New Welsh Review 72, Summer 2006

Editorial:

The Problem with Poetry (Kathryn Gray)

For an art form that - so we are told - has been in a terminal condition for almost two decades, poetry can, at the very least, take some comfort from the ardent concern this would seem to occasion. Every few months or so, an article will appear in one of the major broadsheets, with grave pronouncements that nudge the bathetic. Daisy Goodwin, glamorous doyenne of poetry-as-lifestyle, recently admonished her critics with the assertion that this most mysterious and vital of arts would soon become as quaint as Morris dancing unless more were done to integrate it into the modern market. Poetry, it would seem, languishes in its hospital bed, only heaving itself up on pillows at the odd interval to scrawl a missive to the outside world: reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
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Features

• Private and Public Wars by Pascale Petit
  Pascale Petit discusses confessional poetry: self indulgent and taboo or deserving of critical respect?
  
  
• All must have prizes? by Peter Finch
  Peter Finch considers the cultural value of literary prizes in the light of The Economy of Prestige by James F English. What are prizes for, who wins and what of controversy?
  
  
• Ekphrasis and Ekphrasis by Tim Liardet
  Ekphrasis is the creative description of an artwork, and more common in poetry than fiction. Tim Liardet writes on how 'description is revolution', and how the technique has informed both his own and others' poetry.
  
  
• From the Journals of the Curmudgeon by Sean O'Brien
  A witty but pointed look at the business of being a poet.
  
  
• The Cardiff Side by Gillian Clarke
  Cardiff-born Gillian Clarke was appointed Wales' first Capital Poet in May 2005. She considers the pleasures and pains of writing to commission and how a public mission has also been a year of creative self-discovery.
  
  
• Photo / Poem Collaboration by David Hurn and Pascale Petit
  Magnum photographer and poet combine their work.
  
  
• Photo Essay by Toril Brancher
  
  
  
• A Writer's Writer by Sophie Hannah on Wendy Cope
  
  
  

Fiction

• Strawberries by Stevie Davies
  

Poems

Poems by :
Leontia Flynn
Philip Gross
John Hartley Williams
Tim Liardet

Reviews

The majority of books reviewed in New Welsh Review can be bought online from gwales.com, the Welsh Books Council's online bookshop, by simply clicking on the 'buy now' icon. For any that are unavailable, please contact the publishers or ask in your local bookshop. All details were correct at the time of publication.

• To Babel and Back by Robert Minhinnick
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 1854114018  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Jim Perrin
  
  
• Lynette Roberts, Collected Poems by Ed. Patrick McGuinness
  Published by Carcanet
  ISBN 1857548426  pb £12.95
  Reviewed by Ian Gregson
  
  
• Circle Games by Jo Mazelis
  Published by Parthian
  ISBN 1902638581  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Anna Scott
  
  
• Fresh Apples by Rachel Trezise
  Published by Parthian
  ISBN 1902638573  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Anna Scott
  
  
• Non-return by Dai Vaughan
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 1854113917  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Richard Poole
  
  
• A Rattleskull Genius: The Many Faces of Iolo Morganwg by Geraint H Jenkins
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN 0708319718  hb £45.00
  Reviewed by Dafydd Moore
  
  
• Skirrid Hill by Owen Sheers
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 1854114034  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Carrie Etter
  
  
• Now You're Talking: Drama in Conversation by Hazel Walford Davies
  Published by Parthian
  ISBN 1902638484  pb £9.99
  Reviewed by Anthony Pickthall
  
  
• Chaotic Angels by Gwyneth Lewis
  Published by Bloodaxe
  ISBN 1852247231  pb £9.99
  Reviewed by Matthew Jarvis
  
  
• Two in a Boat: a Marital Rite of Passage by Gwyneth Lewis
  Published by Harper Perennial
  ISBN 0007120648  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Matthew Jarvis
  
  

Letters