Where The Crawdads Sing is full of despair, poverty, prejudice and loneliness beyond all imagining. But it is also a book that delights in the wonderous gifts of the natural world. It tells the heart-breaking story of Kya, the ‘marsh girl’. Her mother walks off when she is still a young child, walking away without saying goodbye or even waving. She’s too young to understand what’s going on, but then her older brothers and sisters leave too, and soon she is left alone with her father, a veteran of the war, drinking his way steadily through their small income, unpredictable in his rages. Continue reading
Month: September 2022
A Creative Writing PhD – The Third Year: Part 2
I began my PhD in 2019, just before the pandemic. Covid has meant a lot of disruption and re-adjustment, but I’m delighted to say that, after three years of hard work and waiting, I have finally been able to put my PhD theories into practice – my interactive poetry display at National Museum Cardiff opens today! Continue reading
Exciting Publication News: My Debut Poetry Collection!
I am unbelievably excited to announce that I have just signed a contract with Seren Books to publish my debut poetry collection Octopus Mind in July 2023! After years of hard work, and many many rejections, this really is a dream come true, especially when I remember that I gave up on the poetry dream for nearly a decade. It was this blog, and the welcoming arms of the Cardiff poetry scene, that spurred me on to start writing and submitting once again.