Folding Rock #1
170 x 245 mm, 146 pages
Barry, Wales
Quarterly
Editorial directors: Kathryn Tann and Robert Harries
Art director: Matt Needle
‘New writing from Wales and beyond’
‘England, Scotland and Ireland have Granta, Gutter and The Stinging Fly... Wales now has Folding Rock.’ So do editors Kathryn Tann and Robert Harries boldly announce their new literary title, which aims to put contemporary Anglo-Welsh writing firmly on the map through fiction, creative non-fiction and literary criticism.
The ambition is matched by Matt Needle's striking cover design for this debut issue, themed ‘Roots’, which features writers new and established: Sophie Mackintosh pens a short story on a mother and daughter at funerals; Mari Huws Jones reflects on pregnancy and the stages of gardening; Jay Griffiths visits Lynx Cave with amateur excavator John Blore; Durre Shahwar recalls a trip to the sea, plus reviews from Eluned Gramich.
On the Journal
Robert Harries sheds light on the name: ‘While ‘Folding Rock’ was initially intended as a reference to Wales’s rich geographical association with, and reliance upon, rocks and minerals, particularly the country’s layered Orcovician formations, I must confess my mind leapt to the oxymoronic unfeasibility—even futility—evoked by the phrase... to attempt to actually fold a rock—or, say, run a literary magazine—would at first appear to be a fool’s errand.’
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