New Welsh Review 65, Autumn 2004

Editorial:

'Alf and 'Alf - The poetics of diversity (Francesca Rhydderch)

Welsh-American academic and writer David Lloyd spoke at the Association for Welsh Writing in English conference several years ago about the politics of anthologies. He was talking specifically about several collections of Anglo-Welsh poetry published in the course of the twentieth century, but I think it’s time that prose anthologies were considered in the same light. Wales Half Welsh, for example – an excellent selection of new fiction from Wales – presents its readers with a group of writers whose concerns and aesthetic preoccupations are a world away from those of the last substantial anthology of Welsh short fiction to be published, Parthian’s Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe, which appeared in the late 1990s. Assembled in collaboration with the Cambrensis collective, the latter seemed rather indiscriminate in its selection, featuring the work of stellar authors such as Niall Griffiths and Leonora Brito alongside a whole horde of less ambitious writers.
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Features

• Laureates - Does Wales need one? by Peter Finch
  Poet Laureate Andrew Motion talks about what the Laureateship means and how he would welcome an equivalent in Wales.
  
  
• 'Being Half of Everything' by Steve Blandford
  Director and screenwriter Amma Asante discusses the development of her career and her forthcoming feature film, A Way of Life.
  
  
• 'Finding images of the future' by Frances Williams
  A review of two very different books on the visual arts in Wales: Artes Mundi: Wales International Visual Art Prize / Gwobr Celf Weledol Ryngwladol and The Visual Culture of Wales: Medieval Vision. Comparing Welsh medieval and contemporary art, Frances Williams asks how these reflect the culture of Wales as well as outside influences.
  
  
• Children's Publishing in Wales by Jeni Williams
  An exploration of the outlook for Welsh publishers committed to the development of distinctively Welsh books in English for children.
  
  
• Boomtown Writers by Desmond Barry and John Williams
  Two Welsh writers, who have bucked the trend and returned home to Wales, in conversation.
  
  

Fiction

• Medical by Alan Perry
  
• The Thing Was by Mike Bosley
  
• Stripping Venus by Rhian Saadat
  

Poems

Poems by :
David Angel
Jeff Bien
Owen Boynton
Anne Cluysenaar
Evelyn Cook
Christine Evans
Owen Gallagher
Anne Grimes
Joyce Herbert
Viki Holmes
Chris McCully
M. C. Newton
Leslie Norris
Norman Schwenk

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.

• Kith and Kin by Stevie Davies
  Published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson
  ISBN 0297847546  hb £12.99
  Reviewed by Kathryn Gray
  
  
• Echoes to the Amen: Essays after R.S. Thomas by Damian Walford Davies (Ed)
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN 0708317898  hb £19.99
  Reviewed by Edna Longley
  
  
• Selected and New Poems by John Powell Ward
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 1854113461  £9.99
  Reviewed by Jeremy Hooker
  
  
• Shame by Marged Lloyd Jones
  Published by Gomer
  ISBN 1843232790  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Tristan Hughes
  
  
• The Secret Sex Life of Polly Garter by Tom Davies
  Published by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch
  ISBN 0863818889  pb £9.50
  Reviewed by Tristan Hughes
  
  
• From Medieval to Modern Wales: Historical Essays in Honour of Kenneth O. Morgan and Ralph A. Griffiths by R.R. Davies and G.H. Jenkins (Eds)
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN 0708318819  hb £35.00
  Reviewed by Karen Stober
  
  
• A Stranger at Home by Denis F. Ratcliffe
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 1854113437  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by James Morgan
  
  
• The Family Wound by Ngoc Quang Huynh
  Published by Starborn Books
  ISBN 1899530177  pb £9.99
  Reviewed by Kate North
  
  
• The Black Cot by Shani Rhys James
  Published by Gomer
  ISBN 1843231522  pb £19.99
  Reviewed by Shelagh Hourahane
  
  
• Remember Me by Trezza Azzopardi
  Published by Picador
  ISBN 0330493450  hb £16.99
  Reviewed by Anna Kiernan
  
  
• Wishdaughter by Adrian Murphy
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 1854113615  pb £12.99
  Reviewed by Nigel Rodenhurst
  
  
• Downtrain by Robert Nisbet
  Published by Parthian
  ISBN 1902638379  £6.99
  Reviewed by Richard Poole
  
  
• At the Salt Hotel by John Barnie
  Published by Headland
  ISBN 1902096827  pb £7.50
  Reviewed by Nathalie Wourm
  
  
• The Never-Never by Kathryn Gray
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 1854113658  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Carrie Etter
  
  

Letters

• Selected Poems and Collected Later Poems by R.S. Thomas (NWR 64) - Gwydion Thomas
• Welsh Kitsch - Dai Smith