Inquisitive children and solitary beings; conflicted couples and a sprinkling of spirits and monsters: these are just some of the characters which inhabit the twelve stories in this collection of new contemporary fiction by the winners of the 2023 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition. A young girl discovers a body in the woods near her home; a man lords over his cockle-beds; and a holidaying couple set off on a nocturnal mission. A group of children enlist the help of a witch to assist a dying relative, while a local talent show casts a spotlight on hopes and dreams. From an All-American Diner deep in the Rhondda to rural Welsh landscapes, working-class communities and cultural and linguisitic journeys beyond Wales, these stories combine traditional storytelling, realism and magical realism as protagonists face their demons head on. They are stories about longing and belonging, departure and desire, sparking with originality.

Family connections, unconventional friendships, love and loss: the twelve stories in this collection of new contemporary fiction by the winners of the 2022 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition present characters seeking solace, self-discovery and self-fulfilment as they navigate familiar and unfamiliar territory. Two sisters search for the last available Christmas tree while coming to terms with their mother's death; a stammering teen hitches a lift with a Welsh Elvis; a man participates in his 'endgame'; and a teacher and pupil create their very own time machine. From hillside encounters to conversations in homes, shops and on the street, these are stories about people and place, about relationships and revelations, peppered with memories and re- imaginings. These are stories where some voices are silenced and others get to sing. The Rhys Davies Short Story Competition recognises the very best unpublished short stories in English in any style by writers aged 18 or over who were born in Wales, have lived in Wales for two years or more, or are currently living in Wales. Originally established in 1991, Parthian is delighted to publish the 2022 winning stories on behalf of the Rhys Davies Trust and in association with Swansea University's Cultural Institute.

EDITED BY ELAINE CANNING INTRODUCED BY JULIA BELL A collection of new contemporary short stories by Welsh writers, comprising twelve diverse stories about human relationships between people and places, representing the winners of the 2021 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition. Including short biographical notes on the authors and an introduction by Guest Judge Julia Bell, a writer and Course Director of the MA Creative Writing at Birbeck, University of London The Rhys Davies Short Story Competition is a distinguished national writing competition for writers born or living in Wales. Originally established in 1991, Parthian is delighted to publish the 2021 winning stories on behalf of the Rhys Davies Trust and in association with Swansea University's Cultural Institute. Previous winners of the prize have included Leonora Brito, Tristan Hughes and Kate Hamer.

This collection of cultural analysis and textual readings on critically-acclaimed bestseller and winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Maggie O’Farrell features an exclusive interview with the author herself. Covering her 9 novels, her memoir I Am, I Am, I Am, and 2 children’s books, this is the first full-length study of O’Farrell’s work, offering critical explorations from her earliest works to the award-winning Hamnet and most recent best-selling novel, The Marriage Portrait. Exploring themes such as grief and sacrifice, longing and belonging, trauma, translation, palimpsestic texts and the relation of her work to history and the female domestic gothic, beyond a new and exclusive interview with O’Farrell, this book features a timeline of her life and works, and suggested further reading.

Lope de Vega's religious plays are a distinctive part of his output, but little scholarly work is available on them. This study focuses on five plays, La hermosa Ester, the Isidro plays, Lo fingido verdadero and La buena guarda. Within the context of the seventeenth-century stage, Canning examines Lope's manipulation of religious material, and his treatment of socio-literary themes - love, the role of women - and the way in which they are employed to generate audience reception. She considers the relationship between religious drama and metatheatre, focusing on Lope's techniques for highlighting the illusory nature of life and the relationship between lo verdadero and lo divino, concepts which lie at the heart of the theocentric world view of seventeenth-century Spain. The conflicting imperatives of human and divine love and the issue of identity are features of all of the plays. And she shows that the interplay between illusion and reality and the relationship between playwright and audience are crucial to Lope's dramatic output.Las comedias religiosas de Lope de Vega constituyen una parte fundamental de su producciA3n dramAtica. Sin embargo, no han recibido el reconocimiento que merecen. Este libro ofrece un anAlisis de cinco obras: La hermosa Ester, La niAez y La juventud de San Isidro, Lo fingido verdadero y La buena guarda. Canning examina las distintas formas de recepciA3n por parte del pAblico teniendo en cuenta la manipulaciA3n de las fuentes hagiogrAficas y bA-blicas y el tratamiento que Lope da a temas socioliterarios tales como el amor y el papel de la mujer. AdemAs, analiza la metateatralidad de la comedia religiosa y los recursos autorreferenciales empleados por Lope paraponer de relieve la relaciA3n entre la vida y la ilusiA3n, entre lo verdadero y lo divino, conceptos que formaron una parte intrA-nseca de la cosmovisiA3n teocA(c)ntrica de la EspaAa del siglo XVII. Los imperativos contradictorios del amor humano y el amor divino y la complejidad de la identidad son temas que se presentan en todas las obras. Canning demuestra que la conexiA3n entre la ilusiA3n y la realidad y la relaciA3n entre el dramaturgo y el pAblico son cruciales para la producciA3n dramAtica de Lope. ELAINE CANNING is Lecturer in Spanish, University of Wales, Bangor.