Voices on the Bridge - Looking Forward

Open Mic Event

Contact: 01443 490748

Mab Jones is a "unique talent" (The Times), who has read her poems all over the UK, in the US, Ireland, France, and Japan. She is the author of Poor Queen (Burning Eye Books, 2014) and take your experience and peel it (Indigo Dreams, 2016), which won the Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize. She has also won the John Tripp Spoken Poetry Audience Award, the Word Factory Neil Gaiman Short Story comp, and the Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, amongst others. In 2015 she was the recipient of a Creative Wales Award. Currently, she teaches a creative writing class at Cardiff University, coordinates International Dylan Thomas Day, and is a freelance contributor to the New York Times. She recently presented a poetry programme on BBC Radio 4. www.mabjones.com

Josh Evans is a 23 year old, Rhondda based Singer/Songwriter. His music combines a punk mentality with intricate guitar work, whilst still honouring the storytelling element which is so crucial to contemporary folk music.

Rhian Elizabeth was born in the Rhondda Valley. Her first novel, Six Pounds Eight Ounces (Seren, 2014), was set in that valley and shortlisted for The International Rubery Book Award. In 2016 she was a winner of The Terry Hetherington Young Writers Award. Right now she is working on a collection of poems entitled 'the last polar bear on earth'- poems all about being sick and being in love.
Mike Jenkins Retired Comp teacher, lives in Merthyr. Conducts creative writing workshops for children and adults. Co-editor of Red Poets magazine for 22 years. Winner of Wales Book of the Year for short story collection 'Wanting to Belong'(Seren). Latest book of poetry is 'Nobody's Subject' (BBTS).

Julia Rose Lewis is working on her PhD in poetry at Cardiff University. Her poems have appeared in the Moors Poetry Collective anthologies, 3am Magazine, Poetry Wales, and Missing Slate. Zarf Poetry published her chapbook, Zeroing Event 2016). Finishing Line Press is publishing her chapbook, Exhalation Halves Lambda in 2017.

Rob Cullen studied at Bristol and Cardiff art colleges and lived in New York and Brighton. In 1982 he returned to South Wales. Rob worked for 37 years with severely damaged and damaging individuals. He was an expert to the criminal and family courts. He retired in 2012. His short story The Choice was published in an anthology in 2015. This involved a day of storytelling in Aberdare town centre in September 2015. Rob has had four short stories published in Ystrad Stories related to the life of the artist Ernie Zobole. He has a psychological novel described by a publisher as “filmic” awaiting publication. His poems have been published in the online magazine I AM NOT A SILENT POET. His collection of poetry “Uncertain Times” was published in 2016. He is currently working with a publisher on a collection of short stories and poetry. www.celfypridd.wordpress.com

Rhian Elizabeth was born in 1988 in the Rhondda Valley. Her first novel, Six Pounds Eight Ounces (Seren, 2014), was set in that valley and shortlisted for The International Rubery Book Award. In 2016 she was a winner of The Terry Hetherington Young Writers Award. Right now she is working on a collection of poems entitled 'the last polar bear on earth'- poems all about being sick and being in love.
Gerhard Kress takes photographs, plays music on various instruments including the drainpipe. He writes, mostly, but not exclusively, words. He has supplied the folk and early music world with frame drums, renaissance, shaman and communal giant drums. Mabon Arts have published 'Inanimate People'. A collection of photographs shown at Pontypridd Museum, the Pop Factory and is going to be exhibited at the Welsh Assembly in 2017.


Ellen Davies is a poet from the Rhondda. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Cardiff University and her work has been published in a variety of magazines and journals including Envoi and Popshot Magazine. Ellen's debut poetry pamphlet, Accent, was published by Cinnamon Press in 2015. When she's not busy working in a museum, Ellen is the poetry editor for The Cardiff Review, a magazine publishing contemporary graduate writing.

Rhys Milsom is a poet, writer, reviewer, creative writing tutor and workshop facilitator based in Cardiff. He was a winner in The Short Story's International Writers' Award, and his fiction and poetry has been widely published, including in Wales Arts Review, Litro Magazine and The Lonely Crowd. Rhys has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Wales: Trinity Saint David. He has published two collections of poetry, Amnesia, and 'Transition', both published by Accent Press.

Suzanne Iuppa is a poet, conservationist and community worker who lives in Snowdonia. She writes about our day-to-day relationships and how these contrast with ecology, and wild settings.
http://www.writeoutloud.net/profiles/suzanneiuppa

Des Mannay was winner of the 'rethinkyourmind' poetry competition (2015). Placed 2nd and highly commended in the Disability Arts Cymru poetry Competition (2015). 'Gold Award' winner in the Creative Futures Literary Awards (2015). Performed at the 'Unity' Festival, 'Maindee' Festival, 'Hub' Festival, 'Stoke Newington Literature Festival', KAYA Festival of World Music & Arts, and Walls:Muriau - Welsh mental health arts festival. Has poems published in 'I Am Not A Silent Poet' online journal, 'The Angry Manifesto', 'Proletarian Poetry', 'Yellow Chair Review', 'Indiana Voice Journal', 'Stand Up And Spit', 'Red Poets'.

Cara Cullen is a bilingual writer and musician from South Wales and recently completed a bachelor’s degree in history at the University of Oxford. Cara was brought up within a family of artists and environmental activists and this has been a strong influence on her writing.

Entry: Free

Time: 7:00pm