Prizewinning poet Natalie Ann Holborow is the special guest at Cellar Bards’ first event of 2025.

Doors and the bar open at 7.30pm on 14 February at The Cellar, Quay Street, Cardigan.

Entry is £5 and open mic spots are available. Sign up on the door by 8pm.

Natalie is a winner of the Terry Hetherington Award and the Robin Reeves Award and has been shortlisted and commended for the Bridport Prize, the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine, and the Cursed Murphy Spoken Word Award, among others.

She’ll read from her third full poetry collection, ‘Little Universe’.

Natalie’s writing residencies with the British Council, Literature Wales and Kultivera have seen her writing and performing poetry in Wales, Ireland, Sweden and India.

She is the author of the poetry collections ‘And Suddenly You Find Yourself’ and ‘Small’ – both listed as Best Poetry Collections of the Year by Wales Arts Review – and, with Mari Ellis Dunning, the collaborative poetry pamphlet ‘The Wrong Side of the Looking Glass’ (2020).

Writer Mab Jones praised ‘Little Universe’, saying: “Vivid, sometimes lurid; taut, at times with a tightness that speaks of intense situations, mindstates, emotions; and, very often, visual, these are poems which manage a balance between being scalpel-sharp yet rich in description... I know of very few young writers who are quite so fantastic... It’s a book that will mesmerise from beginning to end, and holds great power.”

Writers of poetry, short stories, micro-fiction and novels are welcome on the open mic. People who want to read their own work, or favourite pieces from other writers, can put their names down at the door on the night (max four minutes at the mic each). Or go along to listen to guests, plus a variety of spoken word performances from regulars.

See The Cellar Bards Facebook page for more.