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Lucent Dreaming nets Welsh Children’s Laureate Allen’s first poetry collections
Welsh publisher Lucent Dreaming has signed multidisciplinary artist and Welsh Children’s Laureate Connor Allen’s debut poetry collections.
Jannat Ahmed, co-founder and editor, acquired world rights directly from the author for Dominoes, which will be published in April 2023, and Miracles, a poetry collection for children to be published in June 2023.
Allen has written for BBC Wales, BBC Radio 4, Sherman Theatre, Literature Wales and Dirty Protest, and is currently under commission with Wales Millennium Centre and National Theatre Wales.
His work is inspired by his experiences with grief, love, masculinity, identity and ethnicity. He recently won the Rising Star Wales Award 2021 and was a Jerwood Live Work Fund recipient 2021.
Ahmed said: "I’m delighted to be working with Connor Allen to bring his poetry collections to audiences worldwide. His voice, his story, his message, his experiences are so important, and so often not seen in publishing. His poetry is irrevocably honest and a breath of fresh air, rooted deeply in Connor’s desire to connect with and make people feel less alone in the world. The Children’s Laureate of Wales is a special role, and I’m so pleased that we’ll be sharing his poetry collection for children Miracles as he approaches the end of his two-year tenure. And, as a new publisher, it happens that his debut poetry collections will also be Lucent Dreaming’s debut poetry collections; it’s an honour to share that, too."
Allen commented: "Having a collection published is beyond anything I could’ve imagined growing up. It means the world to me that Lucent believe in my words enough to publish not one but two collections. And it makes me proud to know that you can come from a single-parent council estate background in Newport and have a book published. It’s inspiring!”
Lucent Dreaming is in receipt of Books Council Wales’ New Audiences Fund as the publisher hopes to platform new and emerging writers, fostering new editors and publishing professionals from underrepresented backgrounds in Wales.
