The Cardigan Cellar Bards welcome award-winning poets Rae Howells and Kittie Belltree on Friday, 13 September.

The Cellar Bar doors and bar open at 7.30pm. Entry is £3, and open mic spots are available – sign up on the door by 8pm.

Rae Howells is a poet, journalist and lavender farmer from Swansea. Her debut collection, The language of bees, was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2023. She has previously won the Rialto Nature & Place and Welsh poetry competitions and been featured widely in journals including Magma, The Rialto, Poetry Wales, New Welsh Review, Acumen and Poetry Ireland. A keen environmentalist and a believer in the restorative power of wild places, she is poet in residence at Llanelli Wetland Centre. This Common Uncommon is her second poetry collection.

Kittie Belltree is a poet and prose writer living in St Dogmaels. Her debut poetry collection, Slice Tongue and Pearl Cufflinks was published in 2019. Her poems and short fiction have been widely published in journals and anthologies.

She won the Disability Arts Cymru Creative Word Award in 2020 and in 2022 was selected by Literature Wales as a writer to transform the country’s literary culture into one that is truly reflective of Wales’ diverse communities.

Kittie works as a workshop facilitator, delivering creative well-being projects in schools and community settings, and is a Specialist Tutor for neurodivergent students at Aberystwyth University where she recently completed her PhD exploring the representation of trauma through poetry.

Cellar Bards meet on the second Friday each month.

Plans for the rest of this year include guest readings and performances from Chrys Salt, Tony Curtis and Des Mannay, a diverse selection of writers new to Cellar Bards.

Writers of poetry, short stories, micro-fiction and novels are welcome on the open mic, and people can read favourite pieces by others. Put your name down on the door on the night (max four minutes at the mic each), or listen to the guests and talented regulars.

See The Cellar Bards Facebook page for more information.