Zoë Brigley is the author of three books of poetry published by Bloodaxe: Hand & Skull (2019), Conquest (2012), and The Secret (2007). All three are UK Poetry Book Society Recommendations. Poems from the collections have won an Eric Gregory Award for the best British poets under 30, have been longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize for the best international writers under 40, and were Forward Prize commended. She became editor for Wales’ leading poetry journal Poetry Wales in 2021, and she is now Poetry Editor for Seren Books jointly with the poet Rhian Edwards.

Kristian Evans is a founding editor of Modron Magazine, which publishes writing on the ecological crisis. He’s the author of pamphlets, Unleaving (2015), and Otherworlds (2021), and with Zoë Brigley edited 100 Poems to Save the Earth (2021), an anthology of contemporary poetry. He was a judge for the Wales Book of the Year Award 2023, and in the same year was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year Award. He lives in Bridgend, south Wales.

The Green Room has returned from its summer break with New Works on 29th September, with readings from Angela Graham, Robert Minhinnick and Phil Cope along with open mic regulars, short films and music.

The next Green Room will be a CELEBRATION of DANNIE ABSE at 100

FRI. OCTOBER 27, 8pm above SUSSED. With LYNNE HJELMGAARD, launching ’The Turpentine Tree’ (Seren, available at SUSSED), and others sharing memories... Croeso cynnes i bawb/Warm welcome for all. £4 BYOB.
Previous Green Room events are available as an audio podcast.

https://www.serenbooks.com/seren-author/lynne-hjelmgaard/

Lynne Hjelmgaard

Lynne Hjelmgaard was born in New York City and lives in London. She taught Creative Art for children in various schools and institutions before she started writing poetry. She left the States in 1990 for the second time and has been living permanently in the UK since 2011. As a result of crossing the Atlantic in a sailboat with her husband she wrote the poems that were collected in Manhattan Sonnets (Redbeck Press, 2003) and was later released in CD format. After her husband died in 2006, she received a residency grant for the Danish Academy in Rome where she wrote poems that later appeared in her second collection The Ring (Shearsman Books, 2011). Her third poetry collection, A Boat Called Annalise, was published by Seren in 2016 and accounts for the journey Lynne took with her husband by boat across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and Europe.  Her new collection A Second Whisper is available now.

Hilary Llewellyn-Williams is one of the most renowned poets of her generation in Wales. Hilary was one of the original patrons of Sustainable Wales.

Hosted by Robert Minhinnick

With regular poetry open mic & film

From 8pm - pay what you can afford, supporting Sustainable Wales.

A photographic presentation of Porthcawl*

With the regular Poetry Open Mic

*may contain Elvis

GREEN ROOM, FRIDAY, 21 APRIL 2023

8pm

James Roberts

& Open Mic + Film+ Music

James Roberts is a writer who lives in Kington on the Wales/England border.

His latest book is

‘Two Lights: Walking Through Landscapes of Loss and Life’

‘Searching for the wildness left in our world – spanning continents and geological eras…

Angela Graham is a BAFTA Cymru-winning film-maker and journalist. She has produced programmes for BBC, ITV, S4C and Channel 4 and was Development Producer of The Story of Wales.  She produced and co-wrote the Oscar entrant cinema feature Branwen (6 BAFTA Cymru nominations and Best Film at the Celtic Media Festival), and was a screenwriter on drama projects set in Italy, Romania and Ireland. She began her career in ITV, and spent eight years as a producer at one of Britain’s rare production co-operatives, Teliesyn.

She turned to writing full time in 2017. Her poetry has appeared in The North, The Honest Ulsterman, Poetry Wales, The Ogham Stone, The Open Ear, The Interpreter’s House and other journals. An award-winning short story writer, she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2019. She is currently finishing a novel and engaged in a prose/poetry project on Place and Displacement in the context of urban violence.

“A necessary and urgent response to the world’s increasing crises…” – Robert Minhinnick

Sanctuary is – urgent. The pandemic has made people crave it; political crises are denying it to millions; the earth is no longer our haven. This theme has enormous traction at a time of existential fear − especially among the young − that nowhere is safe. Even our minds and our bodies are not refuges we can rely on. Truth itself is on shaky ground.

Sanctuary: There Must Be Somewhere addresses these critical situations from the inside. How we can save the earth, ourselves and others? How valid is the concept of a ‘holy’ place these days? Are any values still sacrosanct? We all deserve peace and security but can these be achieved without exploitation?

The Green Room returns above SUSSED with a range of new work from various writers and creators.

GREEN ROOM above SUSSED, during the Elvis Festival Porthcawl.

The Green Room returns, surrounded by Porthcawl’s Elvis Festival.

Friday, September 23 at 8pm, Robert Minhinnick hosts.

James Street Porthcawl CF36 3BG - near the bandstand.

Zoë Brigley, Kristian Evans & Robert minhinnick return to the Green Room with readings of new works.

The regular Green Room returns on Friday 27th May 2022 at 8pm, with a mix of readings, film and a popular open mic for poetry. Hosted by Robert Minhinnick. Guest readers may be announced closer to the event.

Rescheduled event from 18 Feb 2022:

Robert Minhinnick hosts with Laura Wainwright contributor to the new anthology Gorwelion Shared Horizons published by Sustainable Wales and Parthian Books.

Postponed: Friday, 8pm, February 18th 2022, Green Room, Sustainable Wales, Porthcawl CF36 3BG Robert Minhinnick hosts, with Laura Wainwright, Phil Cope & Open Mic.

Due to the storm on Friday and the travelling distance of our guests we have postponed the even until March 25th 2022.

Find out more about Gorwelion Shared Horizons. Hosted by Robert Minhinnick - the Green Room Returns!

overview

We are producing this anthology of new writings with Parthian Books. It will be ready for the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, November 2021, and retail at £9.99 (tbc).

Gorwelion home page

Gorwelion is Welsh for ‘horizons’. It consists of five original contributions from Indian authors, two from Scotland, and nine from Wales.

This is being achieved by a momentous effort during the worst of the Covid19 pandemic.

It is produced because of the generosity of our supporters, Merryn Hutchings and Christine Eynon. There is an excellent chance of a second volume of original writings being produced if this publication works well.

The Green Room event will be hosted by Robert Minhinnick and features Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch and Phil Cope. The usual open mic returns at this event.

Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch is a poet whose work has been shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award (2014), the Roland Mathias Prize (2013) and Wales Book of the Year (2009). Samantha has taught Creative Writing on the MSt. at Oxford University and on the MA programme at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David where she was awarded a PhD in Creative Writing in 2019.

Phil Cope is a photographer, writer, teacher, and cultural exhibition designer whose subjects have included the footballer John Charles, Paul Robeson and Wales and the Spanish Civil War. He was Head of Drama, and Deputy Head of English in the Welsh Joint Education Committee. He has published Borderlands (2013) and the Holy Wells series which includes: Holy Wells: Wales (2008), Holy Wells: Cornwall (2010), Holy Wells: Scotland (2015) and The Living Wells of Wales (2019). (Seren)

There will be a series of events around the launch of Gorwelion.

For further details of Gorwelion Shared Horizons contact robert.minhinnick@sustainablewales.org.uk

Event cancelled due to technical issues. More livestreams soon!

Robert Minhinnick will be hosting the event and reading. We will be welcoming Royal Male; who will be also performing at the Green Room. More details to follow…

This is the link for the Zoom livestream on the 28th May, we will attempt to simultaneously livestream across facebook, and our YouTube channel. So more links may be added.

CANCELLED

On Sat. March 7th, the charity will hold a WELSH FAIRTRADE Pop-Up Café, 11.00 – 4pm, at 5 James St. Porthcawl CF36 3BG above SUSSED. Diners will be able to select from a menu chosen to celebrate Wales, whilst showing support for people in developing countries.

More info soon…

Young Welsh Poets

at Sustainable Wales’s Green Room

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 8pm.

5, James St. PORTHCAWL CF36 3BG

Zoe Brigley’s family hails from Maesteg and she is Assistant Professor in Ohio State University in the USA

This year she has published poetry from Bloodaxe, and essays from Parthian. Both books will be on sale on the night.

Dr Laura Wainwright lives in Newport and has this year been awarded a new writer’s bursary by Literature Wales. Already she has edited ‘New Territories in Modernism’ (University of Wales Press).

Open Mic, including film

Entrance £4. All welcome.

Green Room on Fri Jan 31 8pm, is Phil Cope, speaking about the ‘wells’ of Porthcawl, including images of several, not least Burrows Well, now creating huge dune slacks at Merthyr Mawr. Above SUSSED @sussedwales as usual. With open mic. James St Porthcawl CF36 3BG

https://www.francespresley.co.uk/

GREEN ROOM RETURNS 

WITH ELVIS AND EXTINCTION REBELLION

5, James St. PORTHCAWL CF36 3BG

Sustainable Wales’s cultural showcase returns on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, at 8pm, featuring writing and film about Elvis Presley and the Extinction Rebellion mass movement.

Organiser, Robert Minhinnick says: ‘This will be a lively occasion with lots of new writing and film. 

The evening will include poetry that links the visionary writer, William Blake, with Cowbridge’s own troubled mystic, Iolo Morgannwg. 

 “And yes, Elvis Presley will somehow be fitted into the mix. A unique night is in store.”

Everyone welcome, Croeso Cynnes i bawb. 

£4.

THE EDGE OF NECESSARY

An evening of innovative and experimental poetry at Sustainable Wales' 'Green Room' with John Goodby

The Green Room - Friday 31 May 8PM

Professor John Goodby is a poet and critic, author of "Under the Spelling Wall", a major study of Dylan Thomas's poetry, and an editor of Thomas's Collected Poems

He is also, with Lyndon Davies, editor of "The Edge of Necessary -- an Anthology of Welsh Innovative Poetry 1966-2018."

John will introduce and read selections from this pioneering anthology, and from his own poetry collections.

Open mic and more, to follow. All welcome.

Above SUSSED, BYOB

4/5 James St., Porthcawl CF36 3BG

tel: 01656 783962

Follow us on twitter:

@1thegreeneroom

@suswales

A Story of Saint Non

with Tracy Evans

An evening of stories, histories and reflections inspired by St. Non, the mother of St. David, and the Pembrokeshire cliffs where she gave birth. 

FRIDAY, MARCH 29. 8pm.

P.C. EVANS at Green Room, Sustainable Wales, 5, James St., Porthcawl CF36 3EP

On the last day of the Brexit process, Sustainable Wales is delighted to feature a EU-wide event.

Originally from Abercynon, PC. Evans describes himself as a “citizen of nowhere”.

Now based in Amsterdam, Paul will read his own poetry, written whilst living and working in that city’s Red Light district.

A strong open mic will feature Gerry Ray, with poetry about his life in Spain; while Paul Woodford, will provide a Brexit film.

Of course, there will also be pro-Brexit voices heard in this popular literary gathering. In 2016 the Bridgend constituency voted 54.6% to 45.4% to leave the EU.

Robert Minhinnick will read poems published during his tenure as editor of the international magazine, ‘Poetry Wales’.  Free copies will be presented to all who pay £4 entrance.

 A warm welcome to all /  Croeso cynnes i bawb.

Further details: 01656 773627