NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

I have never seen the New Welsh Review before and soon realised what I have been missing! This is a comprehensive and intelligent review of the current arts and cultural scenes in Wales. This issue contains interviews, short stories, features, poetry and a supplement on Welsh Theatre.

In the first feature, Andrew Motion, the poet laureate of the United Kingdom discusses with Peter Finch: LAUREATES — DOES WALES NEED ONE? The historic and current roles of poet laureates is examined in a number of countries. This includes Canada where the chosen poet is rewarded with $22 000 for public duties and to produce their own work at their own pace — no doubt they will get their money's worth from the present incumbent who already has sixty books to his name! The overwhelming conclusion of the article is that Wales does need its own poet laureate — to champion poetry in education and public life and also to act as a distinctive Welsh voice in public poetry.

It is interesting to flick from this article to the poetry section, which in this issue includes the runners up from the Cardiff International Poetry Competition 2004. Some of the competition poems are a little touched with the self conscious showing off that can happen when the writer is trying to impress the judges, but they are all good poems. My favourite of these poems is Evelyn Cook's CRONE with its pen portrait of the old woman the narrator sees herself becoming, her descriptions are clever and vivid and sometimes funny:

	Naturally, my cottage,
	unkempt and unlovely, with its
	inappropriate windows, will ensure
	depression in property values,
	an explosion of dandelions.

The non-competition poems are also all well worth reading. Some are a little underwhelming, but Leslie Norris gives us a wonderful evocation of childhood in THE LAW OF GRAVITY. It is a simple narrative, but one that is packed with significant moments that paint a vivid picture of a young boy's awareness of his growing understanding of the world and his relationship with his father.

The other outstanding non-competition poem is Paul Steffan Jones' HELL IS A PLACE — a beautiful short poem of loneliness and loss:

	Now birds can no longer
	Navigate the feathered sky
	But instead fall dead
	Or appear at windows
	Trying to understand glass,

The Theatre in Wales Supplement contains interviews and diary type articles about the state of theatre in Wales. Some of these items for me felt overlong and I would certainly have enjoyed them more if I were more aware of what is going on in Welsh theatre. Roger William's article on taking his play LINGUA to New Zealand was entirely fascinating however. It discusses issues around minority languages (Welsh and Maori in particular) and compares the state of theatre in Wales (where he claims there is little interest in new work) and New Zealand (where there is an appetite for and commitment to new work by new writers from all of the nation's peoples).

It always seems inappropriate to review reviews, other than to say that the ones here are intellingent and interesting. However, in FINDING IMAGES FOR THE FUTURE, Frances Williams gives us much more than a review — this is a feature length article on the visual arts in Wales, beautifully illustrated, that askes questions around the definition of Welshness and the place of the visual arts in the wider Welsh cultural scene.

New Welsh Review demonstrates the vibrant state of culture and arts in Wales today while asking some necessary questions arounds funding and political commitment. It is outward looking and questioning rather than inward looking and dogmatic, which would be easy in a small nation. It is also a stimulating and enjoyable read.