Review:
Take a Bite: The Rhys Davies Short Story Award Anthology
Edited by Elaine Canning. Selected and introduced by Julia Bell From Planet 245
Stevie Davies
reviews
Take a Bite: The Rhys Davies Short Story Award Anthology
Edited by Elaine Canning. Selected and introduced by Julia Bell
Parthian, £9.99
Each year the Rhys Davies Short Story Award reminds us afresh of Davies’ stories, deeply rooted in the society, chapel culture and economic stint of the south Welsh Valleys. He remains a living voice, full of panache, punch and swagger: I think of the collier’s wife in the tragicomic ‘Nightgown’, with her towering resentment against a loveless male household. Or the antics of the ‘village Jezebel’ in ‘The Dilemma of Catherine Fuchsias’, defying rancorous gossip in a fandango of preposterous prevarication.
Sign in to read moreAbout the author
Stevie Davies is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at Swansea University. A collection of her short stories, Arrest Me, For I Have Run Away, was published by Parthian in 2018. Parthian reprinted the award-winning The Element of Water (2001) in The Library of Wales Series (2019). Stevie’s most recent novel is The Party Wall, published by Honno in 2020.
