Two popular local poets feature as guest performers at the last Cellar Bards event of 2023 this Friday, 8 December, at The Cellar, Quay Street, Cardigan.

They are ‘modern mystical poet’ Ron Geaves and Cellar Bards co-organiser Jackie Biggs.

The event will begin immediately after the town’s spectacular Lantern Parade, which starts at 7pm and ends at The Castle.

Doors and the bar at The Cellar open at 7.30pm. Open mic spots are available – just sign up on the door by 8pm.

Ron has been described as a ‘modern mystical poet’ and shared the stage at the Bradford Literature Festival with Ben Okri in 2021.

Inspired by Eastern poetic forms, he published his first single authored collection of poems, Rumi Weeds, with Beacon Press in 2018.

Known as the author of the biography of the famed Victorian convert to Islam, William Abdullah Quilliam, Ron was joint editor of Quilliam’s collected poems in 2018.

Ron’s new volume of poems, Glimpses, and his memoir, Wayfaring in the Field, will be published by Beacon Press in 2024.

He moved to Pembrokeshire in 2015 with his wife and son, settling in Abercych. He is a long-standing member of the Cellar Bards, regularly performing on open mic nights.

A former news journalist, Jackie has had three collections of poetry published.

The latest, Before we Breathe (Littoral Press 2021) is inspired by the coastal waters and hinterland of Cardigan Bay.

Breakfast in Bed was published by Indigo Dreams Publishing in 2019 and was shortlisted in the Welsh Poetry Book Awards.

The Spaces in Between was published in 2015 by Pinewood Press (Swansea).

Jackie had a poem Highly Commended in the RS Thomas Festival Poetry Competition in 2019 and was also Highly Commended in the Welsh International Poetry Competition 2019. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Along with just about every other poet in the world she is currently working on a new series of poems related to climate crisis.

The Cellar Bards welcome writers of poetry, short stories, micro-fiction and novels to the open mic (maximum five minutes each).

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.

Or go along to listen to some great guests, plus a variety of spoken word performances from talented regulars.