1792. Nantucket whalers are invited to found the port of Milford Haven in Wales. What does the arrival of these hardy Quakers - immigrants to America a century before - mean for the local people? And what is the meaning of the beached whale that preceded them? Two cultures rub against each other and distrust grows, driven by the local preacher. As Whaling unfolds concern swerves into hysteria against the incomers and the preacher plans a grotesque, Jonah-inspired fate for the whalers. Nathan Munday's debut novel is an exciting melange of original fiction, historical writing and whaling images. In it he explores our relationship with the natural world, the boundary between faith and superstition, and the age old problem of immigration. Set in historical fact this is a narrative at once modern and contemporaneous, the writing rich in imagery and deceptively tense as its story slides into allegory.

Seven Days is a story of adventure and spirituality as father and son travel the "Rue du Bonjour" across the pilgrim route of the high Pyrenees.It is a journey with a writer grappling with some of the questions of modern life, his love for the mountains, his beliefs and aspirations and examples set both by his father and the enigmatic fellow traveller they meet in a remote auberge who comes to symbolise and shadow their sojourn, a man he nicknames Hemingway, although he is neither a writer nor an American.A wonderfully engaging work of travel, discovery, and contemplation by an exciting new voice.

A poet watches a fox in her garden. A fruit seller is confronted by the Terrible Tunisian Tigress. An office worker longs to escape the confines of his desk job. For twelve years the Terry Hetherington Young Writers Award has provided a platform for emerging young writers from and living in Wales. In this year's edition of Cheval, we celebrate the very best stories and poems which were entered into the latest award.