Blog Posts

Himnos al sol en la oscuridad

21/1/2022

¿Hablas español? I don’t unfortunately, but if you do then you can read interviews with me and other contemporary Swansea writers in this brand new book on Dylan Thomas by Juan Pablo Bertazza: Himnos al sol en la oscuridad ('Hymns to the sun in the darkness’.) Diolch to Juan for inviting me to be a part of it!

Alternatively, if your Spanish is as bad as mine, the mind-blowing Google Translate app can do this for you. It’s not a perfect translation but honestly…we are living in the future.

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Haiku for September

6/9/2021

a red triangle cenotaph at the woodland’s edge ‘deer crossing’

Haiku from That Lone Ship (Parthian Books, 2018)
parthianbooks.com/collections/poetry/products/that-lone-ship

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Frogpond Journal #44:2

19/8/2021

Really pleased to have a haiku in the latest issue of Frogpond Journal, which has just arrived at my door all the way from Seattle, USA. A lovely surprise too, in a magazine of 158 pages, to find myself sharing one with Paul Chambers, the only other Welsh writer in the issue.

There's a free sampler of some of the poems, essays and reviews from the issue on the Haiku Society of America's website, where you can also order a copy of the full issue.

Free sampler: www.hsa-haiku.org/frogpond/2021-issue44-2/index.html

Order a copy of the latest issue: www.hsa-haiku.org/frogpond/previousissues.html

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'Find Your Space' – Poetry Commission for Swansea University

23/7/2021

I absolutely loved my time studying at Swansea University, so I was chuffed to be asked to write the following poem—celebrating both the university and the city—for their upcoming clearing campaign.

What the team has done with a couple of pages of words is incredible, it's amazing to see it come to life.

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That Lone Ship Reviewed by Marble Poetry

21/6/2021

Really grateful to Marble Poetry for reviewing my book That Lone Ship and saying nice things about it/me in their last issue: marblepoetry.com/product/issue-8

"Rhys Owain Williams is maybe a rare talent in poetry. His voice is strong, understandable, serious but lighthearted."

Diolch yn fawr!

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Haiku for June

7/6/2021

washed clean by the rain, an advertisement board with nothing to sell

Haiku from That Lone Ship (Parthian Books, 2018)
parthianbooks.com/collections/poetry/products/that-lone-ship

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New Gothic Review #3

4/5/2021

The new issue of New Gothic Review is now online and features my short story 'Passengers': a gothic tale set on the banks of the River Severn. This is the first short story I've finished in about seven years, so I'm thrilled that it found a home with New Gothic Review. Thanks so much to the editors for working on it with me, and also to Zuzanna Kwiecień for the incredible accompanying illustration.

To celebrate its publication, yesterday I took a trip the place on the River Severn where the story is set. For centuries, Black Rock was an important ferry crossing point on the tidal river that divides Wales and England.

I began writing this story after a train journey on the line near the River Severn a few years ago. When I decided to finally complete it earlier this year we were in the midst of a national lockdown, so Black Rock as a setting came from researching the area online.

The towering Second Severn Crossing road bridge (1996) makes an appearance in the story, though elsewhere I’ve slightly altered the Severn estuary’s geography – making some places closer to each other, and creating a disused station called ‘Porthsgiwed Halt’ (named after the nearby village of Portskewett).

Portskewett did once have a station that served the Black Rock ferry: Portskewett Pier. It's definitely the most unusual train station I’ve ever heard of. Trains would stop on a wooden pier and passengers would descend to a ferry. After making the crossing by boat they’d then be met by a new train on the English side. Opened in 1863, Portskewett Pier was demolished once the Severn Railway Tunnel (1886) had been carved beneath the estuary. It’s such an interesting station, but I decided it was too complicated to include it in the story and so created a disused Halt on the main line instead.

Wales has begun to open back up now after our winter lockdown, and yesterday’s trip to Black Rock marks the furthest I’ve been from my home in Swansea since March 2020. It was so odd to arrive at a place that I’d extensively explored, but only via photos and Google Street View. Yesterday was stormy, and Black Rock was exactly as I’d imagined it: bleak, moody, ethereal. However, in the picnic area and along the path there are statues, sculptures and information boards, and on a brighter day I imagine it’s a very welcoming place. This seems to be down to the hard work of a project called Living Levels.

I know I'll return to Black Rock many times, in person and on the page. To that rusted lighthouse floating above the water, the rock it sits on only exposed as the tide moves out. There’s so much hidden beneath the surface there.

You can read 'Passengers' and the other five stories in the issue for free on the New Gothic Review website: newgothicreview.com

New Gothic Review are open for submissions twice a year, with the next submissions window opening in a few months' time. If you'd like to submit a story then take a look at their submission guidelines and keep an eye on their social media channels for announcements.

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