The writer Tariq Ali interviewed by Ian Rappel. A pioneering figure in the international Left since the Vietnam War, Tariq Ali argues the case for radical independence for Wales in the struggle against austerity and war, and why the Left should vote to leave the EU.

Our ‘Welsh Keywords’ series debates contemporary angles on words in Welsh, inspired by Raymond Williams’ Keywords. In this issue, Tony Bianchi takes an irreverent look at cwtsh, and its use in everything from nick-nacks and dating agencies to children’s hospices and support groups. Is the concept both a kitsch commodity and a sign of a caring community?

‘Retracing Wales’ is our series of creative responses to the Wales Coast Path, which go astray from the usual tourism script. In this issue, James Stewart takes us into deep time and deep waters, discovering stars, seals and U-boats on the scramble from Strumble Head to Fishguard.

Having been exiled to Missouri, historian Adam Coward contrasts political culture in the US and Wales, finding more to be hopeful of on the Welsh side of the ocean as the Presidential and Assembly election campaigns get underway.

Rachel Trezise reclaims her grandfather's Treorchy chicken run from bramble and long-gone landowners, remembering happy childhood mornings letting out the hens at first light, only for a vicious turf war to break out, before finally discovering joy at becoming an ‘egg woman’...

An extract from Niall Griffiths’ forthcoming novel Broken Ghost, which takes us on and under a wobbly bridge in Aberystwyth

Rhian Davies explores how the Gregynog Festival of classical music places Wales in a wider European tradition. In the centenary year of the Easter Rising she gives the historical narrative behind this year's Festival: the myriad connections between Wales and Ireland via ancient harp pins, Saint Melangell and the ‘University of Revolution’ at Fron-goch.