Tag: racism
The Distance
Great boxing matches are ‘allegories authored in blood’, wrote Budd Schulberg. It’s quoted late on in Ivan Vladislavíc’s sixth novel, which, among oth …
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Gwen Davies reviews Y Gymru ‘Ddu’ a’r Ddalen ‘Wen’: Aralledd ac Amlddiwylliannedd mewn Ffuglen Gymreig, er 1990 by Lisa Sheppard
Gwen Davies stakes a claim for fiction in the creation of empathy, that missing life-skill in those at risk of mental health breakdown and lawbreaking …
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The Homeless Heart-throb
‘His urine was starting to scare him,’ notes the narrator of ‘Dogs Only’, one of the milder stories in this sharp new collection (interwoven into nove …
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Calling a Manual Earth-lifting Device a Spade
Writers who are prepared to be pushed around don’t deserve the name. If they wish to support the Communists on Monday, the Tories on Wednesday, and th …
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Martyrdom and its Uses
In April of this year, at a service to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Stephen Lawrence, the Prime Minister, Theresa May, ann …
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No Man’s Land
Eula Biss’ essay collection Notes From No Man’s Land was first published in 2009 – though you can hardly tell. Aside from internal dating, there is li …
Read moreContemporary Literature from Wales
Gwen Davies on recent fiction in English from Wales, Robin Chapman on the rejection of politicisation in Welsh-language literature since devolution, S …
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Old Soldier Sahib
Frank Richards (real name Francis Philip Woodruff) was a professional soldier born in Blaina, Monmouthshire, in 1883. He left school at twelve, worked …
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Hometown by Carrie Etter, Çekoslovakyalilaştiramadiklarimizdanmisiniz or Long Words by Nia Davies and More Weight by Michael Conley
Carrie Etter’s Hometown is a flash fiction pamphlet set in the author’s real hometown, whose name is surely irresistible for any writer: Normal, Illin …
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Mexico, Violence and Random Bad Luck
Caminar en esta zona no le recomiendo: es muy peligroso, said the guy on the evening shift at my hotel. ‘I don’t recommend walking in this area: it’s …
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