Every day throughout May, you will be able to visit the Library of Wales website to download your free story, drawn from Story, vols I and II - a collection boasting the finest Welsh short fiction ever written and featuring some of the most talented literary names from both past and present, including the legendary Dylan Thomas and the award-winning Rachel Trezise, as well as read all about the chosen author.

Day 27: 'Chickens' by Rachel Trezise

(Taken from Fresh Apples, 2005)

Born in 1978 in Cwmparc in the Rhondda valley, South Wales, where she still lives, Rachel Trezise is, in the recent words of Richard Lewis Davies, Parthian Books' "big success". While attending the University of Glamorgan in Wales and University of Limerick in Ireland, she conceived, wrote and published her first novel, the semi-autobiographical In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl, in 2000. It recieved critical acclaim, and led to a place on the Orange Futures List in 2001 and Harpers & Queen proclaiming her the 'new face of literature' in 2003.

Her second book, a short story collection called Fresh Apples followed in 2005 and won the inaugural Dylan Thomas Prize, one of the world's richest literary awards, in 2006. Shortly after, Trezise took up writer's residence at the University of Texas, before returning home to research, write and publish her third book, Dial M for Merthyr, which charts her experiences on tour with the Welsh band Midasuno. Following two other releases with different publishers - Loose Connections (Accent Press, 2010) and Sixteen Shades of Crazy(Blue Door, 2010) - Trezise returned to Parthian in 2013 with her second collection: Cosmic Latte. Her work has been translated into several languages and has been published in Australia and New Zealand, Denmark and Italy.

She has also written for the stage and radio, with her first venture into theatre, 2007's I Sing of a Maiden, which featured interspersed performances by Charlotte Greig, playing to sell-out audiences across Wales. She also achieved success with her 2013 playTonypandymonium, which won the People’s Prize for Best Production (English language) at the Theatre Critics of Wales Awards. Her first radio play, Lemon Meringue Pie, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Play slot in September 2008.

You can download the story in PDF format here. (If download does not start, then right click the link and select 'Save link as'.)

Selected bibliography

Cosmic Latte (Parthian, 2013)

Dial M for Merthyr (Parthian, 2007)

Fresh Apples (Parthian, 2005)

In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl (Parthian, 2000)

 

 

Plays and theatre

Tonypandymonium (2013)

Lemon Meringue Pie (2008)

I Sing Of A Maiden (2007)

 

 

Contributed to

Story II (Library of Wales, 2014)

Bit on the Side (Parthian, 2007)

Sideways Glances (Parthian, 2005)

Urban Welsh: New Welsh Fiction (Parthian, 2005)