Cheval 13

"A fitting tribute to the memory of radical Welsh poet Terry Hetherington ... Gives young writers in Wales a wonderful opportunity for recognition" Mike Jenkins For twelve years the Terry Hetherington Young Writers Award has provided a platform for emerging young writers from and living in Wales. This year Cheval 13 brings together a variety of the best short stories and poetry from young Welsh writers for the 2020 Terry Hetherington Award, showcasing a startling array of promising new voices in literature. -- Publisher: Parthian Books
The Terry Hetherington Young Writers Award was established to provide a platform and offer support for young writers who hail from or live in Wales. This lively anthology, including this year’s prize-winners, is packed with many diverse contributions and gives a glimpse of the talent flourishing across Wales. There’s an inspiring mix of perspectives: the human need to help that can sometimes make things worse, the bigotry of parents who decide whom their offspring can see, the loneliness that both attracts and repels. Each writer brings a unique voice to the collection. In the poem ‘Death Junction’, Thomas Tyrrell compares the hectic present-day reality of the nicknamed junction – cars and pedestrians streaming in different directions – with the deaths of two Roman Catholic priests, hung, drawn and quartered on the very same spot. The open heathland where the gallows stood is long vanished. The present-day frenzy overlaying the bleak harshness of the past is a stark contrast, skillfully juxtaposed by the author. ‘Common Gorse’, a short story written by Kathryn Tann, is beautifully subtle and sensitive. Tucked away in a hidden nook near the top of a cliff, a girl looks out across the sea and rolling waves. She remembers coming here with her father and brother, though now, at home, it’s just her and her mother, struggling to keep their heads above water, to make ends meet. Memories of shared times with her brother and parents, here on the cliff and down on the shoreline, bring back the painful sense of loss and abandonment. It is four years since her father left, taking her brother with him, and not a word in all that time. But this girl is strong, she carries on. She cuts a sprig of yellow-flowered gorse for her mum and catches the bus home. ‘The Bones of You’, by Rhodri Diaz, won first prize and is a finely crafted short story. A young boy, whose mother is dying of cancer, remembers the tale spun by a classmate, of a witch residing in a nearby valley. Surely a witch could help his mother? He packs himself a lunch of corned beef sandwiches and sets off to find her. Though the valley contains not some gloomy forest but a village of terraced houses, still, he meets an old woman who helps him accept the impending death of his mother, not with spells and trickery, but with a demonstration of her own stoicism and continued relationship with her long-dead son. All of these young writers, each with their own unique angle on the world, fill this book with beautifully crafted short stories and poetry, and have thoroughly earned their place in this fascinating anthology. I’m sure they will all continue to contribute to the burgeoning world of Welsh literary talent. -- Lucy Walter @ www.gwales.com