Sunday 27th November 2022, The Globe , Hay-on-Wye SOLD OUT
The Poetry Bookshop is delighted to be welcoming Jackie Morris, Nicola Davies & John Mitchinson to The Globe at Hay celebrating 5 years of The Lost Words.
Feather, Leaf, Bark and & Stone, Unbound
Jackie will be chatting with her publisher John Mitchinson about the ever evolving phenomena that is The Lost Words. Hear how it has grown and where it has led her, including her beautiful and meditative new work from Unbound ‘Feather, Leaf, Bark and Stone’ A pillow book of poems, dreams & stories typed on sheets of gold leaf and recently beautifully narrated on film by Michael Sheen here and available for pre-order with collection at the event here
Limited Edition Jackie Morris Red Fox Tote Bag
Originally from Birmingham, Jackie settled in Wales in the mid 90s and says she lives in a house ‘held together by spider’s webs’ with ‘cats that come and go’. As well as her own poetry and writing she has illustrated the work of many authors, and as a fierce advocate for Independent bookshop Jackie released her exclusive limited edition ‘Books are my Bag’ fox bags which are available to buy here or at the event if there are any left!
Choose Love, Graffeg
Jackie will also be joined by her good friend and collaborator Nicola Davies, as they read from Nicola’s new book Choose Love published this month by Graffeg. In this moving sequence of poems Nicola Davies’s text combines with the superbly evocative illustrations of Petr Horácek to provide insight into the real-life experiences of refugees forced to leave their homes and previous lives behind to face an unknown future.
I offer these poems, in love and with respect, in the hope that readers will realise that nothing but circumstance separates any of us from the experience of being a refugee. Humanity faces an uncertain future, and there is only one choice that will get us through. We need to contemplate its deepest meaning and make it anew every day: Choose Love, choose love, every time.” Nicola Davies, 2022
Profits from Ticket Sales for this event will be split equally between three local chairties – Hay2Timbuktu, Hay,Talgarth & Brecon Refugees and Brecon Foodbank
It is with sadness we write of the deaths of both Anne Stevenson, the founder of the Poetry Bookshop, & now Alan Halsey, its proprietor from 1981-1997. Anne’s “mad-cap idea” to set up the shop back in 1978 has, ever since, allowed its customers the rare thrill of finding themselves stood in a room entirely surrounded by poetry books you can browse & purchase. In addition to writing the first book on Elizabeth Bishop & her ground-breaking book on Sylvia Plath she was awarded both the Queen’s Medal for Poetry & the Neglected Masters’ Award in the US for her own work. Here is a poem she wrote during her brief, heady time in Hay
Swifts Spring comes little, a little. All April it rains. The new leaves stick in their fists; new ferns still fiddleheads. But one day the swifts are back. Face to the sun like a child You shout, ‘The swifts are back!’
Sure enough, bolt nocks bow to carry one sky-scyther Two hundred miles an hour across fullblown windfields. Swereee swereee. Another. And another. It’s the cut air falling in shrieks on our chimneys and roofs.
The next day, a fleet of high crosses cruises in ether. These are the air pilgrims, pilots of air rivers. But a shift of wing, and they’re earth-skimmers, daggers Skilful in guiding the throw of themselves away from themselves.
Quick flutter, a scimitar upsweep, out of danger of touch, for Earth is forbidden to them, water’s forbidden to them, All air and fire, little owlish ascetics, they outfly storms, They rush to the pillars of altitude, the thermal fountains.
Here is a legend of swifts, a parable — When the Great Raven bent over earth to create the birds, The swifts were ungrateful. They were small muddy things Like shoes, with long legs and short wings,
So they took themselves off to the mountains to sulk. And they stayed there. ‘Well,’ said the Raven, after years of this, ‘I will give you the sky. You can have the whole sky On condition that you give up rest.’
‘Yes, yes,’ screamed the swifts, ‘We abhor rest. We detest the filth of growth, the sweat of sleep, Soft nests in the wet fields, slimehold of worms. Let us be free, be air!’
So the Raven took their legs and bound them into their bodies. He bent their wings like boomerangs, honed them like knives. He streamlined their feathers and stripped them of velvet. Then he released them, Never to Return
Inscribed on their feet and wings. And so We have swifts, though in reality, not parables but Bolts in the world’s need: swift Swifts, not in punishment, not in ecstasy, simply
Sleepers over oceans in the mill of the world’s breathing. The grace to say they live in another firmament. A way to say the miracle will not occur, And watch the miracle.
Anne Stevenson1933 – 2020
However, it was the remains of Alan’s carefully curated stock that we “inherited” back in 1998. As is made evident by his own extensive work both as poet & editor his interest seemed boundless, whether in terms of modern innovative poetry or its most arcane 18th & 19th century practitioners. Even after all this time, that knowledge (all garnered in pre-internet times) remains an impossible act to follow! We leave the books to do their magic… Here is the second of two poems published in the Hereford Poems series of Five Seasons Press by Alan’s great friend & collaborator, Glenn Storhaug.
Song of the Rowan Beam-branch bent down with berries Hen-berries, witch-berries, dog-berry me. Blown leaves pale-face the sun My love has gone.
Quickbeam berry, summer’s curse Blood-moon berry, woman’s care Salve me. Curst the day My love’s away.
Caretree berry, eye’s delight Whose flowers were clear at twilight Were clear and bright as moons: Return her soon.
The year is quick as beauty lasts Is quick, cut twig, leaf-silver’s cast In berry-red. Heavy as berries night weighs While she’s away.
Join Welsh indie publisher Parthian Books and the Poetry Bookshop in Hay-on-Wye on Saturday 30 November for a day of short poetry readings on the hour at the clocktower. Coinciding with the Hay Winter Weekend, why not wrap up for the weather and join us for more literary festivities on the streets of this wonderful town of books?
Parthian Books has been publishing a carnival of voices from Wales and the wider world for over thirty years. www.parthianbooks.com
About the Poets:
Niall Griffiths was born in Liverpool and has lived in mid-Wales for a long time now. Author of eight novels, a book of poetry, several works of non-fiction. The film of his third novel, Kelly+Victor, won a BAFTA. He has won the Wales Book of the Year twice, for the novels Stump, in 2004 and Broken Ghost in 2020. His work has been translated into around twenty languages and he has delivered readings from it all over the globe.
Lewis Davies is a founding partner of Parthian which he set up with Gillian Griffiths and Ravi Pawar in 1993. His work has received a number of awards, including the Rhys Davies short story prize and the John Morgan writing award. He has also worked extensively in Welsh theatre. Davies has been involved in the literary scene in Wales since 1990 and is the current commercial director of Parthian.
Nigel Jarrett is from Pontnewydd and read botany and zoology at Cardiff University. A former journalist with South Wales Argus he is now a poet, essayist, novelist, story-writer, and critic. He won the Rhys Davies Award and the inaugural Templar Shorts award. His short story collection Funderland and poetry collection, Miners At The Quarry Pool, are published by Parthian. He has since published a novel, Slowly Burning, a second story collection,Who Killed Emil Kreisler?, and a second poetry collection, Gwyriad.
Ifor Thomas was born in Haverfordwest. He received the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry in 1992, and is the author of the poetry collections Bogwiser, Unsafe Sex; Body Beautiful and Stalking Paloma. Body Beautiful, which is concerned with the experience of prostate cancer, was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2006.
Natalie Ann Holborow lives in Swansea andis a winner of the Terry Hetherington Award and the Robin Reeves Prize and has been shortlisted and commended for the Bridport Prize, the National Poetry Competition, the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine, and the Cursed Murphy Spoken Word Award among others. She is the author of the poetry collections And Suddenly You Find Yourself and Small – both listed as Best Poetry Collections of the Year by Wales Arts Review – and, with Mari Ellis Dunning, the collaborative poetry pamphlet The Wrong Side of the Looking Glass. Her acclaimed third collection, Little Universe, was recently released through Parthian.
Christina Thatcher grew up between a farm and a ranch house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her poetry and short stories have been widely published in literary magazines, including Ambit, Butcher’s Dog, Magma, Poetry Wales, The North, The Poetry Review and more. She has published two poetry collections with Parthian Books – More than you were (2017) and How to Carry Fire (2020) – and her third, Breaking a Mare, will be published in 2025.
Mari Ellis Dunning’s debut poetry collection, Salacia, was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2019. She has since placed second in both the Lucent Dreaming Short Story Competition and the Sylvia Plath Poetry Prize. Her second collection, Pearl and Bone, was chosen as Wales Arts Review’s Number 1 Poetry Choice of 2022. Mari is working on her debut novel, exploring the witch trials of sixteenth-century Wales.
Ness Owen lives on Ynys Môn (Anglesey) in Wales where she writes poetry between lecturing and farming. She has been widely published in journals and anthologies including in Planet Magazine, Mslexia, The Cardiff Review, The Interpreter’s House, Ink Sweat & Tears, The Atlanta Review, and Poetry Wales. She is the author of two poetry collections – Mamiaith (Arachne Press, 2019) and Moon Jellyfish Can Barely Swim (Parthian, 2023). She co-edited the A470, a bilingual poetry anthology about the infamous road running from the north to the south of Wales.
Patrick Jones has over 30 years of words bearing witness to the world we live in and the soul we inhabit. He is the author of six performed works and many more published. His most recent work includes the poetry pamphlet Inviting the light (2024), writing lyrics for James Dean Bradfield’s Even in Exile album (Sony Records 2020) and the special 20th anniversary edition ofFuse/Fracture: Poems (2001-2021) with Parthian. He was born in Tredegar, Wales.
Tracey Rhys is a Bridgend-based writer, originally from the Rhondda. Her poems, stories and essays have appeared in Poetry Wales, New Welsh Review, Planet, The Lonely Crowd, Ink, Sweat & Tears, A470, Yer Ower Voices: Dialect Poetry from Wales,Lipstick Eyebrows and more. Listed for various competitions including the Cinnamon Press Pamphlet Competition, Poetry Wales Pamphlet Competition and Cardiff International Poetry Competition, her first pamphlet Teaching a Bird to Sing was a judge’s favourite in the Michael Marks Award. In 2020, she won the Poetry Archive’s Now: Wordview competition. Her debut collection Bathing on the Roof will be published by Parthian in 2025.
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 featured in many publications including Poetry Wales, Ink Sweat & Tearsand The Atlanta Review and she has performed at festivals including Hay, The Laugharne Weekend, Green Man and Glastonbury. Also Publishing Editor at Parthian Books, Susie lives in Rhondda Fach with a TBR pile almost as high as Llanwonno.
Roberto Pastore is a British-Italian poet based in Cardiff. He studied Creative Writing in Carlisle where he was part of the renowned Speakeasy spoken word scene, and currently hosts a local monthly poetry group in Lufkin Coffee. His first collection Hey Bert(Parthian 2019) was highly commended by the Forward Poetry Prize and subsequently appeared in the Forward Book of Poetry 2021. In 2022 he released a poetry pamphlet entitled Absolute Joy which led to a collaboration with artist Rob Churm, who adapted one of the poems into a performance piece and comic. Roberto’s second full collection, Graveyards On Other Planets, will be published by Parthian in 2025.
Join us at The Globe at Hay for a morning of family fun as we raise money to send to our friends in Hay’s twin town of Timbuktu, currently under siege and cut off from the world once again!
All writers are appearing for free with all monies raised from ticket sales and donations going directly to our Timbuktu Crisis Appeal
ALL TICKETS ARE PAY WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD but can be reserved in advance for free
11am (ish) Nicola Davies and Petr Horacek take us on an interactive live painting & poetry adventure with The Star Whale (ages 6-100!) Tickets available here
15min BREAK
12 noon After a short break we join Jackie Morris and Cathy Fisher in conversation with Nicola Davies as they expolore the making of their new book The Panda’s Child (all ages welcome) Tickets available here
All writers will be available for book signing after the event – books can be bought in advance at a reduced price for ticket holders via the links above and can be collected at the event.
Jackie Morris is an author and illustrator. She lives in a small house beside the sea in Wales, with cats and dogs for company. She studied illustration at Hereford College of Art and Bath Academy and has illustrated many books, and written some. The Lost Words, co-authored with Robert Macfarlane won the Kate Greenaway Medal 2019. In the same year she published The Unwinding with Unbound, and they have committed to re-issuing and re-designing her backlist beginning with Song of the Golden Hare (Sep 2020) and East of the Sun, West of the Moon (Mar 2021) and The Wild Swans (Mar 2021).
Accordion Books are an exciting new series created by Jackie Morris and published by Unbound.
An Accordion Book doesn’t open, it unfolds. One side is filled with beautiful watercolour images of an animal: sometimes in motion, sometimes at rest. The other is filled with text – poems, descriptions, invocations – inspired by the same animal.
Together they work as spell to summon the animal’s spirit. Jackie has painted them using antique watercolours, some from boxes which haven’t been opened for over 150 years, woken from their slumber with a single drop of water.
Beautifully produced at 152mm x 103mm, and printed on 440 gsm card, with foiled paper board covers foiled and a sleeve to hold the book snug, they have been designed by Alison O’Toole, who has worked with Jackie on all her recent books, including The Lost Words and The Unwinding.
Join us in The Poetry Bookshop for a long overdue evening with our friend, the award winning novelist, poet and translator, Christopher Meredith.
His first novel, Shifts, is regarded as a modern classic. He has broadcast on radio and TV and given readings and talks all round Britain as well as in the Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Slovenia and the USA.
Please join us if you can. It promises to be a great evening in the company of a monolith of Welsh literature.
Here he is holding up Brecon Library.
(credit: V.A. Meredith)
The photo above is of a wall inscription Chris composed and co-designed for y Gaer, the library, museum and gallery complex which opened in Brecon in 2019. It blends original text in Welsh and English with lines from the poetry of Henry Vaughan and Dafydd ap Gwilym.
Join us for books and wine as we celebrate the launch of James Roberts’ new book Two Lights – An extraordinary account of searching for the wilderness left in our world, spanning continents and geological eras, skies and oceans, animals and birds and even the planets and stars.
By Walking at dawn and dusk, through the two lights of awakening and regathering, through the stripped windswept hills of Wales, and the jungles and savannahs of Africa, he tries to find a way from a soul-stripping sense of loss towards hope in the future.
In the resilience of wild creatures he finds a way back to life.
“Deeply personal yet always outward looking, James Roberts delights in the world he discovers about him. Yet he also trembles, because he understands like winter light, that world is diminished … and diminishing … Two Lights reveals why all of us should be writers.”
Robert Minhinnick, poet and author of Diary of the Last Man
“A moving meditation on loss and fragility, tenderly tracing a love of wild creatures across landscapes of damaged yet deeply felt meaning. Startling and generous beauty, Two Lights finds light in the wondrous presence of others and the interconnectedness of all living things.”
Julian Hoffman, author of Irreplaceable: The Fight to Save Our Wild Places
A tribute in words and music to Jan Skácel – Friday 18th November, 7.30pm
This event celebrates Skácel in his centenary year with readings in translation by local writer and translator Simon Pettifar accompanied by improvisational music from cellist Sonia Hammond and pianist Rod Paton, who has lived in the Czech Republic and was for a while a neighbour of the poet in Brno.
Places are limited so please reserve your place here – There is no entry charge but a contribution to Prison Phoenix Trust is invited on the evening
The Poetry Bookshop is delighted to be welcoming bestselling poet Brian Bilston to The Globe at Hay to celebrate the release of his new book Day Like These – a brilliant new way to mark and celebrate every single day of the year.
Days Like These contains a poem for every day of the year, each one inspired by an event associated with that day; from Open an Umbrella Indoors Day to the day on which New York banned public flirting; from the launch of the Rubik’s Cube to the first appearance of the phrase, ‘the best thing since sliced bread’.
Perfect for reading aloud and sharing with friends, Days Like These: An alternative guide to the year in 366 poems will take the blues out of Monday, flatten the Wednesday hump, and amplify that Friday feeling. A brilliant way to enliven every day of the year.
(credit: V.A. Meredith)
