The Library of Wales | Writing for the World

Library of Wales enewsletter: September 2012

The Library of Wales is a Welsh Assembly Government project designed to ensure that all of the rich and extensive literature in Wales that has been written in English will now be made available to readers in and beyond Wales. The series is published by Parthian Books. See the full catalogue at http://thelibraryofwales.com/

Our September enewsletter contains updates on news, events, book launches and special offers on classic titles in the Library of Wales range as well as related titles also published by Parthian Books.

Click here to read the September 2012 enewsletter online.

Click here to sign up to receive future editions of the Library of Wales enewsletter.

Jon Gower's Reading Challenge continues with Country Dance

The eponymous dance in Margiad Evans's terse and unsettling novella is expectedly a pretty joyless affair, for the world she depicts is one of ultra hard work and precious little enjoyment. In fact oodles of suffering are seemingly good for the souls of those who attend both chapel and church, the Welsh and the English in this border-straddling book.

It's the story of one life, Ann Goodman's, and it's told in diary form, telling how she comes down from the mountains, and her cousin's farm at Twelve Poplars to the fertile red loam soils around the Wye.

Author, Broadcaster and Raconteur Jon Gower has undertaken the challenge to read all 33 titles in the current Library of Wales series, and review them. You can read his full review of Country Dance by Margiad Evans on Wales Arts Review now.

Catch up: Read his review of Cwmardy & We Live on Wales Arts Review.

A Kind of Loving gets to No. 2 in the Kindle Chart

In the month that we hear that ebook sales have overtaken paperbacks, we bring you some good news from the land of our Parthian classic titles. Last week a Parthian ebook climbed quietly to the dizzy heights of number 2 (NUMBER 2!) in the Kindle chart, and number 1 in the Kindle Store's Literary Fiction category, championed by the Kindle Daily Deals promotion.

Daily Deals, a promotion lasting throughout September, sees a new ebook unveiled at a special bargain price for one day only, and on Tuesday 4th September, savvy shoppers could have Stan Barstow's A Kind of Loving for a knockdown price. It seemed to work, may that Kind of Loving for fantastic Welsh titles continue for days, weeks and many many years.

And for the e-bargain hunters that missed out, there are six other Parthian ebooks on offer for 99p in the '100 under £2.99' list in the Kindle Store. For details, and synopsis information, see Parthian's ebook page in our online Bookshop.

Dai Smith Lecture on Library of Wales Series 26/09/2012

Dai Smith, Professor in the Cultural History of Wales at Swansea University and Series Editor of the Library of Wales books, will be discussing the collection in a Newport and Gwent Literary Society lecture on Wednesday 26th September 2012.

The lecture will consider the aims of the series and the role it is playing in bringing Wales' rich literary heritage to new audiences. Through these texts, until now unavailable or out-of-print, or merely forgotten, the Library of Wales will bring back into play the voices that have expressed the complexity of the Welsh people. The Library of Wales is published by Parthian.

Dai Smith is the Library of Wales series editor and Professor in the Cultural History of Wales at Swansea University. He is the Chair of the Arts Council of Wales.

This event is supported by Literature Wales

The lecture takes place at The Holiday Inn in Newport at 6.30pm. Advance booking is essential and tickets are priced £18, which includes dinner.

For more information on how to book tickets please visit Newport and Gwent Literary Society.

Jon Gower's Reading Challenge continues with Cwmardy & We Live

"Talking to my academic friend Claire Connolly the other evening we found ourselves discussing Lewis Jones' novels and she introduced me to the term 'sensational realism' and I thought how perfect, how extraordinarily apt.

"Cwmardy is nothing if not sensational: it's like one of those Brazilian tele-novelas where one action-packed, or emotionally-soaked incident follows on from another at a breathless lick."

Author, Broadcaster and Raconteur Jon Gower has undertaken the challenge to read all 33 titles in the current Library of Wales series, and review them. You can read his full review of both Cwmardy and follow-up We Live by Lewis Jones on Wales Arts Review now.

Catch up: Read his review of The Dark Philosophers by Gwyn Thomas.

Library of Wales in the Press

Read Damian Walford Davies' feature on Brenda Chamberlain's The Protagonists in New Welsh Review ahead of our release of three Brenda Chamberlain titles this Autumn in celebration of her centenary year.

This issue also contains an essay by John Harrison, a feature from Jon Gower, poetry from Alan Kellermann, plus reviews: Rachel Trezise on Stan Barstow's The Likes of Us, Penny Simpson on Brenda Chamberlain's The Water-castle, and Claire Flay on All Things Betray Thee by Gwyn Thomas and The Volunteers by Raymond Williams.

Plenty of reasons to get your hands on a copy: http://www.newwelshreview.com/contents-97.php

Library of Wales enewsletter: August 2012

The Library of Wales is a Welsh Assembly Government project designed to ensure that all of the rich and extensive literature in Wales that has been written in English will now be made available to readers in and beyond Wales. The series is published by Parthian Books. See the full catalogue at http://thelibraryofwales.com/

Our August enewsletter contains updates on news, events, book launches and special offers on classic titles in the Library of Wales range as well as related titles also published by Parthian Books.

Click here to read the August 2012 enewsletter online.

Click here to sign up to receive future editions of the Library of Wales enewsletter.

Library of Wales titles available as ebooks

Parthian have been developing an ebook list since 2010. We are currently converting front list titles, and select titles from our backlist including titles from the Library of Wales series.

It's not possible to buy ebooks direct from the Library of Wales or Parthian websites, but Kindle and epub files can be easily located online from a variety of retailers, including Amazon, Waterstones, Gwales, Apple, and many others.

These are the Library of Wales titles we currently offer as ebooks:

The Volunteers - Raymond Williams

Goodbye, Twentieth Century - Dannie Abse

All Things Betray thee - Gwyn Thomas

Turf or Stone - Margiad Evans

Make Room for the Jester - Stead Jones

The Long Revolution - Raymond Williams

The Hill of Dreams - Arthur Machen

The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen

Dai Country - Alun Richards

The Battle of the Weak - Hilda Vaughan

Black Parade - Jack Jones

Click here to buy these titles via Amazon's Kindle Store.

Click here to buy these titles via Gwales.com

We also offer Almanac - A Yearbook of Welsh Writing in English in ebook:

'Setting a new agenda and a new standard for literary criticism in Wales.' - Professor Dafydd Johnston

Click here to buy these titles via Amazon's Kindle Store.

Click here to buy these titles via Gwales.com

Reviews

Fancy having a go at reviewing an ebook? Email a 100-500 word review of a Parthian ebook to claire_parthian@ymail.com. The best reviews will be selected for display on the Parthian or Library of Wales websites and one review per month will be chosen to win free copies of our recent print titles!

Library of Wales on Twitter and Facebook

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LibraryOfWales

Twitter: @libraryofwales

Library of Wales at the Eisteddfod 2012

We had a wonderful time on our stall at the mostly gloriously sunny Eisteddfod in the Vale of Glamorgan last week. On Wednesday Parthian Books launched the Kate Roberts' classic novel Feet in Chains, in a new translation by Katie Gramich.

Kate Roberts (1891-1985) was the towering figure of Welsh- language fiction in the twentieth century. Feet in Chains is her masterpiece. Katie Gramich's translation does justice to the austere beauty of Roberts’s style and takes the reader into the heart of a different culture, a different world.

Prof. Katie Gramich is a Reader in English Literature at Cardiff University. A specialist in the literature of modern Wales and in rediscovering neglected Welsh women writers, she has served as Chair of the Association for Welsh Writing in English and edits the Almanac series.

Katie Gramich and Jon Gower were on hand at stall no. 1136 to discuss the title, pictured below with the striking new cover:

...and here are Eluned Gramich and Jon Gower enjoying a moment in the shade:

Reviewing for Wales Arts Review, James Vilares welcomes Katie Gramich's touch:

"A tower in Welsh language writing, Kate Roberts’ 1936 novel Feet in Chains has been re-translated for a new edition, launched at the Eisteddfod this week. The scheduling is no surprise. Where better to launch the iconic Welsh language novel than at the pinnacle of Welsh language culture, which prizes literature so highly.

"[...]What the Eisteddfod doesn't offer (and not many literary awards differ) is a prize for literary translation, which is a shame. As the UK's uniquely bilingual nation, wouldn't it be nice if we could lead the way in celebrating literature in translation? Katie Gramich would be a worthy winner, her translation of that rare breed which balances faithfulness, context, readability and appropriateness for a modern audience."

Read the review in full on Wales Arts Review.

You can see our full photo album from the Eisteddfod over on Facebook.

Buy Feet in Chains from the Parthian online bookshop for £8.99.

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