Cawl

Consisting of short stories, poems, essays and cartoons and comics, Cawl is an anthology of one multi-prize winning, funny, angry young man's creative endeavours and social and political frustrations. Traditionally Cawl is a mix of everything thrown into one stew pot and left to simmer, boil over and be savoured. Here Sion Tomos Owen invites the reader to choose what to taste next. The meat of the essays, the parsnip of poetry, the spud of satire or the OXO cube of comedy. Ranging in genre from gritty realism, macabre, sci-fi and comic writing, his is a collection that can be interpreted as an anthology of more than one writer but written by one author. The poems range from short rhyming poems to long free form but consist mainly of valleys-based Cwm on 'en poetry including a centre-piece reinterpretation of Rhydwen Williams' epic 'In praise of a valley' from his Rhondda Poems. The cartoons are a mix of comic strip style social humour and satirical cartoons, heavily influenced by Martin Rowson, Art Spiegelman and Gren. The essays blend humour and frustrated social commentary on Wales and particularly the political situation in the valleys, and are entrenched in stagnant Labour idealism while hoping for change that can only come from the people themselves.