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 8: 'Too Perfect' by Jo Mazelis

(Taken from Diving Girls, 2002)

Jo Mazelis (also writes as Jo Hughes) is a short story, non-fiction and poetry writer, novelist, photographer, designer and illustrator. Born in 1956 in Swansea, she has a BA from Swansea Institute and a MA from the University of Wales Swansea. After working in London for many years, she returned to her home town in 1991. She has been a prize-winner in the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition three times, and her collection of stories Diving Girls (Parthian, 2002) was shortlisted for Commonwealth ‘Best First Book’ and ‘Welsh Book of the Year’ prizes. Her second book Circle Games, published by Parthian in 2005, was on the ‘Wales Book of the Year’ 2006 Long List. Her short stories have been widely published and broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and have appeared in various anthologies and magazines, such as New Welsh Review, Cambrensis, Corridor, Spare Rib, Everywoman, The Cardiff Poet and The Ottawa Citizen. Her first novel, Significance, is due to be published in 2014. Her poetry has appeared in New Welsh Review and Poetry Wales and in anthologies. A selection of stories from both her books was translated into Danish as Forbuden Frugt (Arvids, 2007).

During the 1980s she worked as a graphic designer, photographer and illustrator for the magazines City Limits, Women’s Review, Spare Rib, Undercurrents, Everywoman and New Dance.

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

Circle Games (Parthian, 2005)

Diving Girls (Parthian, 2002)

Contributed to

Story II (anthology) (Library of Wales, 2014)

The Raconteur: America (Parthian, 2011)

Urban Welsh: New Welsh Fiction (Parthian, 2005)

Tilting at Windmills (Parthian, 1998)

Mama’s Baby (Parthian, 1999)

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 7: 'Miss Grey of Market Street' by Robert Nisbet

(Taken from Downtrain, 2004)

Robert Nisbet is a short-story writer, poet and creative writing tutor. He was born in 1941 in Haverfordwest, and was educated at Milford Haven Grammar School, University College of Swansea and the University of Essex. Robert taught English for 30 years in grammar and comprehensive schools and then taught creative writing at Trinity College, Carmarthen for over a decade. He is now an associate tutor in English literature with Swansea University. Writer in residence, Llangatwg School, Neath, in 1999. He now has 100 short stories published in a wide range of magazines in Europe and the United State. His work has appeared regularly in Planet, Anglo-Welsh Review, New Welsh Review, Cambrensisand Blue Tattoo, in American literary quarterlies like Webster Review and New England Review, on BBC Radio 4, and in translation in Germany and Romania. As well as enjoying a successful career in education, he has been a regular contributor to BBC radio and has edited a number of short-story anthologies. His book Sounds of the Town (Alun Books, 1982) was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Award in 1983. His selected short-story collection, Downtrain, was published in 2004. In 2007 he turned to poetry and has had work accepted by Poetry Wales, Planet, Borderlines, Roundyhouse, Cambria, The Seventh Quarry, Red Poets, Prole, The Interpreter’s House, Obsessed with Pipework, Orbis, Other Poetry, Poetry Cornwall, Purple Patch, Smiths Knoll, Weyfarers, 14, Cake Magazine, The Coffee House, The Red Wheelbarrow and on the websites ‘Open Mouse’, ‘Ink Sweat and Tears’, ‘London Grip’ and ‘The Camel Saloon’ (USA). A lifelong supporter of Haverfordwest Football Club, Robert is now their media officer.

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

Downtrain (Parthian, 2004)

Contributed to

Story II (anthology) (Library of Wales, 2014)

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 5: 'And a Spoonful of Grief to Taste' by Gwyn Thomas

(Taken from Where Did I Put My Pity? Folk Tales from the Modern Welsh, 1946)

 

Gwyn Thomas was born in 1913 in the Rhondda Valley. He studied Spanish at Oxford and spent time in Spain during the early 1930s. He obtained part-time lecturing jobs across England before deciding to become a schoolteacher in Wales. He retired from that profession in 1962 to work full-time as a writer and broadcaster. He wrote extensively across several genres including essays, short stories, novels and plays, and was widely translated. His fictional works include The Dark Philosophers (1946) and All Things Betray Thee (1949), the drama The Keep (1962) and an autobiography, A Few Selected Exits (1968). Gwyn Thomas was given the Honour for Lifetime Achievement by Arts Council Wales in 1976. He died in 1981.

 

 

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

The Dark Philosophers (Library of Wales, 2005)
The Alone to the Alone (Library of Wales, 2008)
All Things Betray Thee (Library of Wales, 2011)

 

Contributed to

Story I (anthology) (Library of Wales, 2014)
Story II (anthology) (Library of Wales, 2014)

 

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 5: 'Acting Captain' by Alun Lewis

(Taken from The Last Inspection and Other Stories, 1942)

 

Alun Lewis was born on 1 July 1915 at Cwmaman, a mining village near Aberdare; both his parents were schoolteachers and his father later became the town’s Director of Education. The family took summer holidays at Penbryn in Cardiganshire, one of the poet’s favourite places. He was educated at Cowbridge Grammar School, the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he read History, and at Manchester University. In 1938 he joined the staff of the Lewis Boys’ School, Pengam, enjoying a reputation as a gifted teacher, but in 1940, despite his pacifist convictions, resigned from the post and

joined the Army as a commissioned officer. He found the life of the officers’ mess uncongenial, preferring the company of his men, most of whom were from the valleys

of South Wales, but had time to resume the writing of poems and stories which he had begun while at school. In July 1941 he married Gweno Ellis, a teacher of German at

Mountain Ash Grammar School. In the autumn of the following year his battalion of the South Wales Borderers was sent to India, where another period of intense literary

activity began. The poverty and nihilism of India affected him deeply and he began to suffer bouts of the depression that had dogged him for several years. In January 1944 he went with his regiment to Chittagong in Burma. There, although an Intelligence Officer, he was given permission to move into a forward position facing the Japanese. On 5 March 1944 he was found shot in the head near the officers’ latrines; he died of his wounds six hours later. An Army court of inquiry concluded that his death was an accident, though the belief has persisted that he had taken his own life. Despite his comparatively small output – he published only ninety-four poems and twenty-five stories – Alun Lewis was recognized as an accomplished writer during his own short lifetime. Serious, idealistic, devoted to those he loved, particularly his wife, and intent on serving humanity as a writer, he was primarily concerned with what he called ‘the twin themes of life and death’, exploring them in verse and prose of a high order. His stories appeared in The Last Inspection (1943) and the posthumous volume In the Green Tree; his Collected Stories (ed. Cary Archard) were published in 1994. His two collections of poems are Raiders’ Dawn (1942) and Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets 1945); his Collected Poems (ed. Cary Archard) appeared in 1994 and a selection in the Corgi series in 2003. In everything he wrote there is compassion for the underdog, whether British soldier or Indian peasant, and a fine delight in the natural world, even in the parched landscapes of the sub-continent. His was a tragic vision, forced to early maturity by his military experience, and his death at the age of 28 was undoubtedly the single greatest loss sustained by Welsh letters duringthe Second World War.

 

 

 

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

In the Green Tree (Library of Wales, 2006)

 

Contributed to

Story I (anthology) (Library of Wales, 2014)

 

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 4: 'Dat's Love' by Leonora Brito

(Taken from Dat's Love, 1995)

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

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 3: 'Boy with a Trumpet' by Rhys Davies

(Taken from Boy with a Trumpet, 1949)

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

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 1: 'Chickens' by Rachel Trezise

(Taken from Fresh Apples, 2005)

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

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 1: 'The Fare' by Lewis Davies

(Taken from Love and Other Possibilities, 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

May looks set to be a significant month for literature: not only is the 26th Hay Festival almost upon us, but so too is the 21st birthday of Parthian Books, which was established in 1993 by director Richard Lewis Davies, Gillian Griffiths and Ravi Pawar. To celebrate, Parthian and the Library of Wales, in association with Hay, are offering a complimentary story, taken from the recent Story anthology volumes, every day for the whole month. That’s right. Totally free!