Planet issue 249

A short story by Emily Blewitt explores motherhood, sisterhood and loss set in a quintessential Welsh indoor market and on the banks of the swollen Ogmore – where things are not as they seem.

Planet issue 249

As the world watches the brutal repression of women protesting in Iran, Shara Atashi examines the roots of ‘Jineology’, a radical feminism born of the Kurdish resistance movement.

Planet issue 248

This summer we asked Llinos Anwyl if they would like to create three collages in response to Planet’s archive to display at our 50th anniversary celebration this September. We love Llinos’s irreverent, Dadaist approach to Welsh print culture and radical politics so were delighted when they agreed!

Planet issue 248

Our Welsh Keywords series offers contemporary perspectives on the meaning of Welsh words, inspired by Raymond Williams’ Keywords. In this issue, Sara Louise Wheeler describes how she found herself chafing against the restrictions of academic writing and discovered the tradition of the ‘Ysgrif’ – the personal essay. She argues that this mode of expression is one that neurodivergent people can excel at in particular.

Planet issue 248

Harriet Protheroe-Soltani responds to an article in Voice.Wales to argue how while the Act is designed to strengthen the bargaining position of senior trade unionists, that with creative thinking the Act could be used as an organising opportunity to empower workers in a cost-of-living crisis.

Planet issue 248

Congratulations to the winner of our New Writers’ Competition! In his article, Emlyn Phillips traces connections between the Celtic Britons and eastern Eurasia, Iolo Morganwg, and the precarity, yet possibility, ahead for Wales as power arguably again shifts eastwards to the ‘New Silk Road’.

Planet issue 247

As the Eisteddfod re-gathers in Tregaron, Frances Roberts Reilly draws on her ancestry to trace its connections with Romany Gypsy Traveller communities. She calls for solidarity with the people who attend another festival which has deep resonance for a minority culture: Appleby Horse Fair –interviewing key figures about why this event was the launch of a ‘summer of discontent’ against a Police Act that will criminalise a 500-year-old nomadic heritage.

Planet issue 246

Our Welsh Keywords series offers contemporary perspectives on the meaning of Welsh words, inspired by Raymond Williams’ Keywords. In this issue, Mabli Siriol Jones draws on her experience growing up in Grangetown to discuss the complexities of gentrification (boneddigeiddio) across Wales, arguing why we need to understand this in relation to class and the political system if we are to challenge these inequalities in empathetic ways that don’t set communities against each other.

Planet issue 246

In a piece of autofiction, Durre Shahwar relives an encounter that left her longing for familiarity and safety.

Planet issue 245

Billy Jones draws on Raymond Williams, Mark Fisher and new books from Wales to argue how a neoliberal orthodoxy continues to blight the health and happiness of Valleys communities, thereby internalising external miseries as mental illness. However, is consciousness about this beginning to shift?

Planet issue 244

Yvonne Connikie gives an insight into her research into the leisure activities of Caribbean Elders in south Wales, and the zest for life she has discovered. She draws on theories of leisure, gender and Critical Race Theory to address the obstacles her interviewees face when seeking to enjoy themselves.

Planet issue 244

Congratulations to the winner of our 2021 New Writers’ Article Competition! Phil Jones describes how an Abereiddi folk musical generated reflections on the ways in which the turbulence, profiteering and stark inequality of the industrial revolution are paralleled in our pandemic era.

Planet issue 243

Kandace Siobhan Walker recounts what first sparked her consciousness about the situation in Palestine, and the long roots of solidarities between this struggle and the Black liberation movement, recommending resources for informed activism.

Planet issue 243

Clare Davies details the resonance of Williams’ life and work in pandemic-era Wales. She highlights Williams’ exploration of how everyday personal tragedy can transform into a revitalised sense of humanity and drive for social change; and how Welsh intellectuals can commit to this struggle.

Planet issue 243

Hanan Issa recounts the thrill of feeling more alive through sea-swimming, as experienced from Ogmore beach to Bali; but draws on mythology and present-day realities to convey what the dangers of this same body of water mean for the devalued lives of others.

Planet issue 242

Collage artist Llinos Anwyl investigates the online subculture of ‘cottagecore’, which has become popularised during the pandemic, and argues that the class dynamics of this aesthetic threaten to exacerbate gentrification in her home village of Moelfre and beyond.

Planet issue 242

In a series that proposes how society could change for the better in response to Covid-19, headteacher Rajvi Glasbrook Griffiths reflects on what has been learnt under lockdown about how to instil a distinct and pluralistic sense of Welsh identity, how to re-conceive of ‘wellbeing’ in relation to achievement, and a new way of understanding equality.

Planet issue 241

Our Welsh Keywords series offers contemporary perspectives on the meaning of words in Welsh, inspired by Raymond Williams’ Keywords. In this issue, Sara Huws explores the fascinating history of how a word for ‘witch’ shape-shifted into one for ‘scientist’. What is the gender dimension of this etymological journey, and what does this mean in an era of pandemic and big data?

Planet issue 241

A short story by Alissa Bevan.

Planet issue 240

Harry Waveney reflects, in his competition-winning article, on the values he’s discovered through Kurdish solidarity activism.

Planet issue 240

Yasmin Begum reviews two recent artistic works springing from Cardiff’s multicultural history.

Planet issue 239

Faith Rhiannon Clarke interviews Butetown human rights lawyer Hussein Said on why Black lives matter in environmental activism

Planet issue 239

Peter Jingcheng Xu counters Western stereotypes of China with this insight into how Daoism might inform global struggles against pandemics and climate change.

Planet issue 238

Hafren Evan traces the history of a third gender way back to the Iron Age.

Planet issue 238

Kieron Smith writes about state support for the arts in Wales.

Planet issue 237

Gareth Leaman details the reasons why Wales as a partially devolved polity barely existed in the 2019 UK general election campaign.

Planet issue 236

Artist Paul Eastwood on the word ‘dadweirlled’ (metamorphosis, shape-shifting) and the use of Welsh for abstract ideas in the visual arts.

Planet issue 236

Neetha Kunaratnam’s poem, ‘Brexit means Breakfast’, brings us britwurst and celtberries.

Planet issue 236

Mark S. Redfern won our 2019 Young Writers’ Essay Competition with this piece about the sensationalising of Swansea’s heroin crisis.

Planet issue 236

Eric Ngalle Charles has a close encounter on a train journey from Cardiff to Hay.

Planet issue 233

Dan Evans celebrates Welsh football fan culture and how this contributes to national unity, internationalism and working-class self-organisation.

Planet issue 232

Sophie McKeand examines what a libertarian leftist approach could bring to drug-law reform.

Planet issue 232

Rebecca Brown won our 2018 essay competition with this piece about narratives of hope and the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.

Planet issue 231

Daryl Leeworthy asks ‘What Would Nye Do?’ in respect to the future of Welsh Labour.

Planet issue 231

Catrin Ashton recounts how a Marxist pamphlet helped her to see mothering as essential and productive labour.

Planet issue 230

Planet issue 230

Lisa Sheppard, who acquired Welsh at school, explains what ‘mamiaith’ (‘mother tongue’) means to her.

Planet issue 230

Rhian E. Jones writes about minority languages across Europe.

Planet issue 229

Planet issue 228

Ffion Jones draws on her experience as a sheep farmer and film-maker to offer proposals for safeguarding Welsh national interests post-Brexit.

Planet issue 228

Polly Manning explains why Oxford University made her sick in this winning entry to the 2017 Planet Young Writers’ Essay Competition.

Planet issue 228

Poet Emily Blewitt celebrates the postmen and pigeon-breeders who are ‘The Men in My Family'.

Planet issue 227

Sara Peacock explores the similarities between prejudice against LGBT+ people and against Welsh speakers.