Merthyr Express column

19 Feb 09
Half Term Dancing
For boys and girls aged seven and over, why not down & get dancing with Gina this half term. Create and perform a new dance work on Thursday 19th - Friday 20th February at Dowlais Blast Engine House at 10am – 3pm. And you could be part of the Valleys Girl Community Performance at Soar Chapel on 29th March. For further details contact Head for Arts 01495 357815.

Battle of The Bands
The build up for Saint David’s day begin this Friday (20th February), with BBC Radio Cymru’s C2 Battle of the Bands/Brwydr Y Bandiau, a national competition to find the best Welsh band, in The Myfanwy Theatre, Merthyr Tydfil College, at 7pm. And best of all entry is free! For further information please contact 01685 722176.

Best Reading Prize
Open Mike Literature Nights are free entry, all are welcome to come and read their poetry and short story extracts, with a prize for the night’s best reading, judged by the guest author. Tonight’s Open Mike Literature Night, (Thursday, 19th February) welcomes Hilary Llewellyn-Williams as the guest author to join the open mike readers. Hilary is a poet, born and brought up in rural England, who moved to Wales in 1982. She was winner of Cardiff Literature Festival Competition 1987; Arts Council of Wales Young Writers Prize 1988; joint 3rd Prize Arvon/Observer Poetry Competition 1994. A freelance tutor of creative writing for adults and schools, Hilary teaches on the Creative Writing MA programme at Cardiff University. Her work appears regularly in various magazines, and has featured in many anthologies, including The Bright Field (Carcanet), Twentieth–Century Anglo–Welsh Poetry, Love from Wales, Drawing Down the Moon, Burning the Bracken (Seren), Exchanges (Honno), The Third Day (Gomer) and others. She has three collections of poetry published by Seren, and in 1999 was awarded an Arts Council bursary to complete a new poetic translation of the I Ching. For further details, please contact arts@merthyr.gov.uk or 01685 725382.

Short Stories Competition
The Rhys Davies Short Story Competition could be your big chance to make your mark on the Welsh literary scene and get your hands on the first prize of £1000 for your short fiction. A further ten equal runner-up prizes of £100 are also available. Plus, the 2009 competition sees Academi continuing to work with BBC Radio Wales with the aim of broadcasting a selection of the winning stories on Radio Wales and Radio 4. The hard task of judging the competition is down to eminent writers Niall Griffiths, Stevie Davies and filter judge Jon Gower. Your story can be in any style and on any subject. However, it must be no more than 2,500 words in length, previously unpublished, in English and not a translation of another author’s work. You have until Tuesday 1 September 2009 to enter your prize-winning story. For further information, encouragement plus some hints and tips on entering visit the Academi website: www.academi.org or contact Academi: 029 2047 2266 / post@academi.org. To receive an entry from send an SAE to:Rhys Davies 2009 Entry Form, Academi, Mount Stuart House, Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff, CF10 5FQ