New Welsh Review 85, Autumn 2009

Editorial:

The Common Reader (Kathryn Gray)

As I write, the winner of the Wales Book of the Year has just been announced: Deborah Kay Davies for her remarkable short story collection Grace, Tamar and Laszlo the Beautiful. It’s been a truly vintage year for Welsh writers and publishers. Prior to the longlist announcement, I drew up my own prediction of who would make it to the top ten. I whittled my list down to fifteen titles, all of which I thought would stand a strong chance – a combination of those works that I was certain would attract the attention of a judging panel and my own personal ‘picks’. I was surprised on both counts. This year’s longlist defied fashion. Most remarkably, poetry represented the majority genre for the first time in the history of the prize, and two short story collections were given the nod in an era when you’ll be hard pressed to find a short story collection by a contemporary writer in any bookshop at all.
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Features

• Rapid Response by John E. McGrath
  John E. McGrath on the vision and ‘extraordinary adventure’ of National Theatre Wales that, at times, is ‘like dancing into a minefield’.
  
  
• Migrations by Jasmine Donahaye
  Part-memoir, part-natural history, part-political awakening, Jasmine Donahaye on childhood memories and adult perceptions of her family visits to the Middle East.
  
  
• Garden Paths and Blind Spots by Lucie Armitt
  Lucie Armitt gives a critical review of Sarah Waters’s The Little Stranger: ‘she is a commensurate storyteller whose...novels are akin to a gorgeous meal’.
  
  
• Look Homeward, Angel by Byron Rogers
  In his typically direct and humorous style, Byron Rogers writes on biography and autobiography. His own autobiography, ME, was published this summer.
  
  
• First Hand by Stevie Davies
  On researching her forthcoming novel Into Suez.
  
  
• Last Word by Meirion Jordan
  Poet and mathematician Meirion Jordan on writing history through poetry.
  
  
• Photo Essay: Gower by David Pearl and Nigel Jenkins
  A selection of images from the book of the same name, with an introduction from Nogel Jenkins.
  
  

Fiction

• A Bed on the Prairie by Robert Minhinnick
  
• Knockout by Tyler Keevil
  

Poems

Poems by :
Matt Bryden
Claire Crowther
Kelly Grovier
Pascale Petit
Meryl Pugh
Plus the New Welsh Review Poetry Prize 2009 winners:
John Goodby
Philip Tomkins
Katherine Stansfield

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.

• The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan
  Published by Cannongate
  ISBN 9781847673046  pb £10.99
  Reviewed by Stevie Davies
  
  
• The Clockwork Gift by Claire Crowther
  Published by Shearsman
  ISBN 9781848610323  pb £8.95
  Reviewed by David Wheatley
  
  
• The Suicide Club by Rhys Thomas
  Published by Doubleday
  ISBN 9780385614726  pb £11.99
  Reviewed by Katherine Stansfield
  
  
• In Her Element by Jane MacNamee Ed.
  Published by Honno
  ISBN 9781870206969  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Jeni Williams
  
  
• Everything is Sinister by David Llewellyn
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 9781854114693  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Jerome de Groot
  
  
• Twenty Thousand Saints by Fflur Dafydd
  Published by Alcemi
  ISBN 9780955527227  pb £9.99
  Reviewed by Anna Kiernan
  
  
• Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney by Dennis O'Driscoll
  Published by Faber
  ISBN 9780571242535  pb £9.99
  Reviewed by Andrew McNeillie
  
  
• The Place of Wales: Staging Place in Contemporary Welsh Drama in English (MUSE, Mainz University Studies in English) by Alyce von Rothkirch
  Published by Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.
  ISBN 978388479096  pb £25.00 EUR
  Reviewed by Kaite O'Reilly
  
  
• The Heyday in the Blood by Geraint Goodwin
  Published by Parthian/Library of Wales
  ISBN 9781905762835  pb £8.99
  Reviewed by Sam Adams
  
  
• Leslie Norris: The Complete Poems by Meic Stephens Ed.
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 9781854114679  pb £25.00
  Reviewed by Matthew Jarvis
  
  
• The Great Master of Ecstasy by Glenda Beagan
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 9781854114877  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Jem Poster
  
  
• The Breathing by Mary-Ann Constantine
  Published by Planet Books
  ISBN 9780954088187  pb £6.99
  Reviewed by Jem Poster
  
  
• The Sleepwalker's Ball by Alan Bilton
  Published by Alcemi
  ISBN 9780955527265  pb £9.99
  Reviewed by Siân Melangell Dafydd
  
  

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