‘Goddesses and Anti-heroines’ – filmed poems in New Welsh Review

Poetry filmed, is poetry re-created in new form. It’s been an eye-opener to experience my poem ‘Churchyard’ interpreted as a multi-media artifact sponsored by Aberystwyth University.

‘Goddesses and Anti-heroines’ is a ten minute poetry showcase, commissioned by the New Welsh Review, which takes the work of Polly Atkin, Claire Booker, Alys Conran and Stav Poleg and teams it with young actors and film-makers at the University. What emerges is beautiful, arresting, even shocking.

The poetry showcase runs in the following order:  At the Yorkshire Sculpture Park by Alys Conran; Churchyard by Claire Booker; Site-specific Streetcar by Stav Poleg; Free Night by Polly Atkin; and Leave by Alys Conran.

My poem ‘Churchyard’ is beautifully performed by Freya Blyth over a collage of visuals including dandelion clocks, wind-swept hawthorn bushes and the murmurations of starlings. Thank you to everyone involved.

‘Goddesses and Anti-heroines was filmed by Emma Musty and Jes Rose and can be viewed on Vimeo or at the New Welsh Reader website. Please click the following link which takes you to the multi-media part of the website and scroll down: www.newwelshreview.com/multimedia.php

New Welsh Review is a monthly online supplement of review and comment. It’s a recent addition to sister publication New Welsh Reader which has been a leading Welsh-based literary magazine since the 1980s. You can follow The New Welsh Review for free at: www.newwelshreview.com

New Welsh Reader turns search-light on War

The theme of War and its contradictions runs through NWR #109, including an intriguing memoir about a Welsh-American GI by Peter E Murphy, and a searing short story by Daniel Jones about life after Afghanistan.

There’s also a hard-hitting essay by John Barnie – ‘The Sentimental Poppy’ – which argues that the War To End All Wars has been hi-jacked by tasteless nostalgia and is simply the last hurrah of British imperialism. One to ponder, at a time when the new leader of the Labour Party has promised to wear a white poppy this November at the Cenotaph.

New Welsh Review offers it’s usual high standard of poetry this issue with work by Polly Atkin, Sara Backer, Claire Booker, Philip Burton, James Davey, David Foster-Morgan and Stav Poleg. For a taster of each of the poems, click on: www.newwelshreview.com//article.php?id=1061

Love him or hate him, Caradoc Evan’s highly controvertial short-story collection ‘My People’ still divides a nation, one hundred years after its first publication. Huw Lawrence’s essay dispassionately dissects these gripping stories – vitriolic parody of Welsh villagers by one of their own, or dark moral fables on universal themes? How complex the creative mind can be.

And on a lighter note, there’s a hilarious short story – ‘My Bukowski’ by Crystal Jeans – which really does take the stuffing out of sexual fantasy!

To buy of copy of New Welsh Reader (issue 109) or to find out how to submit your work to the magazine, click: www.newwelshreview.com