«New Welsh Reader 127» by Jasmine Donahaye, Joao Morais

Anthology of female-led European literature, with an emphasis on Wales, writing of place, and voice-driven fiction. This edition's theme is Place Markers, and includes winners in the New Welsh Writing Awards 2021 Rheidol Prize for Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting. These include: an essay by Jasmine Donahaye on nature, superstition and trust which attacks the parochialism and sexism of traditional ornithology and nature writing; a memoir by Elizabeth Griffiths on inheriting a church miles away in the Brecon Beacons and exploring her late mother's attitude to history and heritage; a memoir of nature and place, set in the Welsh Marshes, by prizewinning poet Rhiannon Hooson, a fiction extract by Jack Harris which looks at the Rebecca Rioters and how communicating themes of cross-dressing and a passion for history may not resonate with a teacher's pupils; a fiction extract by diverse Cardiff author Joao Morais which combines elements of the historical novel and the crime caper to explore serious themes of OCD, grief and the city; a long short story by New York-based Sybilla Harvey set in Abergavenny which looks at the time that Nazi Rudolf Hess stayed in a fairly open prison near the town, and a literary essay by Tony Brown which explores the neglected short story writer of mid Wales and the interwar years, Nigel Heseltine. Plus poems by Suzannah Evans, Stuart Pickford and hospital doctor Steven Hastings.