Had a great time co-headlining 'Poets at the DTC' with Adam Sillman last night. Thanks to Jo Furber for asking us to do it, and to members of the audience for all the nice things that were said about us afterwards. Great open mic too!

Bit of a thick head in work this morning though. I blame Blod...

Photos taken by Jo Furber and Emily Vanderploeg

This Thursday I will be co-headlining 'Poets at the DTC' (the event formerly known as 'Poets in the Bookshop') at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea. Reading alongside me is my good friend Adam Sillman.

From the South Wales Evening Post:
"Poets Adam Sillman and Rhys Owain Williams will be headlining an event at Swansea's Dylan Thomas Centre on Thursday from 7.30pm.

The night will help celebrate a new series of chapbooks which were published under the banner of Mozart's spoken word night in Uplands, Swansea.

The Crunch Poets #1 features Crunch co-founder, Adam Sillman, alongside other writers, including a Swansea poet with a growing reputation, Rhys Owain Williams.

The evening will also include an open mic session."

The tenth, and possibly last ever, issue of Cardiff-based poetry magazine Square will be launched on Sunday May 22nd at the Poet's Corner Pub, City Road, Cardiff. 

I have two poems featured in this Revolution-themed issue, and will hopefully be reading at the launch, so please come along and support what will possibly be the final instalment of a magazine that have been very kind to me over the years, and who were the first to place my poetry in print back in 2008 (Square Issue 3). 

The event starts at 6.30pm with readings from contributors past and present and live music from The Pine Barons. Entry is free.

Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130948820313600

Some photos taken by Rhys Jones at Stuff Happens 5 (Dylan Thomas Festival Edition), Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea, 09/11/2010.

I am very happy to say that, along with my good friend Adam Sillman, I will be headlining The Crunch open mic night at Mozart's, Swansea on the 11th November.

I have much love for The Crunch – it provides a fantastic platform for a vast array of local writers to read their work and has proved to be an energising addition to Swansea's literary scene since its first edition in December 2008. Without the support of the community of writers who meet twice monthly at Mozart's, I don’t think I would be anywhere near as comfortable with reading my own work to an audience as I am, and for that I must thank them.

From the Facebook event page:
"This week, the Crunch is represented by 50% of the Swansea OXSLAM team – and they're not so much Crunch regulars as Crunchstitutions.

RHYS OWAIN WILLIAMS was described by Swansea laureate Nigel Jenkins as "intelligent and sensitive." Bestowed with gravitas beyond his years, Rhys' poems touch something deep but never lose their sense of humour.

YOU KNOW ADAM. He runs the Crunch. It's his show, and he writes funny, sweet-natured, biting poems too. He's taking a break from hosting (mystery guest host ahoy) to share the poem-reading limelight. It's been a long time coming.

Before Rhys and Adam do their thing, we have the inevitable open mic."

For more information, go to the Facebook event page.

I am chuffed to announce that I will be reading at the finale of the 2010 Dylan Thomas Festival at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea.

From the 2010 Dylan Thomas Festival brochure:
"A fabulous double-bill to end the Festival, with readers from the regular collaborative poetry performance evening the Dylan Thomas Centre runs with The Crunch poetry night at Swansea's Mozart's. Those performing are Marcel Fanara, Emily Vanderploeg, Rhys Owain Williams and Adam Sillman.

They will be followed by a welcome return for Canadian poetry & music collective The Fugitives, who wowed the crowd at the DTC in 2005."

The event is on Tuesday 9th November at 7.30pm, and entry is completely FREE. For more information go to the event page: http://www.dylanthomas.com/index.cfm?articleid=8653

Check out The Fugitives: http://www.fugitives.ca/

Three quarters of the Oxslam! wooden-spoon-winning team, pictured upon their return to Swansea.
(L-R) Rhys Owain Williams, Liza Penn-Thomas, Adam Sillman (Simone Mansell Broome not pictured).

Final Score: Cardiff – 1120 – Swansea – 1050, with over £300 raised in aid of Oxfam.

On Wednesday 20th October, as part of Oxfam's national OXJAM festival, four poets from Cardiff will battle it out against four poets from Swansea at Koko Gorillaz in Cathays, Cardiff. The two rounds of the slam will give each poet 10 minutes in total to impress the judges with their words, rhymes and rhythms, under the watchful eyes of compères Nick Fisk and Gemma June Howell.

Poets representing Cardiff: 
Mab Jones, Liam Johnson, Sue Hamblen, Jack Pascoe

Poets representing Swansea:
Simone Mansell-Broome, Liza Penn-Thomas, Adam Sillman and myself

Tickets are available from wegottickets.com, with all proceeds going to Oxfam. For more information, visit the Academi event page: http://www.academi.org/home/i/137986/

This coming Friday and Saturday I will be performing at the '24 Hour Poetry Marathon', which is being held in Swansea's Elysium Gallery. The marathon is being held to raise funds for this year's Hay Poetry Jamboree. It starts at 6pm on Friday 23rd April and carries on until 6pm the following day.

The Antagonist and Square, two Cardiff-based magazines who have published my work during the last year or so, have both asked me to represent them at the event. The Antagonist readers will be on between 10pm and 11pm on the Friday, and Square will be hosting their second slot between 1pm and 2pm on the Saturday.

From the Facebook event page:
"Come and celebrate Shakespeare's Birthday with us at the Elysium Gallery in Swansea. We are hosting a 24 hour non-stop poetry marathon, with sponsored poets and performers reading their favourite poems, pay-to-perform open mic sessions run by Cardiff's Jam Bones and Swansea's The Crunch, and opportunities to create your own poem. We will also have guest slots for established poets, including Nigel Jenkins."