Our Best Articles of 2020 – It has been a strange, and often disconcerting, year for many of us, but Wales Arts Review has brought to you some challenging and thoughtful content over the past year – here is a selection of our best articles of 2020.
Ecomusicology: The Hypocrisy of the Music Business.
Martha O’Brien explores the cognitive dissonance of capitalist society and the climate crisis through the music industry.
Charlie Kaufman is Thinking of Ending Things
Rosie Couch contemplates all the winding complexities of the new mind-bending psychological drama from Charlie Kaufman, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which was released on Netflix on the 4th of September.
The Art of Running: Richard Owain Roberts
When Richard Owain Roberts heard the news that his debut novel Hello Friend We Missed You was shortlisted for The Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize this year, he was out running. Here, he reflects on his lockdown runs and writes about his typical running experience, from the clothes he wears to the thoughts he considers.
A Very British Pastime: The Commuting Life
In the week that work commences on HS2 and the UK Government tries to ramp up rhetoric encouraging people to get back to the office, Esyllt Sears finds the absurdity of ‘the commute’ perfectly encapsulated in a recent article from The Times.
Language as Water by Grug Muse
From the Just So You Know: Essays of Experience anthology, Grug Muse explores the dilution of the Welsh language through her journey to Tryweryn reservoir where the wholly Welsh-speaking village of Capel Celyn was drowned in 1965.
Writing Across Continents: Wales and America
Sydney Whiteside explores the writing of Christina Thatcher and Zoë Brigley and their insights into the nature, culture and experience of living in both Wales and America.
Short-term Thinking: Covid-19 and Climate Change
Caragh Medlicott explores the relationship between the climate crisis and COVID-19 outbreak and addresses the need for action from those in authority as well as acceptance that there is no such thing as acting too early.
Noise in the Dark: Birdsong and the City
One of our best articles of 2020 is from architect Richard Porch as he ponders on the effects of noise and light on the city’s birds.
Does Culture Alienate Teenage Girls?
Caragh Medlicott explores a culture of internalised misogyny, sexism and alienation through the lens of the teenage fangirl.
The Exceptional Dominic Cummings
Gary Raymond explores the notion of British Exceptionalism in light of the media frenzy surrounding Dominic Cummings and his breaking of current COVID-19 lockdown rules.
The Value of Arts Criticism During a Crisis
Laura Kressly discusses the complex relationship between arts and arts criticism in order to understand whether or not this dynamic can, and should, continue during the current COVID-19 outbreak.
Carys Davies: Hopes for the Future
Wales Arts Review asked some of Wales’s top writers to pen some thoughts on the future. This new series brings together a wide variety of perspectives and ideas in a vibrant array of styles and forms, expressing hopes for a new way of doing things when the coronavirus is finally overcome. Political, personal, sociological, ecological, cultural – this is an evolving tableau of ideas. Here Carys Davies sees hope for the future in literature.
Coronavirus and the Arts: A New Kind of Cancel Culture
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep the world (and clear toilet roll and soap shelves at the supermarket), there has been continued discussion of the economic impact. We’ve already seen a major stock market drop in the just-past “Black Monday”, but there is another societal impact yet to be discussed: the arts. Caragh Medlicott explores what the future holds.
Writer’s Room by Deborah Kay Davies
Deborah Kay Davies is an award-winning novelist and poet. In 2009, she won the Wales Book of the Year award for her collection of short stories, Grace, Tamar and Laszlo the Beautiful. Here Deborah invites us into her writing space in the latest in our series of essays that explore the creative lives of Wales’s top writers.
