The Writers of Wales Database

DAVIES, DEBORAH KAY

Deborah Kay Davies’s first collection of poetry, Things You Think I Don’t Know, was published by Parthian Books in 2006. Parthian published her first collection of short stories, Grace, Tamar and Laszlo the Beautiful, in 2008. It won the 2009 Wales Book of the Year. Click here to read an extract from it. Her debut novel entitled True Things About Me was published by Canongate Books in July 2010. It was picked by BBC2's 'Culture Show' as one of the top twelve first novels from the past few years.

Her stories have been published in MsLexia, Planet and New Welsh Review and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She is a three-time winner in the Rhys Davies competition. Deborah’s poetry has been published in many journals, including Agenda, New Welsh Review, Poetry Wales and Planet. She has given readings at the AWP Conference in Baltimore, USA, and at venues throughout the UK, including Chapter Cardiff, the Hay Festival and the Dulwich Poetry Festival, London.

Deborah has an M.A. in the Teaching and Practice of Creative Writing and a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from Cardiff University. She has taught Creative Writing at Cardiff University and the University of Glamorgan. She was awarded an Arts Council of Wales New Writer’s Bursary in 1994, a Writer’s Bursary in 1999 and an Academi Writer’s Bursary in 2005. Deborah is an English language judge for the 2011 Wales Book of the Year. She lives in Cardiff.

Reviews:

"…Deborah Kay Davies’ ’Stones’ is striking and felt real: Grace’s attitude towards her missing sister, the intimacy of the little girls’ knowledge of one another, is fresh and poignant, an the writing is toughly sensuous, imitating the child’s charged awareness…"
Tessa Hadley

"…Sheer illicit pleasure is the subject of Deborah Kay Davies’ ’Wood’, a story that shines in its elegance and simplicity…"
Kitty Sewell


Selected Publications:
Things You Think I Don’t Know (Parthian, 2006)
Grace, Tamar and Lazlo the Beautiful (Parthian, 2008)
True Things About Me (Canongate, 2010)

Contributed to:
Mr Roopratna’s Chocolate (contributor) (Seren, 2000)
Ghosts of the Old Year (contributor) (Parthian, 2002)
My Cheating Heart (contributor) (Honno, 2005)



Grace, Tamar and Lazlo the Beautiful (Parthian, 2008)

Set in the eastern valleys of south Wales from 1970 to the present day, this volume relates the history of Grace and Tamar, their volatile childhood, disruptive coming-of-age and dubious maturity. The book is part novel, part fantasy, part social history. More than anything it tells dark, universal tales about how utterly strange it is to learn to be human.



To purchase a copy from gwales.com, please click on its front cover