Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · 1d

Wonderful to hear author Sarah Siân Chave speak about her new book on Radio Bath's Earth Matters!

Listen from 7:11 www.mixcloud.com/radiobath/ea...

Cover of Hafren which features a colourful illustration of the Severn Bridge at sunset.

1 1

Reposted by Calon

Storyville Books @storyvillebooks.bsky.social · 4d

The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts is a well researched exploration of paranormal folklore throughout Welsh history with a heavy focus on stories not as commonly known in English speaking communities.

Available in store and online via: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts

Check out The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts - Wales is a land with a vast wealth of ghost stories, including fantastical animals, flickering death omens and unseen things that go bump in the night. Whethe...

uk.bookshop.org

2 2

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · 12d

📚 New event! 📚

Join author Marc P. Jones who will be speaking about his book 'The Long Unwinding Road: A Journey Through the Heart of Wales' at The Cwtsh Arts Centre, Newport.

Starts 7:30pm on Friday, October 3rd 2025 at the Cwtsh. Admission £. Licensed bar available. Disabled access.

Yn dechrau am 7:30pm nos wener, Hydref 3ydd 2025 yn y Cwtsh Mynediad £3 bar trwyddedig ar gael. Mynediad i'r anabl.

1 2

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · 13d

Coming soon!

Gosia Buzzanca's debut memoir 'There She Goes, My Beautiful World' will be publishing on 23 October.

Pre-order now from your favourite local bookshop or through the link below 📚

www.uwp.co.uk/book/there-s...

What does ‘home’ mean? Is it where you come from, or is it somewhere that you have to create for yourself, building brick by brick on the ruins and treasures of everything that has gone before?
In this compelling memoir, Gosia Buzzanca tells the story of a young woman who leaves Poland at the age of nineteen in search of a bigger life, hoping to leave the traumas of her teenage years behind her. After studying in England, she finds a rich new tapestry of experience awaiting her in Wales, with intertwined threads of love and literature, hope and despair. Motherhood brings new joys, but the pain of the past must be faced before this new life by the seaside can truly feel like home.
With the fearless honesty of a poet, Gosia offers her account of an extraordinary ordinary life where every flavour is tasted, every moment lived to its fullest. This story of a lifelong quest for home will call to anyone who has ever felt lost or incomplete, and who yearns to find a place where they belong.

1

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · 19d

Join @carwyngraves.bsky.social, author of 'Tir' and 'Welsh Food Stories' at this year's Abergavenny Food Festival, speaking about 'The Lost Language of Welsh Food' 📚🍽️

🕧12:30 - 1:15

📅21 September

📍 Local & Vocal Stage - Castle Grounds

For more:

Iaith Goll Bwyd Cymreig / The Lost Language of Welsh Food - Abergavenny Food Festival

Sesiwn iaith Gymraeg. Clustffonau cyfieithu ar y pryd ar gael ar gyfer y di-Gymraeg / Welsh language session. Simultaneous translation headset available for non-Welsh

www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com

2

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · 19d

Ymunwch â @carwyngraves.bsky.social, awdur 'Tir' a 'Welsh Food Stories' yng Ngŵyl Fwyd y Fenni eleni! Bydd Carwyn yn siarad am 'Iaith Goll Bwyd Cymreig'

🕧12:30 - 1:15

📅21 Medi

📍 Local & Vocal Stage - Castle Grounds

Mwy o wybodaeth:

Iaith Goll Bwyd Cymreig / The Lost Language of Welsh Food - Abergavenny Food Festival

Sesiwn iaith Gymraeg. Clustffonau cyfieithu ar y pryd ar gael ar gyfer y di-Gymraeg / Welsh language session. Simultaneous translation headset available for non-Welsh

www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com

1

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · 22d

Heno! Tonight!

Pob lwc to Calon author Gwyneth Lewis who has been nominated for the Sky Arts Literature Award!

Make sure to tune in to Sky Arts (channel 36 on Freeview) from 9pm for the results!

Read more here: skyartsawards.sky

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Sep 3

🎇📚 SHORTLISTED! 📚🎇

We are absolutely delighted that Gwyneth Lewis's bold and honest memoir 'Nightshade Mother' has been shortlisted for the Sky Arts Literature award!

Make sure to tune in to the ceremony on 16 September!

www.skygroup.sky/en-gb/articl...

'Remarkable' Adam Phillips
'Dangerous' M. Wynn Thomas
'Moving' Rowan Williams
'Astonishing' Pascale Petit
'Extraordinary' Tom Bullough
'Compelling, radical and moving' alice hiller

1 4

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · 26d

Discover more of how the River Severn has been the source of so much great art in ‘Hafren: The Wisdom of the River Severn’ by Sarah Siân Chave.

www.uwp.co.uk/book/hafren-...

www.uwp.co.uk

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · 26d

The natural world is so often the inspiration for art, music, and poetry. ‘The Rising of the Lark’ was collected in the 1870s by Welsh poet and musicologist John Ceiriog Hughes.

Ceiriog, a Welsh poet and musicologist, spent his final years on Hafren’s banks at Caersws, Powys. I feel a connection reaching back to him to him as I listen to the piano notes and rushing water blend.

1

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Sep 8

In ‘Hafren: The Wisdom of the River Severn’, author Sarah Siân Chave visits a waterfall along the route of the #river to experience its intensity.

www.uwp.co.uk/book/hafren-...

What a beautiful waterfall near Hafren’s source! In Celtic traditions, sources of water provide wisdom and streams and rivers are a way that such wisdom is spread and communicated. Waterfalls are places where wisdom is intensified. But we have to pause, listen to what rivers are communicating, and, as the poet Mary Oliver argues, ‘unstuff our ears of selfhood’.

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Sep 8

Waterfalls are ethereal places and have long been significant in #folklore. They are often the places where people pause for rest on long walks and are spaces of quiet contemplation.

1 1 4

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Sep 3

In this extraordinary memoir, Gwyneth Lewis recounts her toxic upbringing at the hands of her controlling, coercive mother. 'Nightshade Mother' is a book about the power of art, language and, ultimately, about homecoming after a lifetime of exile from herself.

www.uwp.co.uk/book/nightsh...

Cover of Nightshade Mother which features a nightshade plant tightly wrapping around the title.

1 1

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Sep 3

🎇📚 SHORTLISTED! 📚🎇

We are absolutely delighted that Gwyneth Lewis's bold and honest memoir 'Nightshade Mother' has been shortlisted for the Sky Arts Literature award!

Make sure to tune in to the ceremony on 16 September!

www.skygroup.sky/en-gb/articl...

3 2 5

Reposted by Calon

Matthew M C Smith @matthewmcsmith.bsky.social · Aug 27

Day 26 - @sealeychallenge.bsky.social The Art or Losing Ed M. Wynn Thomas, @calonbooks.bsky.social

#poetry #writing #books #readers

1 2 5

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Aug 29

Did you know that the source of Hafren, the River Severn, is rainwater? This gathers into pools on the high Pumlumon peatland plateau in the Cambrian Mountains, mid Wales…

Discover more in ‘Hafren: The Wisdom of the River Severn’ by Sarah Siân Chave, available in your favourite local bookshop 📚

In Welsh folklore these pools formed when the giant who slumbers under Pumlumon awoke and, on looking around, shed tears as there were no pools or rivers crossing his land. He nurtured the peatland, the pools and the nymphs, his daughters, who lived in the pools, until the nymphs grew up, became rivers, including Hafren and set off on their journeys to the sea We, too, need to appreciate and value peatlands. Estimates indicate peatlands cover 3% of the worlds surface but hold 30% per cent of the stored store. Twelve percent of the world’s peatlands are in the UK.

1 2

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Aug 23

In need of some last minute plans for the long weekend? Your local bookshop has everything you need 📚

1 1

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Aug 21

Out now!

Discover the secret history of the River Severn in ‘Hafren: The Wisdom of the River Severn’ by Sarah Siân Chave.

Pick up your copy from your favourite local bookshop or through the link below!

📚 www.uwp.co.uk/book/hafren-...

1 2

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Aug 20

Reserve your spot here: chepstowbooks.co.uk/collections/...

Hafren - The Wisdom of the River Severn Event

Tuesday 2nd September, 7pm Chepstow Library/ Hub Tickets free Please reserve your space on-line and we will have a list on the door. Afon Hafren, the river Severn, is a mighty river. She has shaped ma...

chepstowbooks.co.uk

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Aug 20

📚 Hafren Book Tour! 📚

Join Sarah Siân Chave at bookshops and festivals along and around Hafren this summer and autumn!

First stop at Griffin Books is now sold out so make sure to snap up your free spot for Chepstow!

🕖 7pm
📅 2 September
🎟️ FREE
📍 Chepstow Library

27 August - Griffin Books
2 September - Chepstow Books
7 September - Shrewsbury Lit Fest
27 September - Hawkesbury Upton Lit Fest
16 November - Clifton Lit Fest

1

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Aug 14

In 'Hafren: The Wisdom of the River Severn', Sarah Siân Chave journeys along the banks of Hafren, weaving together Celtic myths, historical and personal narratives as well as Welsh words and ideas.

Pre-order now through the link in our bio or in your favourite local bookshop!

Hafren | UWP

My Basket: 0 items

www.uwp.co.uk

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Aug 14

When crossing Hafren, the River Severn, most people are struck by the impressive bridge which stretches across it.

But what lies beneath? And what significance did this long river that stretches deep into Wales and England have for the people who crossed it long before any bridges were ever built?

Coming Soon! 21 August! Also featured is the cover of 'Hafren' which has a blue and earth-toned abstract illustration of Hafren (the River Severn) and the Severn Bridge stretching across it.

Afon Hafren, the river Severn, is a mighty Welsh river. She has shaped many histories and is part of many stories. In Celtic traditions, water is a source of wisdom. In a time of ecological crisis, how can we listen to the wisdom of Hafren?

Sarah Siân Chave takes us on a journey from Hafren’s source to the sea, following Hafren’s route from Pumlumon in Wales and meandering through England, before she finds her way back home to Wales and to the sea. The journey weaves together Celtic myths, historical and personal narratives as well as Welsh words and ideas.

Hafren not only speaks to the wisdom of this river, but of all rivers, encouraging readers to understand better their place as part of nature. This book will appeal to those interested in nature, sustainability and ecology, and also to those interested in Celtic and Welsh traditions, histories and myths and is evocatively illustrated by Sarah’s sister, Rachel Collis.

1 1 2

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Aug 7

Wrth ein boddau yn gweld nifer o lyfrau Calon ar stondin Siop Inc yn yr @eisteddfod.cymru!

Copies of Tir, Where the Folk, The Water Remedy, and Rebecca's Country stacked on bookcases on Siop Inc's stand

Copies of Nightshade Mother, A Map of Love, Poems from the Soul, and The Art of Losing on bookshelves on the Siop Inc stand.

2

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Aug 6

Lovely to see author David Elias stopping by Waterstones Aberystwyth to sign new paperback copies of his book 'Shaping the Wild: Wisdom from a Welsh Hill Farm'!

'Shaping the Wild' is August @waterstones.bsky.social Welsh Book of the Month 📚

Head to your local @Waterstones to pick up your copy!

Photo of author David Elias sat signing copies at a table stacked with paperback copies of his book.

1 1

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Aug 5

Calon ar y maes!

Mae llawer o lyfrau Calon ar stondin Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru yn yr @eisteddfod.cymru!

Ewch yno i bori trwy lyfrau ar hanes, llên gwerin, cofiannau a mwy 📚

Lots of books on a shelf including Where the Folk, The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts, Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape, and Seascape

Loud Medicine and Nightshade Mother on a shelf

Calon @calonbooks.bsky.social · Jul 30

Offer ends tomorrow!

Head to the @waterstones.bsky.social website or app and use the code SUMMER25 for 25% off pre-orders of 'There She Goes, My Beautiful World' and 'Hafren'!

#WPreorder

Cover of Hafren which features a colourful illustration of the river Hafren with each colour washing over it and the bridge in waves. Text alongside it reads WATERSTONES 25% OFF On Upcoming Books Pre-order now with code: SUMMER25 28-31 July | Online Only

Cover of There She Goes, My Beautiful World by Gosia Buzzanca which has a pale blue background and features a polaroid photo of Gosia when young. The text alongside it reads WATERSTONES 25% OFF On Upcoming Books. Pre-order now with code SUMMER25 28-31 July | Online Only