Parthian Books

Origins

Parthian Books was founded in Cardiff in 1993 by Richard Lewis Davies, who was then labouring on building sites, artist Gillian Griffiths, and teacher Ravi Pawar. Initial development training and support for the company was provided by the Prince's Youth Business Trust (now known as the Prince's Trust) and the Enterprise Allowance. The novel Work, Sex and Rugby by Lewis Davies, Parthian's debut release, was launched at Chapter and Verse Bookshop during the Cardiff Literary Festival in September 1993, to critical and subsequently prize-winning acclaim. The cover art for the book, Portrait in Oil, by Gillian Griffiths was exhibited in the Celf pavilion at the 1994 National Eisteddfod in Neath. The novel is largely set in the Neath valley. Parthian's second title, Tilting at Windmills: New Welsh Short Fiction, was released in 1995. Edited by Ravi Pawar, Tilting at Windmills was a volume of twelve short stories, with each contribution drawn from successful submissions to the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition. The competition itself was launched by the Rhys Davies Trust in 1991. Parthian continues to publish anthologies from this prize and has enjoyed a long and close relationship with the Rhys Davies Trust.

In 1996, the company was incorporated and so began a more regular publication schedule starting with the release of Tree of Crows by Lewis Davies. Other titles released by Parthian in 1996 include From Empty Harbour to White Ocean by Robin Llywelyn, which is the English translation of O'r Harbwr Gwag i'r Cefnfor Gwyn, the winner of the National Eisteddfod Prose Medal in 1994, and Streetlife by playwright and screenwriter Karl Francis. Two years later, in 1998, Parthian launched its Cambrensis Initiative. Supported by the Arts Council of Wales' Arts for All programme, the scheme set out to uncover new Welsh writing talent. The resulting publication, Mama's Baby (Papa's Maybe) and Other Stories: New Welsh Short Fiction, which was released in 2000, was then the largest anthology of contemporary Welsh writing ever to have been published. The volume featured established writers including Alun Richards, Siân James, Leonora Brito, Stevie Davies, and early work by Niall Griffiths, Deborah Kay Davies, John Sam Jones, George Brinley Evans, and a first time in print for a story by Rae (Rachel) Trezise. Parthian continues to receive financial support from the Books Council of Wales in the form of grants.

2000 also saw Parthian publish Rachel Trezise's debut novel, In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl, which won a place on the Orange Futures List in 2001, and the launch of the Parthian Shots series. Three short story collections appeared in Parthian Shots: Flamingos by Gail Hughes, Boys of Gold by George Brinley Evans, and Welsh Boys Too by John Sam Jones. The latter was named a Stonewall Honor Book in Literature in 2002 and hailed by Gay Times as "charming [and] thoughtful". Parthian had previously signalled its commitment to LGBTQ+ literature by publishing Roger Williams' play Gulp in the 1998 collection of New Welsh Drama, Safar, Gulp, My Piece of Happiness edited by Jeff Teare.

Growth

To celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2003, Parthian organised a competition with the Western Mail, giving the newspaper's readers the chance to win the "Parthian 10", a collection of books by prize-winning writers published by the company. The collection included writers such as Jo Mazelis, Lewis Davies, Rachel Trezise, and John Sam Jones. The New Welsh Review also published a feature article on Lewis Davies and Parthian to mark the company's tenth anniversary, which was written by literary critic John Pikoulis.

In 2005, Parthian won the contract to publish the Library of Wales. Sponsored by the Welsh Government and the Books Council of Wales, and edited by Professor Dai Smith, the project set out to restore to print forgotten or inaccessible classics of Welsh writing in English. Parthian and the Library of Wales were the subject of a major feature by Mario Basini in the Western Mail in 2005, with accompanying photographs by Keith Morris. The first five books in the series were So Long, Hector Bebb (1970) by Ron Berry, Border Country (1960) by Raymond Williams, The Dark Philosophers (1946) by Gwyn Thomas, Cwmardy (1937) and We Live (1939) by Lewis Jones, and Country Dance (1932) by Margiad Evans. In March 2006, Parthian organised the Welsh Writing for the World Week, a showcase of ten Welsh writers held in New York City. As part of the festival, Parthian presented the New York Public Library with a copy of the Library of Wales series. A donation of the Library of Wales volumes was also made to Wexford County Libraries in 2010, as part of a literary exchange between Wales and Ireland.

The launch of the Bright Young Things series in September 2010 marked the beginning of a new phase of talent spotting by Parthian, with debut releases by Jemma L King, Tyler Keevil, Susie Wild, JP Smythe and Wil Gritten. Keevil's debut novel, Fireball, was shortlisted for the Guardian's Not The Booker prize in 2011. Ten of the Best, an anthology of poetry featuring Mab Jones, Alan Kellermann, Anna Lewis, M. A. Oliver-Semenov and Siôn Tomos Owen, followed in 2011. Full poetry collections from Kellermann and Lewis were published in 2012. Collections from Oliver-Semenov and Owen were released in 2016.

In 2012, Parthian began publishing Cheval, the annual Terry Hetherington Award anthology of short stories. Many of the winners of this award, including Mari Ellis Dunning, Natalie Ann Holborow, Jemma L. King and João Morais, have since released debut publications with Parthian. By the time of Parthian's twentieth anniversary in 2013, the company had published more than two hundred books.

Parthian celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2018 with a showcase at the London Book Fair. In 2021, the publisher launched its first podcast with episodes devoted to Welsh queer writing. An exhibition to mark Parthian's thirtieth anniversary was held at the museum at St Dogmael's Abbey, Pembrokeshire, in January and February 2023.