild writes of fruit blown down by the wind, of unexpected and unearned gains which renew the beauty and joy of life. These are also stories of heroines who fall or jump from pedestals, taking risks in a world that is often dangerous for women, but refusing to settle for the conventional. Wild continues to bring us her refreshingly slant world view, whether unpicking the domestic, the political or the environmental.
REGISTER HERE
2nd February - 'Painting Beauty Queens Orange: Women’s Lives in the 1970s'
Wednesday 2nd February 2022 | 1pm-2pm
Taliesin Create, Singleton Campus, Swansea University SA2 8PP
*Please note that this is an in-person event.*
The ‘70s wasn’t all glam rock and flares, punk and pogo-ing… In Painting the Beauty Queens Orange, the women who lived the decade reveal what it meant to push boundaries, claim your identity, and carve out your place amidst the winter of discontent, the scorching summer of ‘76 and the rise of Thatcherism. One young woman says a forced goodbye to her newborn baby. Another grasps new opportunities and sets sail on a LGP Tanker with a crew of men. A third asserts her sexual identity. A fourth sets up a kitchen table business that launches an international brand. These stories of ambition and adventure, motherhood and marriage, are by turns heart-breaking, humorous, and honest.
Contributors Carolyn Lewis ‘The Sound of Water’ and Kate Cleaver ‘Firsts’, along with the book’s editor, Rebecca F. John, will be In conversation with Dr Alan Bilton, author and Senior Lecturer of English Literature and Creative Writing at Swansea University.
Kate Cleaver
Kate Cleaver is an Anglo-Indian writer studying for a PhD with Swansea University. She is researching the lives of ordinary people who found themselves incarcerated in the Briton Ferry Insane Asylum, Vernon House. She has begun to create stories and has found that linking her stories to historical fact is a way to bring people from the past to life; she is asking if those ghosts can be recreated into stories, into creative history. In 2019 she was long listed in the New Welsh Writers Award and has just had a memoir published by Parthian in ‘Just So You Know’.
Carolyn Lewis
Born in Cardiff, Carolyn’s work has appeared in previous Honno anthologies. Her first novel, Missing Nancy was published by Accent Press in 2008. She gained an MPhil in Writing at Glamorgan University (now the University of South Wales). Her stories have won national and local prizes and have appeared in The New Welsh Review, Mslexia and Route Magazine amongst others. She’s worked as a creative writing tutor for many years and two text books have been published based on her teaching methods. Currently she’s taking a PhD at Swansea University for which she’s writing a new novel.
Rebecca F. John
Rebecca F. John was born in 1986, and grew up in Pwll, a small village on the south Wales coast. She holds a BA in English with Creative Writing and an MA in Creative Writing from Swansea University, as well as a PGCE PCET from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Her short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4Extra. In 2015, her short story ‘The Glove Maker's Numbers’ was shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. She is the winner of the PEN International New Voices Award 2015. Her first short story collection, Clown's Shoes, was published through Parthian in 2015. Her first novel, The Haunting of Henry Twist, was published through Serpent's Tail in July 2017. It was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award. In 2022, she will publish her first children's book with Firefly Press, as well as a second adult novel, The Empty Greatcoat, and a short novel, Fannie, with Honno Press.
REGISTER HERE
Previous Events in the Series
'Max Porter on Myth, Hybridity and Voice'
Thursday 14th January
In this special online event, Max Porter talks about his career as an editor, bookseller and critically-acclaimed British writer, before discussing the changing shape of the English novel, myth and modern forms, his bestselling works and approach to writing and the relationship between literature and literacy.
The event will include special readings by Max from his award-winning works Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny, as well as his new book The Death of Francis Bacon, 'an attempt to write as painting, not about it'.
In conversation with Dr Elaine Canning, Head of Cultural Engagement and Development at Swansea University.
Award-winning Max Porter is one of Britain’s most original and innovative writers. Max's first novel, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, won the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Sunday Times/Peters, Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year, the Europese Literatuurprijs and the BAMB Readers' Award, and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize. It has been translated into twenty-nine languages. Enda Walsh’s stage adaptation starting Cillian Murphy toured in 2019. Max's second novel Lanny (Faber, 2019) was a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller and longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize. His highly anticipated third book, The Death of Francis Bacon, will be published by Faber in January 2021. Max lives in Bath with his family.
‘It’s hard to express how much I loved Lanny. Books this good don’t come along very often. It’s a novel like no other, an exhilarating, disquieting, joyous read. It will reach into your chest and take hold of your heart. It’s a novel to press into the hands of everyone you know and say, read this.’ - MAGGIE O’FARRELL
A luminous reading experience - (Grief is the Thing with Feathers) (TLS)
An agile, life-affirming account of mourning. (Grief is the Thing with Feathers) (Sunday Times)
The event is part of the UK-Russia Creative Bridge Programme 2020-21 organised by the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy in Moscow with the support of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
The Maxim Gorky Institute of Literature and Creative Writing Moscow
'Anna Karenina: Screen Adaptations of the Novel' - Andrey Gelasimov
‘Anna Karenina: Screen Adaptations of the Novel’ - Andrey Gelasimov
Wednesday 20th January | 2pm-4pm
The first screen adaptation of “Anna Karenina” was produced in the very beginning of the 20th century. Since then this Russian novel became one of the most popular sources for inspiration of cinematographers all over the world. The most beautiful and absolutely legendary actresses were involved in visualisation of that stunning and suffering character created by Leo Tolstoy almost a century and a half ago. During our conversation we’ll try to understand reasons of such durable attraction comparing different film versions between each other and the novel itself.
The event is part of the UK-Russia Creative Bridge Programme 2020-21 organised by the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy in Moscow with the support of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
The Maxim Gorky Institute of Literature and Creative Writing Moscow
REGISTER HERE
'Crime Fiction and Legal Truth'
Tuesday 26th January
In this special online event, a panel of experts in crime fiction, thriller writing and Law discuss the intersection between crime fiction and legal truth. What is the relationship between crime fiction and true crime? And to what extent must the crime writer become a legal expert? A session full of suspense focusing on European crime fiction featuring eminent barrister and Head of Swansea University's Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, Professor Elwen Evans QC, along with Swansea-born Philip Gwynne Jones, author of the hugely successful "Nathan Sutherland" crime novels (set in Venice), and translator and editor Dr Kat Hall, a specialist in German thriller writing and creator of 'Mrs Peabody Investigates.' In conversation with Professor D.J. Britton, Playwright and Head of English Literature and Creative Writing at Swansea University.
The Panelists.png)
Professor Elwen Evans QC is Pro Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean for the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. She also holds the University portfolio for Welsh Language and Culture.
Elwen read Law at Girton College, Cambridge graduating with a double first: M.A. (Cantab). She was fortunate to receive a range of Scholarships from her College, University and professional body. On graduating she attended the Inns of Court School of Law and was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1980. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2002. Elwen has enjoyed a very successful career as a barrister choosing to practice mainly in Wales. She has undertaken a wide range of legal work, specialising in criminal law at trial and appellate levels. Her work has included many serious, complex, sensitive and high profile cases such as leading the prosecution team in the April Jones case and the defence team in the Gleision mine disaster case. She sits as a Crown Court Recorder having been appointed in 2001. She was Head of Iscoed Chambers for over 15 years, stepping down on her appointment to Swansea University. She is a Bencher of her Inn, has been honoured by Gorsedd y Beirdd for her services to Law in Wales and was a Commissioner on the Commission on Justice in Wales. She has served on a wide range of external bodies and committees reflecting her areas of professional experience and interest. In 2018 she was in the top 10 of a list celebrating 100 of Wales’ most inspirational women.
Elwen joined Swansea University in 2015 when she was appointed as Head of the College of Law & Criminology where she supported its growth and transformation into an exciting and dynamic centre for learning, teaching, research, impact and engagement. Today, the University’s Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law is recognised as being at the forefront of innovation in legal education and practice.
Philip Gwynne Jones was born in Swansea in 1966, and now works as a writer, teacher and translator in Venice. His first novel, “The Venetian Game”, was Waterstones Thriller of the Month for March 2018, and a Times Top 5 bestseller. His most recent novel, “Venetian Gothic”, is now available, with a further four titles scheduled. He has written for the Sunday Times and the Big Issue, and is a frequent guest on BBC Radio Wales.In his spare time he enjoys cooking, art, classical music and opera; and can occasionally be seen and heard singing bass with the Cantori Veneziani.
Philip is published by Little, Brown under the Constable imprint
Dr Kat Hall is a translator and editor. She is an Honorary Research Associate in Modern Languages at Swansea University, where she worked as a lecturer for many years. She is the editor of Crime Fiction in German: Der Krimi (UWP 2016) and runs the ‘Mrs Peabody Investigates’ crime blog. She is currently translating Punishment, by German barrister turned crime writer Ferdinand von Schirach.
The event is part of the UK-Russia Creative Bridge Programme 2020-21 organised by the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy in Moscow with the support of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
The Maxim Gorky Institute of Literature and Creative Writing Moscow
REGISTER HERE
'Poetry of the 19th Century: Alexander S. Pushkin' - Professor Elena A. Keshokova
5th February 2021
Alexander S. Pushkin was called the “Sun of Russian Poetry” by his contemporaries. The poet had an extraordinary pedigree. His mother's great-grandfather, one of the most educated people of his time, descended from a noble princely Abyssinian family and served faithfully to the Russian tsar Peter the Great. The biographies of Pushkin’s ancestors are as interesting as the novels of the 18-19th centuries. Pushkin wrote:
My pride of blood I have subdued;
I'm but an unknown singer
Simply Pushkin, not Moussin,
My strength is mine, not from court:
I am a writer, a citizen.
The prominent Russian writer Ivan Turgenev maintained that one of the distinctive features of Pushkin's poetry was graceful and smart simplicity. In his writing he was engaged in a gratifying creative dialogue with Western poets - Shakespeare, Voltaire, Byron, and Walter Scott among them.
Pushkin’s polyphonic lyrics largely influenced a great number of Russian poets and created a new poetic language. The poet was also an efficient historian: his heroes of Russian antiquity laid the foundations of the Russian historical novel.
The poet’s dynamic descriptions of various characters of his life and times helped create a highly animated image of Russia which made it possible to name his main work Eugene Onegin “the encyclopedia of Russian life."
The lecture will also explain why Pushkin's poetry is so difficult to translate, and his writing has not become a revelation to Western readership.
The event is part of the UK-Russia Creative Bridge Programme 2020-21 organised by the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy in Moscow with the support of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
The Maxim Gorky Institute of Literature and Creative Writing Moscow
'The New Face of Russian Literature' - Professor Aleksey Varlamov
Wednesday 17th February
THIS EVENT WILL BE CARRIED OUT IN THE MEDIUM OF RUSSIAN, WITH SIMULTANEOUS ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Russian literature is going through a unique period of complete freedom and independence from authorities in history. In this lecture, Professor Aleksey Varlamov will focus on new trends in Russian literature, including the role of the writer as storyteller rather than as prophet or ideologist, as well as the current literary landscape in Russia, with a focus on non-fiction, biography and the status of movements such as Realism, Post-Realism and Postmodernism. The extent to which we can comprehend the present through the works of Zakhar Prilepin, R. Senchin, A. Salnikov and Grigorij Sluzhitel will also be discussed.
Professor Aleksey Varlamov is Rector of the Maxim Gorky Institute of Literature and Creative Writing, Moscow. He is also a prominent writer, publicist and researcher of the history of 20th Century Russian literature and his books have been translated into several languages.
The event is part of the UK-Russia Creative Bridge Programme 2020-21 organised by the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy in Moscow with the support of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
The Maxim Gorky Institute of Literature and Creative Writing Moscow
'International Women's Day Poetry Celebration' - Lizzie Fincham and Natalie Ann Holborow
Monday 8th March
Contained in Ice by Lizzie Fincham
Poignant, elegant and timely, Lizzie Fincham's acute senses and imagistic rhythms give us glimpses beneath the surface of life, to the deeper connections. And always, running through the beauty and the evocation of the natural world, are warnings: 'The woods are turning to smoke'; 'As it always has, the bell tolls'… The delicacy of the poetry belies the magnitude of the themes: the losses and the hope — Contained in Ice contains 'All the small stuff. All the big stuff.'
Small by Natalie Ann Holborow
We all have our favourite demons. Weaved throughout poems on mythology, literary figures and other shores, the narrator is haunted by her biggest demon of all: the gargantuan Small. Told with rawness and honesty, the secretive nature of living with an eating disorder is yanked out into the open and given physical form and voice. Through relationship breakdowns, bath-times, the cacophonous dazzle of Delhi and the fug of hospital waiting rooms, Small is there, slyly riding on the shoulders of a woman running for miles to get away ‒ yet forever haunted by a shadow far larger than her own.
Author Biographies
Gower born poet Lizzie Fincham is currently studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at Swansea University. She has had 80 poems published in various journals and collections including New Welsh Review, Poetry Wales, North, French Literary Review, New Zealand Review. Lizzie has been shortlisted for many prizes, including the prestigious Bridport Poetry Prize on three occasions. In 2017 she was awarded First prize for Brexit Blues in Brighton Poetry Competition. Her first collection Green Figs and Blue Jazz was published by Cinnamon Press in 2017. Her latest pamphlet, Contained in Ice, was published by Cinnamon Press in 2020.
Natalie Ann Holborow is an award-winning writer whose debut collection, And Suddenly You Find Yourself, was launched at the International Kolkata Literary Festival and listed as Wales Arts Review’s ‘Best of 2017’. She is co-editor of the Cheval anthology. Winner of the 2015 Terry Hetherington Award and a recent finalist in the Cursed Murphy Spoken Word competition, her second book Small (Parthian) and collaborative pamphlet with Mari Ellis Dunning The Wrong Side of the Looking Glass (Black Rabbit Press) were both published in 2020.
Cultural Institute 'Literary Salon Series'
'The Dirt': Marianne Tuckman in conversation with David Britton
'The Dirt': Marianne Tuckman in conversation with David Britton
.png)
Wednesday 19th May | 7pm-8:30pm
Terrified, she calls her cleaner, a punk about to be evicted, to come round and help, but despite all their efforts, the house just gets dirtier and dirtier...
Tomorrow, she had planned to have children and play with them. She wonders if this will be possible.
BIO:
Marianne is a performer, deviser, dance artist and writer based between Berlin and the UK where she is studying a research lead Mphil in creative writing (Swansea University), focussing on the relationship between text and embodied live performance.
Her mission: to make words sweat.
Her method: to love through conversation.
The communication of stories is what motivates Marianne to make work that combines humour, poetic metaphors, guttural dancing and.... chat.
Marianne generally authors/ co-authors projects that she performs herself and has presented work at venues including the Megaron Athens Concert Hall, Vorspiel -CTM -Transmediale Festival (Berlin), Blue Elephant Theatre (London), Hasta Trilce (Buenos Aires) and Arts Printing House (Vilnius). She has worked as a performer in National Theater Reinickendorf (Vinge/ Muller, Berliner Festspieler), Manque La Banca (film), 12 Days (Film 4), Punderson Gardens (Arket Christmas campaign) and João Cidade (dance theatre) among others.Watch the Trailer: https://youtu.be/IdD_V40AkrM
REGISTER HERE
'Voice and Form in Contemporary Fiction': Women Authors from Wales and Europe in conversation
4th November 2021, 6:30pm – 7:30pm GMT
In this special online event, five critically-acclaimed women authors from Wales and Europe discussed and read from their work. Rebecca F John, Caryl Lewis and Efa Lois (Wales) came together with Nora Ikstena (Latvia) and Alena Mornštajnová (Czech Republic) to explore approaches to fictionalising history and writing family, community and place.
Chaired by Dr Kathryn Jones
The Panelists:
Nora Ikstena is one of the most visible and influential prose writers in Latvia. After obtaining a degree in Philology from the University of Latvia in 1992, she went on to study English literature at Columbia University. In her prose, Nora Ikstena often reflects on life, love, death and faith. Soviet Milk(2015, shortlisted for the Annual Literature Award for best prose and translated into numerous languages including Japanese, German, Croatian, English, Hungarian, Italian and Russian), Besa (2012), Celebration of Life (1998, translated into Norwegian, Italian, Danish, Swedish), and The Virgin's Lesson (2001) are some of her most widely appreciated novels. The novel Amour Fou has been adapted for theatre and published in Russian (2010). Ikstena is also a prolific author of biographical fiction, non-fiction, scripts, essays and collections of short prose. She is an active participant in Latvia's cultural and political life and a co-founder of the International Writers and Translators’ House in Ventspils. In 2006, she received the Baltic Assembly Prize in literature.
Alena Mornštajnová is a teacher of English and translator and author of five successful novels. Her most recent novel, Tiché roky (Years of Silence, 2019), has confirmed her position as a critically acclaimed, bestselling novelist with more than 500,000 copies of her books sold in the Czech Republic alone. Rights for her most successful novel Hana have been sold to nineteen countries including United Kingdom, Austria, Italy, France, Poland, The Netherlands and Russia.
Rebecca F. John was born in 1986, and grew up in Pwll, a small village on the south Wales coast. She holds a BA in English with Creative Writing and an MA in Creative Writing from Swansea University, as well as a PGCE PCET from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Her short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4Extra. In 2015, her short story ‘The Glove Maker's Numbers’ was shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. She is the winner of the PEN International New Voices Award 2015. Her first short story collection, Clown's Shoes, was published through Parthian in 2015. Her first novel, The Haunting of Henry Twist, was published through Serpent's Tail in July 2017. It was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award. In 2022, she will publish her first children's book with Firefly Press, as well as a second adult novel, The Empty Greatcoat, and a short novel, Fannie, with Honno Press.
Efa Lois is an artist and writer originally from Ceredigion. Her work focuses primarily on mythology, the history of Welsh women, and the natural world and the importance of preserving it. She was awarded the Literature Wales New Writer's Bursary Award in 2020. She was the official artist of Tafwyl in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. Her artwork has appeared in Cadw's' Welsh Women Making History', 'Henriet y Syffrajet' by Angharad Tomos (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2018), '10 o Sir Benfro' (Narberth Museum, 2021), and 'Y Stori Orau' by Lleucu Roberts (2021 National Eisteddfod Prose Medal Winner, Y Lolfa). Her paintings will also appear in Jon Gower's volume 'Cymry o Fri' (Y Lolfa, 2021). She is currently working on writing and drawing two volumes for children.
Caryl Lewis is a Welsh novelist. She has won Wales Book of the Year twice for her literary fiction and the Tir na n-Og Award for best children’s fiction in 2004 and 2015. Her novel Martha, Jac a Sianco was adapted for film and won 6 Welsh BAFTAS and the Spirit of the Festival Award at the 2010 Celtic Media Festival. Her work is on the Welsh curriculum and is a successful screenwriter (working on BBC/S4C thrillers Hinterland and Hidden). Her debut English language novel DRIFT will be published by Penguin in April 2022 and Seed, her debut English novel for readers of 8+ will be published by MacMillan UK and MacMillan US in May 2022. She lives with her family on a farm near Aberystwyth in Wales.
Dr Kathryn Jones is Associate Professor of French at Swansea University. She chairs the national panel for Welsh-medium Modern Languages. She has published in the fields of French and German contemporary culture, francophone and French female postcolonial writers and travel writers, conflict studies and memory studies. Her most recent book, Hidden Text: Hidden Nation: (Re)Discoveries of Wales in Travel Writing in French and German (1780-2018), which she co-wrote with Carol Tully and Heather Williams, was published by Liverpool University Press in 2020.
'European Writers' is an on-going project by EUNIC London aiming to promote European Literature in the UK. This event is supported by the Czech Centre London, Latvian Literature and the Embassy of Latvia.
In partnership with Literature Wales and Swansea University's Cultural Institute.
'Human Beings': Rachael Llewellyn in conversation with Alan Bilton
Wed, 17 November 2021, 13:00 – 14:00 GMT
Location: Taliesin Create, Ground Floor - Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea University
In this collection of thrilling short stories, Rachael Llewellyn adeptly traverses the outer edges of human experience and the horror that often comes with it. Twisting between the disturbing, the humorous, and the heartbreaking, Human Beings will forever change the way you look at your neighbour, how you treat your coworker, and even make you second guess the person lying next to you in bed. Because real monsters aren't what you see on late night television . . . the real monsters live just around the corner.
About the Author
Rachael Llewellyn is a novelist living in Wales. Her work includes The Red Creek series, Down Red Creek and Impulse Control (Sulis International Press, 2019/2020), and Human Beings (Bear Hills Books, 2021), a collection of short stories. Her fiction has been featured in numerous magazines and journals including The Heartland Society of Women Writers, The Spectre Review, and Crow & Cross Keys, as well as anthologies including Creating In Crisis (Polari Press, 2021), Twisted Love (Jazz House Publications, 2021), and The Speculative Book 2021 (Speculative Books, 2021). She is currently completing a PhD in memory, trauma, and folklore at Swansea University.
'Dusking Through Waves': Wendy Holborow in conversation with Jon Gower
Wed, 1 December 2021, 13:00 – 14:00 GMT
Location: Taliesin Create, Ground Floor - Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea University
Dusking Through Waves is an eclectic mix of short stories written over several years. From the mountains and parks of Wales to the scrub lands of Africa; from Dylan Thomas' Wales to Lawrence Durrell's Corfu, some have been placed in competitions and published in reputable literary journals, others have been adapted into stage plays and performed by a professional theatre company. The stories deal with subjects such as domestic violence, loneliness, dementia, war and famine, and love.
About the Author
Wendy Holborow was born and now lives back in South Wales, UK, but lived in Greece for fourteen years, where she founded and co-edited Poetry Greece. She has won prizes for her short stories, notably the Philip Good Memorial Prize, The Aber Valley Competition, The Island Magazine and most recently a first prize in the Allen Rayne competition. Her stories have appeared in numerous journals. She has completed a Master’s degree in Creative Writing at Swansea University. She has had ten poetry collections published, two children’s novels and a short story collection, Dusking Through Waves. She has also had several plays performed professionally.
Cultural Institute 'Literary Salon Series'