Cinnamon Press at the Guardian Hay on Wye Festival
On May 30th the charity anthology, The Lie of the Land, was launched at the Guardian Hay on Wye festival. Seats in the festival's review studio were sold out and the Welsh Books Council stall in Pemberton's (the official bookseller at the festival) did a good trade selling copies of the book, which is being sold in aid of the Meningitis Trust.
Sadly Simone Lloyd Williams (from the Meningitis Trust) and Herbert Williams were unable to be with us due to illness, but Ruth Bidgood kindly read Herbert's superb poem, Hill Fort.
Jan Fortune-Wood, for Cinnamon Press, introduced a line up of excellent poets who all read brilliantly to make the event such a success.
- Chris Kinsey - Painting the Dyfi Estuary
clare e. potter - Mother's Days
John Gimblett - Mynydd Du, Llanbedr
Susan Richardson - Metamorphosis - Nigel Humphreys - The Vivian Quarry, Llanberis
Zoe Brigley - Equivocation
- Ansley Moon - Language
Iwan Llwyd - Homeland
Stephanie Green - Hill Farm in Winter
Owen Sheers - History
Jan Fortune-Wood - A Place - Christine Evans - First Song
- Ruth Bidgood - Winter Coming and Hill Fort by Herbert Williams
In addition to raising funds for an important charity that effects so many lives Owen Sheers also spoke of how the anthology is contributing to making Welsh voices in poetry heard on the larger UK stage and beyond.
The anthology brings together the work of sixty-five poets and is a wonderful insight into the diverse riches of Welsh poetry in English from those born in Wales or those living and working in Wales. It also brings together established poets with rising new voices, making a unique contribution to the poetry scene.
