:Rae Howells
{{short description|Welsh writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Rae Howells
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| occupation = Writer
| nationality = Welsh
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| genre = Poetry
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| notableworks = {{Plainlist |
- The language of bees (2022)}}
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| website = {{URL|www.raehowells.co.uk}}
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Rae Howells is a Welsh writer. Her debut poetry collection The language of bees was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award in 2023.{{Cite web |date=2023-05-21 |title=Literature Wales announces shortlist for Wales Book of the Year |url=https://nation.cymru/news/literature-wales-announces-shortlist-for-wales-book-of-the-year/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Nation.Cymru |language=en-GB}}
Career
In 2017, Howells' poem 'Airlings' won the Welsh Poetry Competition.{{Cite web |title=Rae Howells wins the Welsh Poetry Competition 2017 |url=https://www.literaturewales.org/lw-news/rea-howells-wins-welsh-poetry-competition-2017/ |access-date=2023-09-11 |website=Literature Wales |language=en-US}} This win was followed by another prize the next year, when 'The Winter-King' took first place in The Rialto's Nature Poetry Competition.{{Cite web |title=Rae Howells wins £1000 Rialto Nature Poetry Competition – The Poetry Society |url=https://poetrysociety.org.uk/news/rialto/ |access-date=2023-09-11 |website=poetrysociety.org.uk}} Both of these poems would eventually appear in Howells' first full collection The language of bees, published by Parthian Books in April 2022.{{Cite book |last=Howells |first=Rae |title=The language of bees |publisher=Parthian Books |year=2022 |isbn=9781913640699 |pages=20–70 |language=en}} In May 2023, The language of bees was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award, with the shortlisting announced on BBC Radio Wales.{{Cite web |title=Buchaillard, Rowland-Hill and Newbury among Wales Book of the Year shortlistees |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/buchaillard-rowland-hill-and-newbury-among-wales-book-of-the-year-shortlistees |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=The Bookseller |language=En}}
Howells' second poetry collection, This Common Uncommon, was published by Parthian Books in May 2024. The collection centres upon West Cross Common, a threatened peat-based green space in Swansea.{{Cite web |last=Gower |first=Jon |date=2024-12-22 |title=Poetry review: This Common Uncommon by Rae Howells |url=https://nation.cymru/culture/poetry-review-this-common-uncommon-by-rae-howells/ |access-date=2025-02-18 |website=Nation.Cymru |language=en-GB}} The collection emerged during the COVID-19 lockdowns, when Howells and her family discovered this neglected area, rich in biodiversity yet facing potential development into housing. Through her poems, Howells personifies the common, giving voice to its flora and fauna, and explores themes of environmental conservation and the human connection to nature. The work serves both as a celebration of this unique habitat and a call to protect such vital green spaces, with Howells active in a local campaign to preserve the common from development.{{Cite web |last=Sarah |date=2024-05-27 |title=On being a poet in Wales: Rae Howells |url=https://nation.cymru/feature/on-being-a-poet-in-wales-rae-howells/ |access-date=2025-02-18 |website=Nation.Cymru |language=en-GB}}
Howells also regularly works in collaboration with other writers and artists. Prior to her first full collection, she published Bloom & Bones: a collaborative poetry pamphlet with fellow Swansea poet Jean James. Presented as a 'poetry conversation through colour' and inspired by The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair, the pamphlet contained twenty poems responding to ten colours: white, yellow, orange, pink, red, purple, blue, green, brown and black.{{Cite web |last=Davies |first=Gwen |date=2022-09-28 |title=Bloom and Bones: A Poetry Conversation Through Colour |url=https://newwelshreview.com/bloom-and-bones-a-poetry-conversation-through-colour |access-date=2023-09-11 |website=New Welsh Review |language=en-GB}} The pamphlet was published by Hedgehog Press, and launched at The Swansea Fringe festival on 24 October 2021.{{Cite web |title=Facebook |url=https://www.facebook.com/events/cinema-coffee/sff2021-bloom-bones/295146325792314 |access-date=2023-09-11 |website=www.facebook.com}} Later that year, Howells was selected as one of five Welsh women artists to take part in Ù Ơ: a virtual artistic residency linking artists from Wales and Vietnam.{{Cite web |date=2021-12-05 |title=Ù Ơ : Five Welsh women artists selected for prestigious international residency |url=https://nation.cymru/culture/u-o-five-welsh-women-artists-selected-for-prestigious-international-residency/ |access-date=2023-09-11 |website=Nation.Cymru |language=en-GB}}
Bibliography
= Poetry =
- Bloom & Bones (with Jean James) (2021)
- The language of bees (2022)
- This Common Uncommon (2024)
References
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Category:21st-century Welsh women writers