CONTENTS:

Editorial: Susie Wild

Spotlight: Odette Debono’s debut memoir White Sheep tells tales of an unreachable girl born into the narrow dockland streets of late-sixties Newport.

In Conversation: Alex Hubbard & Amy Grandvoinet
An abridged live transcript from the launch of Alex Hubbard’s gothic debut novel, Storm, in Aberystwyth.

ESSAYS:
Muted Neon Dreams (Osaka, Japan)
Elin Gruffydd explores simple beauty, intimacy and femininity, capturing quiet moments in dreamy spaces through the nostalgic lens of film.

For the Thrill of It
Carole Burns on the mysteries of masterful storytelling in new fiction from Fflur Dafydd, Tristan Hughes and Cynan Jones.

In Translation: Slate gods
Angharad Price finds new powers in disobedience on a fifteen-minute walk around the block with her father.

The Rheidol Prize Shortlist: Hon Oedd Fy Ninas (This Was My City)
Potter and allotment gardener Louise Denham explores the virtuous and ominous sides of water, from building healthy soils to rising sea levels, asking what lessons can be learnt from our present-day efforts to tackle the climate and nature emergency.

The Garden is This Garden
Catrin Menai explores absence and renewal through the lens of mothering and ecological restoration.

¡Ojalá!
Lewis Davies seeks the human side of politics in three recent memoirs from Simon Hart, Chris Bryant and Nicola Sturgeon.

FICTION:
Tide Diana Powell
The Escape Keza O’Neill
In Translation: Mum from the future Markéta Pilátová (trans. Isabel Stainsby)

POETRY:
Endangered Jessica Mookherjee
Moonstripe Stephen Payne
Drive Safe Natasha Gauthier
Case Study: Hirtles Beach, Nova Scotia Emily Vanderploeg

Cover art: ‘Proper Treats’ by Zena Blackwell

Design: Olwen Fowler


Susie Wild is Parthian’s publishing editor specialising in poetry and fiction. With Parthian since 2007, she has worked with many wonderful writers and translators including Julia Bell, Zoë Brigley, Mari Ellis Dunning, Rhian Elizabeth, Amaia Gabantxo, Richard Gwyn, Natalie Ann Holborow, Rae Howells, Tristan Hughes, Patrick Jones, Lloyd Markham, Miren Agur Meabe and Richard Owain Roberts. Following an MA in Creative Writing from Swansea University and an MA in Journalism from Goldsmiths, she has also built a portfolio career in the arts as a journalist, festival and events organiser, performer, editor and university lecturer. Susie is the author of two poetry collections (Windfalls and Better Houses), the short story collection The Art of Contraception, listed for the Edge Hill Prize, and the novella Arrivals.