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Welsh Country is the pan Wales magazine that is essential reading for those that are passionate about the countryside of Wales, Welsh Food, Arts in Wales, Welsh Property, the history of Wales and its people, lifestyle, gardening and much more...

Click here to see what's included in this exciting May June 2012 issue

Welsh Arts News

Aberystwyth University lecturers short listed for Wales Book of the Year

Details: Category: Books and Literature

Two University lecturers shortlisted for Book of the Year Award

Mihangel Morgan, a lecturer in the Department of Welsh, and Tiffany Atkinson, a lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University, have been shortlisted for the 2012 Wales Book of the Year Award.

The Award will be presented to the best Welsh and English-language works first published in 2011 in the fields of creative writing and literary criticism in three categories: Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction.

Dr Mihangel Morgan, shortlisted for his latest Welsh language fiction novel Pantglas, has based his book around inhabitants of the imaginary village Pantglas and how they face change and numerous tragedies.

More information

Dr Tiffany Atkinson,
Department of English and Creative Writing, Aberystwyth University,
01970 628439
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Tenby Arts Festival Writing Competition 2012

Details: Category: Books and Literature

The Tenby Arts Festival creative writing competition – open to anyone living anywhere - is now open. The closing date for entries is 14 July, 2012.

The competition judges are the poet Gillian Clarke and the novelist Sally Spedding.

Pontio Celebrates Its Third Annual Story Festival With UK’s Leading Storytellers

Details: Category: Books and Literature

Pontio celebrates its third annual storytelling festival this February, with a magical afternoon of tales told by two of the UK's leading contemporary storytellers.

From 2pm on Saturday 25th February, the magical and rustic setting of Hendre Hall, a beautiful converted barn, will be home to the Hendre Fable Fest.

First on stage is a familiar face to the local community - award-winning Cath Aran from Bethesda. As well as performing at storytelling festivals around the world, including at Galway, Dublin, Calgary and Much Wenlock, Cath appeared at the International Children’s Festival Agor Drysau in Aberystwyth and at Pontio's first Hendre Fable Fest in 2010.

West Wales To Host Major New Literature Festival

Details: Category: Books and Literature

Literature Wales is pleased to announce that a lively new festival celebrating the very best of literature will be held at Dinefwr Park and Castle in west Wales in 2012.

The Dinefwr Literature Festival is a collaboration between Literature Wales, the National Trust, and the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David (as lead partner in the Coracle programme). The Arts Council of Wales has generously awarded £65,000 to this new project from its Festivals Fund.

The bilingual festival, which will be the first of its kind, takes place from Friday 29th June to Sunday 1st July 2012. It will feature an eclectic mix of literature, music, comedy, cinema and children’s activities – doing for literature what the Green Man Festival has done for music. High quality literature events will be programmed alongside other art forms in the beautiful and inspiring surroundings of Dinefwr Park and Castle.

Prestigious International Award For Aberystwyth-Based Dictionary

Details: Category: Books and Literature

Prestigious International Award For Aberystwyth-Based Dictionary

The Anglo-Norman Dictionary project (AND), directed by Professor David Trotter since 2001 and based in the Department of European Languages, Aberystwyth University, has been awarded the Prix Honoré Chavée by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris.

The 'AND' started life in 1947, when a "glossary committee" met in Oxford, to discuss the compilation of a dictionary (or at that stage, a glossary) of Anglo-Norman, the form of French in use in Britain as a result of the Norman Conquest in 1066.

At first a spoken language, later increasingly used in writing alone, Anglo-Norman was extant from 1066 until the mid fifteenth century, lingering on in legal language and leaving a lasting impact on English, especially in vocabulary.

Winner Of Academi Hywel Teifi Creative Writing Competition

Details: Category: Books and Literature

Winner Of Academi Hywel Teifi Creative Writing Competition

Carwyn Graves from Whitchurch in Cardiff has been announced the winner of the first creative writing competition run by Swansea University's Academi Hywel Teifi.

The competition, for year 12 and 13 school pupils, was launched in August 2010. A £100 prize and a master class with writers Dr Fflur Dafydd, Dr Christine James or Professor Tudur Hallam was offered to the most creative and promising work written in Welsh.

Pupils were asked to compose a poem, a short story or an essay along the theme of 'Moving Again'.

According to judge, Robert Rhys, Reader in Welsh at Academi Hywel Teifi, the standard was high and Carwyn Greaves, a year 13 pupil from Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf in Cardiff, was a worthy winner.

Wales Book Of The Year 2011 Long List

Details: Category: Books and Literature

Wales Book Of The Year 2011 Long List

The Wales Book of the Year Long List for 2011 was launched by Literature Wales on Wednesday 13th April 2011.

The Short List of six titles - three in Welsh and three in English - will be revealed simultaneously at two special events held at Galeri Caernarfon and John Lewis' Espresso Bar, Cardiff on Thursday 19th May 2011.

The winners will be announced at the Wales Book of the Year Award Ceremony which will be held on Thursday 7th July 2011 at Cineworld, Cardiff.

Writers' Bursaries Panel Members Wanted

Details: Category: Books and Literature

Writers' Bursaries Panel Members Wanted

Academi is seeking a Chair and a Panel Member for its Writers' Bursaries Panel to advise on 2011 bursaries.

Chair: Knowledge of contemporary English literature in Wales and publishing is essential.
The Chair will be expected to assess all applications (c. 120 per year). The Chair will also chair the Bursaries Panel's annual meeting and report in detail on c. 20 manuscripts at the meeting. Fee: £750 p.a.

Panel Member: Knowledge of contemporary Welsh language literature and publishing in Wales is essential. The Panel Member will be expected to assess and report on Welsh and English language bursary applications and attend the Panel's annual meeting. Fee: £450 p.a.

Closing date: Thursday 30th September 2010

Please send full CV and covering letter with the names of two referees to:
Academi, Chief Executive Peter Finch,
Mount Stuart House, Mount Stuart Square,
Cardiff CF10 5FQ.

029 2047 2266 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Wales Book of the Year 2010 Winner

Details: Category: Books and Literature

Academi

The Winner is …

**Philip Gross, I Spy Pinhole Eye (Cinnamon)**

Philip Gross Copyright: Academi / John Briggs

Poet Philip Gross has won the Wales Book of the Year 2010 for I Spy Pinhole Eye - a collection of poems published by Cinnamon Press.

The announcement was made on Wednesday 30 June at a Gala Dinner at St David’s Hotel in Cardiff, introduced by BBC Wales Political Editor, Betsan Powys. Gross was presented with the £10,000 prize by Minister for Heritage, Alun Ffred Jones.

Philip Gross is the author of twelve poetry collections, including The Water Table which won the T S Eliot Prize 2010, as well as a fiction writer, dramatist and Professor of Creative Writing at Glamorgan University. He lives in Cardiff.

I Spy Pinhole Eye is a collaborative work between poet and photographer. Simon Denison uses a pinhole camera to transform that most mundane of objects – the footings of electricity pylons - while Philip Gross’s poems explore the act of seeing and interpretation.

The judges for the 2010 English-language Award are poet and lecturer at the University of Wales, Ian Gregson (Chair); fiction writer James Hawes and broadcaster Sara Edwards.

The runners-up on the English-language Short List were Terri Wiltshire for her novel Carry Me Home (Macmillan) and Nikolai Tolstoy's The Compilation of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi (The Edwin Mellen Press). Both authors received a cheque for £1,000 each.

Terri Wiltshire Copyright: Academi / John Briggs Nikolai Tolstoy Copyright: Academi / John Briggs

The winner of the Welsh-language award, who also received a £10,000 prize, was John Davies for his book Cymru: Y 100 lle i’w gweld cyn marw, published by Y Lolfa.

And the Readers Prize Winner …

**Richard Marggraf Turley, Wan-Hu's Flying Chair (Salt)**

Richard Marggraf Turley Copyright: Academi

The Media Wales People’s Choice Prize, which was chosen by the public via an online poll, was awarded to Richard Marggraf Turley for his collection of poetry, Wan-Hu's Flying Chair, published by Salt.

The Welsh language Readers’ prize sponsored by Golwg 360 went to Manon Steffan Ros for her novel Fel Aderyn published by Y Lolfa.

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Wales Book of the Year 2010 Longlists announced

Details: Category: Books and Literature

From the tales of the Mabinogi to an account of a rural Welsh childhood in the 1920s and the diary of a modern-day police officer on the beat, the longlist for the Wales Book of the Year features an eclectic mix of subject matter and genres.

The longlists for the eighteenth Wales Book of the Year - Wales's premier award for literature - were announced today, Tuesday 20 April at The Management Centre, Bangor Business School, North Wales. The awards, worth £10,000 to the winners, are presented to the best books of the year in the English and Welsh language.

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