I go by Line (Caroline) and I’m from Barmouth in North Wales, but lived in Aberystwyth for many years. I learned Welsh from the age of 4 and love languages, world literature and translation. I write a lot of poetry but have found it hard to conentrate on one genre or to promote my own work. Prolific and neurodiverse 🙂
I love writing short plays, translating poems and also work on a novel, children’s book and now my first poetry pamphlet. None are complete. Would love to collaborate as I tend to work in isolation. I stopped my writing career for 11 years while I ran human rights projects in Turkey and stood in solidarity with Turkish and Kurdish writers and journalists. Now I’m taking the leap into concentrating on my own writing. It’s challenging and risky (the move) but it’s also now or never. Would love some poetry commissions or community work. And I love a zine! And performed at the GAWIE storytelling festival this year. I translate and perform Kurdish folk stories.
Publications: Pomegrante Garden, Parthian, 2017 (Translator & Editor), Butterfly of the Night, Palewell Press, 2020 (Translator), Separated from the Sun, Smokestack Books, 2022 (Translator & Editor), Word that Walk through Walls, Palewell Press, 2024 (Translator, Poet & Editor), Short story ‘Galata’ in Honno Press’s ‘Cast a Long Shadow’, 2022, Poem ‘Blaenau Roadsign Happiness’ in Arachne Press’s ‘A470: Poems for the Road’
My translations, essays, interviews and poetry have appeared in print and online in: Modern Poetry in Translation, Assaracus Journal, Berlin Quarterly, Burning House Press, Minor Literatures, Gay & Lesbian Review, Into the Void, Make Time for Aberystwyth, Virus Magazine, Gard Magazine & The Sultan’s Seal Cairo.
I believe that everyone can ‘make’ a poem, given safe spaces and the right techniques to bring out their inner voices and brilliantly individual thoughts. I love using Chance Operation techniques, like John Cage used to. I’m all for creating diverse, inclusive, permanent networks and places that consider the needs, safety and development of all performers. Would love to co-organise arts events in mid Wales. Although Aberystwyth has a fabulous Arts Centre, I still feel we need more venues and opportunities to meet new writers from all over our amazing country.
