Mystery Solved!

For many years I have pondered over what is written on the back of this carte de visite. It is one of the photographs included in Captain David ‘Jefferson’ Davies’s own album. Even though I had asked several Spanish speakers to translate it, and they had interpreted some of it, parts of it still remained a bit of a mystery. Until now! Artist David Hopkins (responsible for the beautiful painting of Javi which is on the cover of my new book, I Am the Mask Maker) is also a fluent Spanish speaker and rather good at palaeography, the deciphering of old manuscripts. He has worked out that this is what it says in Spanish (English translation below it):

Dedico est(a) foto

Recuerdo ami (a mi)

Querido amigo

Daveis en prueba

de amitad (amistad) i (y)

carino (cariño) (/) su

(a)miga María

I dedicate this photo (as a, ‘como un' is missing)

Souvenir/ reminder to my

Dear friend

Daveis [Davies] in proof

of friendship and

affection (,) his friend Maria

According to David Hopkins, the dedication does not appear to have been written by a woman of education, as evidenced by the shaky spelling and punctuation. Perhaps she wasn’t a native speaker of Spanish?

I would dearly love to know who she was. Perhaps someone in Chile will recognise her from their own family archives one day?

I Am the Mask Maker and other stories: how the pandemic forced author Rhiannon Lewis to 'go on location' and travel through time

The cover painting, Javi, is by the artist David Hopkins

In September 2020, Rhiannon Lewis became the first UK winner of the William Faulkner Literary Competition’s short story category since it was established in 1997. Covid-19 meant that Lewis couldn’t attend the ceremony in New Albany, Mississippi and the awards were held online, in common with so many other events last year. Now, just over a year later, Victorina Press is publishing her new anthology, I Am the Mask Maker and other stories which includes the Faulkner contest winning story, Piano Solo.

Lewis’s debut novel, My Beautiful Imperial, published by Victorina Press, was placed on the Walter Scott Prize Academy recommended list of historical novels in 2018.

Lewis is no stranger to competitions and many of the stories in the new anthology have either been shortlisted or won competitions, including The Significance of Swans shortlisted for the Bristol Prize in 2019 and The Jugs Stay with the Dresser which won Frome Festival’s short story competition in 2017.

Lewis admits to having a love/hate relationship with competitions.

‘When you are a writer published by a small, independent press, getting mentioned in competitions is often the only comfortable way for you to draw attention to your work, particularly if you feel embarrassed blowing your own trumpet on social media.’

Lewis goes on to explain that after another of her stories was shortlisted for the HG Wells competition last year, she set to work on the theme proposed for this year: Mask.

‘Given our recent experiences, the challenge was to write something that wouldn’t be too depressing. I decided to ‘go on location’ and travel through time. I went back to Renaissance Italy and wrote about a place which was as far away from Pandemic Britain as I could imagine – beautiful, watery Venice.

‘Even though the final story ended up being nearly twice as long as the maximum word count allowed for the competition, which meant I couldn’t submit it, it did produce one of my most uplifting stories. It also gave me the title for my book. Competitions are useful, not always in the way they’re intended.

‘However, whenever a story fails to make it on to a shortlist, I console myself that writing is not a sport. Jan Morris was wise, as always, when she said, “There are no rules to art, though, nobody is offside, and to my mind nobody should be judged a winner. Not even me.”’

I Am the Mask Maker and other stories will be released on 30 October, 2021 but can be pre-ordered now directly from the publisher www.victorinapress.com or from all good bookshops.

I Am the Mask Maker and other stories

My new short story collection has gone to the printers! I’ll be posting more news about it in due course but I thought I’d take the opportunity to share the cover painting with you here for the very first time.

The painting is called Javi and the artist is David Hopkins. I’ve loved David’s work for such a long time and when I saw this painting I knew it would be perfect for the cover. I’m thrilled and honoured that David agreed to let me use the image for the collection. It’s such a striking portrait and perfectly conveys the determination of so many of the characters I’ve written about in my book.

If you’d like to see more of David’s paintings, you can find his work here:

www.davidhopkinspaintings.co.uk and also on Instagram: davidanthonyhopkins

Vision: H.G. Wells Short Story Competition

I love this cover!

A whole year has gone by since one of my stories, The Last Flight of la Librairie d’Afrique du Nord was shortlisted by the H.G Wells Short Story Competition. I was thrilled to have my story published in the competition’s anthology, Vision. Things were so busy at the time that I completely forgot to post the good news! You can buy the anthology from Trencavel Press. The story is also included in my new short story collection which will be appearing very soon.

The William Faulkner Literary Contest

PRESS RELEASE 25 September 2020

Welsh Writer Rhiannon Lewis Wins William Faulkner Literary Prize for Short Story

Welsh author, Rhiannon Lewis, has become the first UK writer to win the prestigious William Faulkner Literary Competition in the Adult Short Story category. The competition was established in 1997 to commemorate the centenary of Faulkner’s birth. 

The win was announced on 25thSeptember from the William Faulkner Library at the Union County Heritage Museum in New Albany, Mississippi. The prize, which is usually awarded at a luncheon with around 200 guests in attendance, was broadcast live on the Museum’s Facebook page because of the ongoing situation with Covid-19. The presentation was made by Lynn Madden on behalf of the William Faulkner Literary Committee. 

William Faulkner was born on 25 September, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. He won the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature and Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction in 1955 and 1963, and is widely regarded as one of the most celebrated writers in American Literature.

The adult short story award calls for a single, previously unpublished story of up to 10,000 words written in English. Lewis’s story, Piano Solo, tells the story of an eccentric Maths teacher whose one true obsession is perfecting Rachmaninov’s notoriously difficult third piano concerto. Previous winners and runners-up have come from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Iran as well as the United States.

Rhiannon Lewis took up writing in 2011. Her debut novel, My Beautiful Imperial, was published by independent publisher Victorina Press in 2017 and was named by the Walter Scott Prize Academy as one of its recommended historical novels. In 2018, it was translated and published in Spanish as Mi Querido Imperial. Other works by Rhiannon Lewis have had success at competitions such as Frome Festival, Hammond House, Bristol Prize, and The New Welsh Writing Awards.

Victorina Press will be publishing an anthology of Lewis’s short stories in 2021. The company’s managing director, Dr Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes says, ‘Becoming the first UK author to win this prestigious, international award is a remarkable achievement and a testament to Lewis’s ability to create memorable stories.’

For more information on the competition, go to: www.williamfaulknerliterarycompetition.com

For more information on Victorina Press, go to: www.victorinapress.co.uk

To watch the ceremony on the Union County Heritage Museum’s facebook page: 

www.facebook.com/WilliamFaulknerGardenatuchm

HG Wells Short Story Competition

I’m thrilled to be included on the shortlist of the HG Wells Short Story Competition with The Last Flight of La Librairie d’Afrique du Nord. It’s a story I started writing last year and completed during lockdown. Shortlisted stories are published in the competition’s anthology, so anyone interested will get a chance to read it there in due course. The awards ceremony will take place on 22 November.

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was an English writer who wrote novels, short stories, biography, autobiography, and works of social commentary, history and satire. Today, he is best rememberd for his science fiction novels, including The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.

HG Wells was a diabetic. In 1934, he co-founded The Diabetic Association which is known today as Diabetes UK.

Not a post about lockdown

At the moment, I can’t think of anything interesting to say about lockdown. I suspect, like everything, a certain amount of perspective is needed to see things clearly. However, it has provided some of us with time to go through the ‘archives’. I came across this newspaper cutting from March 1975, most probably The Tivyside, the local paper for Cardigan. It’s nice to think that I am still in touch with Anne and Gwen after all these years. I have no idea where Janet Vaughan is now. But we obviously loved literature, even then! Dyddiau da! Good times!

'Mi Querido Imperial' at Foyles, Charing Cross Road

Welcome book lover, you are among friends.

The Spanish translation of My Beautiful Imperial is now on sale at the famous Foyles, London. Foyles is a glorious bookshop and the foreign languages floor is almost directly opposite the cafe. So you could theoretically buy my book and then visit the fabulous cafe to have a coffee while you start reading it! Sheila, the buyer for the department, has been hugely helpful. At the moment she is half way through reading the novel and her verdict so far: ‘It’s brilliant!’

New Welsh Reader and The New Welsh Writing Awards

In May, I was thrilled to discover that my novella, The Significance of Swans, had been placed second in the New Welsh Writing Awards, 2019: Aberystwyth University Prize for a Dystopian Novella. Prizes were awarded at the Hay Festival. The novella was based on, and was an extension of, a short story which had previously been shortlisted by the Bristol Prize, back in October 2018.

First prize at the New Welsh Writing Awards was awarded to JL George for The Word, and third prize was awarded to Rosey Brown for Adrift. Excerpts of all three can be found in this month’s edition (number 122) of the New Welsh Reader. You can order copies here: https://www.newwelshreview.com/shop.php

The edition also includes excerpts from highly commended entries by Dewi Heald for Me, I’m Like Legend, I Am, Heledd Williams for Water, Water, Nowhere and Thomas Pitts for The Chosen. Llongyfarchiadau, well done, everyone!

Second Edition of 'My Beautiful Imperial' released

I’m delighted the second edition of ‘My Beautiful Imperial’ has now arrived, after the first run of copies sold out. Complete with up to date reviews, but with the same gorgeous cover, designed by Steffan Glynn.

Copies are available from Victorina Press, all good book shops and Amazon.

If you enjoy it, don’t forget to leave a review on Amazon (you don’t have to buy the copy from them to leave a review) or Goodreads. Take a look at my suggestions below on how you can support an author without necessarily buying their book.

https://www.rhiannonlewis.co.uk/how-to-support-a-writer

Crickhowell Literature Festival

I am very much looking forward to being part of this event. At 2pm, Sunday, 6 October, I will be in conversation with Gwen Davies, editor of the New Welsh Review. We will be discussing my book, ‘The Significance of Swans’, which came second in the New Welsh Writing Awards, as well as other Wales-sourced dystopias in general. Tickets and more information available at: https://cricklitfest.co.uk/event/rhiannon-lewis-gwen-davies-dystopias-of-wales/

My Beautiful Imperial author from Abergavenny who turned family history into acclaimed novel

Thank you to Nicholas Thomas for the First Person feature which appeared in the South Wales Argus recently, and which you can read in full here.

WH Smith Aberteifi/Cardigan

Diolch i WHSmith Aberteifi am y croeso cynnes, ac i bawb alwodd mewn heddi. Wedi cwrdd â nifer o bobl diddorol, ac wedi gwerthu llyfrau i bobl mor bell i ffwrdd a Kent a Denmark!

Thank you to WHSmith Cardigan for the warm welcome, and to everyone who called in today. I met lots of interesting people and sold some books to people from as far away as Kent and Denmark!

WH Smith Cardigan signing/Arwyddo yn Aberteifi

WH Smith Aberteifi/Cardigan

Gwener 26 Gorffennaf 2019

Bydd Rhiannon Lewis yn arwyddo copïau o My Beautiful Imperial yn WH Smith Aberteifi, rhwng 10 – 4yh. Cafodd y nofel ei hargymell gan y Walter Scott Prize Academy yn 2018. Galwch mewn i ddweud helo a chael sgwrs.

Friday 26 July 2019

Rhiannon Lewis will be signing copies of My Beautiful Imperial at WH Smith Cardigan, between 10 – 4pm. The book was listed by the Walter Scott Prize Academy as one of its recommended books for 2018. Call in to say hello.

Crickhowell Literature Festival, 6 October 2019.

Rhiannon Lewis and Gwen Davies

Dystopias of Wales,

2pm , 6 October 2019. The Parish Hall, Crickhowell Literature Festival.

In 2015, Cardiff-Cornish musician Gwenno Saunders won the Welsh Music Prize with an album inspired by Owain Owain’s 1976 Welsh-language dystopian novel, Y Dydd Olaf , from which her record takes its name. In 2018, Lloyd Markham was a Betty Trask award-winner for his Wales-set book of drugs, friendship and alien abduction, Bad Ideas\Chemicals, and his book went on the following year to win the New Welsh Readers’ Poll for the best ever dystopian novella published in English. This summer, Rhiannon Lewis won second place in the New Welsh Writing Awards Aberystwyth University Prize for a Dystopian novella, with her book The Significance of Swans, about mass disappearances, parallel realities and a violent intruder.  

Gwen Davies talks to Rhiannon Lewis about her own evocative dystopia, Wales-sourced dystopias in general, explores how an author can combine the known and unknown, the intimate and places on the furthest reaches of our imagination, and asks what are those issues that cause most public anxiety today and how are fiction writers responding to them. 

Gwen Davies has been editor of New Welsh Review since 2011 and a co-judge for the New Welsh Writing Awards since their inauguration in 2015. She has worked as creative editor at publishers including Parthian, founded the imprints Alcemi and New Welsh Rarebyte Her latest published translation is The Jeweller by Caryl Lewis. 

Rhiannon Lewis’s debut novel, My Beautiful Imperial, was published in December 2017. In March 2018, it was listed by the Walter Scott Prize Academy as one of its ‘recommended’ historical novels. Rhiannon has also had success with short stories, including the Bristol Prize, 2018, Hammond House International Short Story Prize, 2017 and Frome Festival Prize, 2017 which she won. 

Gwen Davies

Abergavenny Chronicle

I never thought I would be front page news!

Tipyn o sioc i fod ar y dudalen flaen!

New Welsh Writing Awards

Thank you to the New Welsh Writing Awards for awarding 2nd prize to 'The Significance of Swans', in the Aberystwyth Prize for dystopian novella. Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors, and in particular the winners, JL George (Aberystwyth Prize) and Peter Goulding (winner of the Rheidol Prize).

Diolch i'r New Welsh Writing Awards am osod 'The Significance of Swans' yn ail yng nghystadleuaeth Gwobr Aberystwyth ar gyfer nofel fer dystopaidd. Llongyfarchiadau i'r awduron eraill ar y rhestr fer, yn arbennig yr ennillwyr, JL George (Aberystwyth Prize) a Peter Goulding (ennillydd y Rheidol Prize).

For more information about the award, click here

Photo courtesy of New Welsh Review

Mi Querido Imperial: Lanzamiento/Launch/Lansiad

We had a great evening at the Embassy of Chile, celebrating the launch of ‘Mi Querido Imperial’. Here are some photos to give a flavour of the evening.

The Ambassador, Mr David Gallagher

With Catalina Herrera Acuña, Cultural Affairs and Press Attaché for the Embassy of Chile, and Steffan Glynn, the cover designer for ‘Mi Querido Imperial’.

Signing a copy for the Chilean author J T Blackie, Juanita Ozamiz.

With Paloma Zozaya, author, and guest

Paloma Zozaya, author, in charge of readings and questions.

Sophie Lloyd-Owen, introducing Victorina Press in the absence of the founder (due to illness), Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes.

With Adam Feinstein, acclaimed author.

With Sophie and Jorge from Victorina Press.

With the Ambassador, David Gallagher, and Sophie Lloyd-Owen and Jorge Vasques, from Victorina Press.

Sophie Lloyd-Owen, Victorina Press.

With Paloma Zozaya, making last minute notes ahead of the launch.

Taking questions from the audience with Paloma Zozaya

With Steffan Glynn, book cover designer for ‘Mi Querido Imperial’, and ‘My Beautiful Imperial’.

With Mr David Gallagher, Ambassador.

The Ambassador, Mr David Gallagher, welcoming everyone at the start of the event.

Fermin Pavez, author.

Steffan Glynn, designer.

With Heidi Hurst, graphic designer.

With the Chilean author J T Blackie, Juanita Ozamiz.

Pilar Cerón Durán and family.

Launch Date - Mi Querido Imperial

The launch of Mi Querido Imperial will take place between 6-8pm, on Thursday, 16 May 2019 at the Embassy of Chile, 37-41 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9JA.

We would love to see you there. If you would like to attend, please get in touch with Sophie or Jorge at Victorina Press: victorinapress@gmail.com

This will be a bilingual event in Spanish/English, with some Welsh thrown in! However, the readings will all be in Spanish.