News From Seren Books: "Seren Books: Well Chosen Words"

A Special Seren News!

Two Seren titles have been shortlisted for the Forward Prize, Best First Collection 2011.

The Forward Prize shortlist has been announced, and we here at Seren, are thrilled to see two of our poetry titles on the shortlist for ‘Best First Collection’ 2011. Both Sound Archive by Nerys Williams and Loudness by Judy Brown find themselves shortlisted along with another four poets. The winner will be announced on Wednesday 5th October, the eve of National Poetry Day, at a ceremony in Somerset House in London. Seren author, Hilary Menos, won this prize last year for her collection Berg.

Sound Archive is a strikingly original first collection of poems. Using formal strategies similar to modernist painting: abstraction, dislocation, surrealist juxtaposition, the poet conjures a complex music, intriguing narratives, and poems full of atmosphere that query identity, gender, and the dream of art as a vehicle for emotion and meaning.

Nerys Williams is originally from Pen-Y-Bont, Carmarthen in West Wales. A recent winner of the Ted McNulty Poetry Prize, she lectures in American Literature at University College, Dublin.

“Sound Archive is an innovative volume..”-- The Irish Times.

Judy Brown’s beautiful first collection Loudness, is a straightforward manner and a gift for ironic humour belie the artful complexities and the exacting observations evident in her work. Loudness will be available to buy at the end of September 2011.

Judy Brown was born in Cheshire and has lived in Northumbria, Cumbria and Hong Kong. She has studied English Literature at Cambridge and Newcastle-upon Tyne and now lives between London (where her ‘day job’ is working part-time as a lawyer) and Derbyshire. She has won the Poetry London and Manchester Festival Poetry prizes and she has placed in the Cardiff International Poetry Competition and others. She is also the author of a prize-winning pamphlet, Pillars of Salt.

The Forward Prize for Best First Collection shortlist:

Rachael Boast Sidereal

Judy Brown Loudness

Nancy Gaffield Tokaido Road

Ahren Warner Confer

John Whale Waterloo Teeth

Nerys Williams Sound Archive

New Titles from Seren Books - Out Now!

Evan Walters: Moments of Vision

Ed. Barry Plummer

The Last Hundred Days

by Patrick McGuinness

The Quality of Light

by Richard Collins

Real South Pembrokeshire

by Tony Curtis

Daniel's Beetles

by Tony Bianchi

The Captain's Tower

Eds. Phil Bowen, Damien Furniss

David Woolley

Forthcoming Titles

Jonah Jones: An Artist's Life

Peter Jones

Second Chance

Sian James

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Telephone: 01656 663018 | Email: Info@SerenBooks.com | 57 Nolton St, Bridgend, Wales, CF31 3AE, UK

Review: 'Sea Holly' by Robert Minhinnick

Porthcawl is a traditional British seaside resort on the South Wales coast about half way between Cardiff and Swansea. It has an esplanade with a row of hotels encamped along the seafront, a funfair called Coney Island and one of the largest caravan and camping parks in Europe. There are several beaches including Rest Bay and Trecco Bay both of which have been awarded the coveted Blue Flag status for adherence to water quality standards. Altogether an interesting and lively place and a perfect setting for a novel which explores the related themes of transience and permanence.

Life is seasonal in Porthcawl, or at least it is for the migrant workers who come to work at the funfair and for the human flotsam and jetsam that live on its margins. Robert Minhinnick has assembled a lively cast of marginal characters many of whom assume the role of narrator as the story unfolds. There is "The Fish" whose diminutive size, withered arm and love of alcohol have condemned him to work collecting fares for a ride aptly named "The Kingdom of The Damned". He spends the last night of the season sitting on a pedestal in "The Kingdom" drinking absinthe and toasting "absinthe friends". There is Donal, ex Special Boat Service, a veteran of the "troubles" in Northern Ireland. A man infected with wanderlust and a love of the sea. He has returned to Porthcawl after a failed Spanish business venture. His bar in Spain was called "El Zorro". Named after a freak wave that would snatch people off the beach and wash them out to sea. At one point he reflects ruefully whilst swimming off the 'Caib':-

"And yeah, that wave, El Zorro, that people warned their children about? Well I was the one it swallowed, wasn't I? I was the one it snatched off the beach. Funny really. You might even call it ironic.How that bastard wiped me out."

Many other colorful characters stalk these pages including Lol ,the geography teacher who sees a vision and goes native, camping in the dunes for years and communing with nature. There is also Hal the local Napoleon who owns much of the fair and many other things besides including a beer mat signed by Richard Burton, his hero, which is amongst his prized possessions.

It falls to the lot of these characters to narrate the tale of John Vine, a fifty year old English teacher who has left his job and family behind to live in a caravan on the Caib and pursue a new 'career' as a bingo caller at the fair. This crisis in his affairs was precipitated by an involvement with a young female student who subsequently disappeared.

The action takes place over a seven day period and during the course of the week we are offered many fascinating insights into the characters of both John Vine and the many narrators. Of course the disappearance of John Vine's former pupil, Rachel is central to the plot but we are also presented with a vivid portrait and masterful evocation of life on the 'Caib'. Indeed so much so that the novel was nominated for the 2008 Ondaatje Prize, a literary award that is given for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry which powerfully evokes the "spirit of a place".

This is a novel for anyone with an appreciation of the transience of mans life and works and of the futility of resistance to time and tide. It is Robert Minhinnick's first novel and hopefully the first of many.

First rate....highly recommended! A bigraphy of Robert Minhinnick can be found here.

Trecco Bay Wikimedia Commons

Seren Books, Bridgend, Wales

Seren Books, described by one myspace admirer as a, "tidy lil publisher," is an independent publisher specializing in Welsh writers in English. Following a string of nominations and awards to its writers, Seren is currently enjoying what is hopefully only the beginning of great success: Sea Holly, by Robert Minhinnick, was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize; poet John Haynes won the 2007 Costa Poetry prize; a translation of an Albanian novel – The Loser by Fatos Kongoli – was shortlisted for the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression award 2008; To Babel and Back, by Robert Minhinnick won the Welsh Book of the Year in 2006, Mr Cassini by Lloyd Jones in 2007 and Blue Sky July by Nia Wyn is on this year's long list.

Founded in 1981 by Mick Felton, its current editor, Seren titles itself "Wales' leading literary publisher," and is described on its website as: "... an independent literary publisher, specialising in English-language writing from Wales. Our diverse and eclectic list has something to offer anyone with an interest in excellent writing. Our aim is not simply to reflect what is going on in the culture in which we publish, but to drive that culture forward, to engage with the world, and to bring Welsh literature, art and politics before a wider audience."

In addition to being able to sign up for membership, read articles and profiles of Seren's very impressive stable of writers on its website, you can experience live poetry readings from Seren authors on their youtube page and learn more about Seren on its myspace profile.

Seren offers an amazing list of works and writers, including literature, poetry, photography and art, including:

LLOYD JONES, Mr Cassini, Mr. Vogel. "Former farm-worker, newspaper editor, chamber-of-horrors employee and lecturer, Lloyd Jones lives in Llanfairfechan, on the north Wales coast. Following a bout of alcoholism which nearly killed him, he set off on an epic walk around Wales, the inspiration for his novel, Mr Vogel."


ROBERT MINHINNICK, Sea Holly, Badlands, (many more titles). Robert Minhinnick is a prolific multi-award winning poet and author, former editor of Poetry Wales and co-founder of Sustainable Wales


NIA WYN, Blue Sky July. Journalist Nia Wyn's autobiographical memoir of the first seven years of her son, Joe's, life with cerebral palsy.