Seren launches subscription service for 40th anniversary

Independent Welsh press Seren is launching a subscription service to celebrate its 40th anniversary this year.

The service aims to highlight newly published books by both emerging and established authors. Seren subscribers will receive three new books a year—one poetry, one fiction and one non-fiction—alongside exclusive event access. 

There are two options available, the annual subscription and gift subscription. Gift subscriptions include a gift card for the recipient to open, in anticipation of the first books being posted in January 2022.

Publisher Mick Felton said of the venture: “This new service will introduce subscribers to brand-new titles from our list which they can discuss and share with their communities. Every subscription will help to ensure we continue publishing books and supporting authors here in Wales for another 40 years.”

The press, which specialises in English-language writing from Wales, was founded in 1981 as the Poetry Wales Press, with the aim of helping authors in Wales get published. Early titles included collections by Mike Jenkins and Ruth Bidgood, and it later expanded to feature miscellaneous works by Alun Lewis and Dannie Abse, fiction by Emyr Humphreys and Siân James, plus work by authors it is still publishing today, such as Robert Minhinnick, Christopher Meredith and Sheenagh Pugh.

Recent popular titles include Four Dervishes, a debut novel by Hammad Rind; All The Men I Never Married, the second collection by award-winning poet Kim Moore; and Bar 44 Tapas y Copas, a Spanish cookbook from the founders of critically acclaimed restaurant group Bar 44.