THERE will be performances from two popular local poets at the last spoken word event of 2023 in Cardigan next week.

The final Cellar Bards event of 2023 will see co-organiser Jackie Biggs provide a performance alongside a performance from ‘modern mystical poet’ Ron Geaves.

Jackie is a former news journalist who has had three poetry collections published. The latest one – Before We Breathe – is inspired by the coastal waters and hinterland of Cardigan Bay.

Her 2019 collection called Breakfast in Bed was shortlisted in the Welsh Poetry Book Awards. She has had poems highly commended in a number of competitions and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

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

He is inspired by Eastern poetic forms and published his first single authored collection of poems – titled Rumi Weeds – in 2018 with Beacon press. He was joint editor of William Abdullah Quilliam’s collected poems in 2018 and is known as the author of the biography of the famed Victorian who converted to Islam.

Ron will have a new collection of poems – called Glimpses – and his memoir called Wayfaring in the Field published by Beacon Press in 2024. Living in Abercych, he is a long-standing member of the Cellar Bards and regularly speaks at open mic nights.

The Cellar Bards event will start immediately after Cardigan’s lantern parade (which begins at 7pm at ends at the Castle) on Friday, December 8 at The Cellar, Quay Street, Cardigan. Doors will open at 7.30pm and entry is £3. There are open mic spots available by signing up on the door by 8pm or you can just go and watch. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/groups/333544513348067.