In case the morning frosts, appearance of big Celebrations tubs in the supermarkets, and sudden urge to hum Mariah Carey haven’t clued you in, the winter gifting season is upon us – and we’re here to help you tick the poetry lovers in your life off your list with a selection of works by contributors from this year’s issues.
Our Spring issue – so popular that it sold out in print and is now only available as a digital copy – was a celebration of our landmark sixtieth anniversary, with a spotlight on the work of sixty new Welsh poets who we think you’ll want to have on your radar for the future. The issue also has a bumper reviews section, with big names reviewing new collections by Welsh writers.
Collections by contributors to this issue are perfect for your friend who loves to be on the cutting edge and always has one eye on what’s coming next…
Clingfilm by Bethany Handley (Seren Books, 2025)
Bethany Handley’s debut poetry pamphlet Cling Film explores existing as a young Disabled woman within a crossfire of ableism. These formally inventive poems celebrate connection with nature and challenge myths about disability in ways that are witty, astute, and devastatingly exact.
One For Sorrow, Two For Joy by Caleb Nichols (Broken Sleep Books)
An American in North Wales develops a bad case of Hiraeth.
Significant Wow by Emily Cotterill (Seren Books 2025)
Pickled onion Monster Munch, Sonia from EastEnders, and aspirational drag queens – Significant Wow is equal parts pop culture and personality crisis. Unlocking core memories for any millennial this collection is full of work about the things that don’t normally make their way into poetry, including Avril Lavigne and Bovril.
Lan Stâr by Esyllt Angharad Lewis (Anthony Shapland 2025)
Cyhoeddiad cyntaf Anthony Shapland yw A Room Above a Shop, stori sy’n datblygu dros gyfnod o dair blynedd ar ddiwedd yr wythdegau. Dyma nofel dyner sy’n gafael. Wedi’i haddasu a’i chyfieithu gan Esyllt Angharad Lewis drwy ddeialog â’r awdur, mae Lan Stâr hefyd yn archwilio rôl iaith ym mherthynas y ddau gymeriad, gan chwarae gyda thafodiaith, rhuglder a newid cod.
DISTANCES by Imogen Davies (Self-Published 2024)
Divided into five sections, this collection explores what it means to go from being within TOUCHING DISTANCE to LONG DISTANCE, what it takes to GO THE DISTANCE, to travel and to notice what seems so far IN THE DISTANCE, before present tense shifts into the past and becomes DISTANT.
Black Skies Die Starless by Jamie Woods (Punk Dust Poetry 2025)
Attacking the airbrushed nostalgia-fuelled images of a past that didn’t exist, Black Skies Die Starless is a poetry collection that throws you into 1990s back streets, late-night dive bars, post-club bedsits and broken relationships fuelled by sedatives and stimulants.
Slowly as Clouds by Jane Campbell (Indigo Dreams 2021)
Poems about relationships; from the magic of compost to the emotional evolution of a daughter when her dragon of a Mum starts to die, Slowly as Clouds is a collection of easily understood poems which embrace our relationships to life, sex and death as well as parents, lovers and neighbours. Some days we fall short of being our best selves. These poems are for those days.
The Bonds of Nest and Urn and The Wells of Venice by Jefferson Holdridge (Resource)
The Bonds of Nest and Urn examines the forms and purposes of nature and art, revealing how the artist’s vision – sometimes Orphic, sometimes Christian – endeavors to unite the two. The spirit moves through number and metaphor, and the volume asks whether poetry can exist apart from history or personality, even though both inevitably remain present.
Bold In The Life by Jeremy Dixon (Broken Sleep Books 2025)
Bold In The Life is an electrifying affirmation of Polari, a secret language once palavered in queer spaces, now reanimated in poetry that is unapologetic, irreverent, and celebratory. Moving between historical echoes and contemporary queer existence, Dixon’s work pulses with wit and linguistic play, queering the act of translation itself.
Portrait of a Young Girl Falling by Katrina Moinet (Hedgehog Press 2024)
Portrait of a Young Girl Falling is unapologetic in its feminist exploration of desire, consent, and gendered experience. Katrina Moinet’s stunning, experiemental debut tugs at violences and tensions present in language, the way it shapes, limits, or opens up our conception of these things. Shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2025.
State of the Nations by Katrina Moinet (Atomic Bohemian 2025)
State of the Nations is a candid exploration of global shifts in hard-won freedoms (movement, data, body politics). Moinet’s experimental poetics – tender and unflinching – dissect failing structures, unpick languages of oppression, map traumas and offer a space for rebirth, for empathy and new ways to navigate the everyday.
Opera In The Dark – a photopoetry collaboration by Robert James & Phyl Harris (Self Published 2024)
‘The bold, striking, memorable photographs of Robert James show us seascapes and cityscapes, lives and shadows. Alongside these, Phyl Harris has crafted a language which is sonically alive, rich and versatile. And the reader’s eyes dart back and forth between word and image, seeing anew and anew…’ – Jonathon Edwards
That Lone Ship by Rhys Owain Williams (Parthian Books, 2018)
In this varied and engaging debut collection, Rhys Owain Williams invites his readers to pause. The poems in That Lone Ship are often caught between two places – inhabiting the quiet spaces between childhood and adulthood, lust and love, heartbreak and new beginnings, life and death.
(un)common: anthology of new Welsh writing edited by Rosy Adams (Lucent Dreaming 2024)
In this anthology, we tread the common ground of “not having”. But our lives are very different and each of our voices spins a different tale. Read on, and you will discover (un)common worlds. There are dragons, cloud-circling and deep-dwelling. We encounter isolation, addiction, tragedy and grief, but we also find love, connection, and hope.
O Ffrwyth y Gangen Hon featuring Sophie Roberts, edited by Nia Morais (Barddas 2025)
Love Welsh language poetry? Passionate about women writers? Craving queer work? Scratch that itch with O Ffrwyth y Gangen Hon
Real Boys by Thomas Stewart (Birlinn Books 2024)
In his debut collection, Real Boys, Thomas Stewart examines the death of his father and explores questions of grief, guilt, mental health, identity, sexuality and masculinity.
Another perfect present for someone who loves discovering new poets? A subscription to Poetry Wales magazine. Not only will they get three volumes a year of never-before-published work from emerging and established writers, but they’ll also get access to all of the bonus features unique to subscribers, including a discount at Seren Books, free competition entries and event tickets, and exclusive access to upcoming seminars for writers from our editor. Oh, and you’ll also be supporting an independent Welsh literary magazine and helping us keep publishing new poets. It’s a win-win.