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York is a city that is impossible to define. A city that contains Roman ruins, Viking remains, a Gothic cathedral and Victorian splendour crisscrossed with medieval cobbles; the identity of York is an ever-shifting thing. Likewise, nestled beyond the ancient walls, York St John University has an identity in flux. Starting life as a Victorian teacher training college to become a vibrant, tight-knit university community with a hotbed of creative talent, the students of York St John are just as in flux as the city. This anthology explores the multi-faceted question of identity, from what you are willing to give up to regional folklore. Beyond the Walls 2019 moves beyond the walls of our city to look at who we are, what we believe in, and the things that scare us. Who will you become after venturing Beyond the Walls?

"We are delighted to welcome you to the third annual edition of York Literary Review. This edition marks the beginning of a collaboration with Valley Press, a trailblazing publisher based close by in Scarborough. It is also the first year that the magazine is housed within York Centre for Writing, a hub for brilliant and innovative new writing led by the Creative Writing team at York St John University. Once again, the editorial process has been driven by a group of talented postgraduate students, who read through the huge number of submissions we received this year and argued passionately for the inclusion of the pieces here. This year we had a high number of very compelling pieces of creative non-fiction, and we're pleased to include more of these than in previous years. The selected contributors come from close to home (we are glad to publish the work of two former students and a York-based geographer) and much further afield - from Canada, the US and across the United Kingdom. We hope that you enjoy their varied and accomplished work." - The Editors

Writers have always regarded walls as a challenge to be overcome. Put a barrier in their way and they will tunnel under it, vault over it or simply blast their way straight through it. In Beyond the Walls, creative writing students from York St John University continue this laudable tradition with a collection of fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction that adroitly demolishes preconceived ideas about their so-called 'snowflake' generation. Tackling global issues like war, the environment and animal cruelty as well as more intimate, human-scale subjects like grief, depression and transformation with crystalline clarity, their collective vision is unflinching, informed, aware and, ultimately, compassionate.

They is the first English-language collection from award-winning poet Arvis Viguls. One of the most prominent voices in 21st-century Latvian literature, Viguls' three collections to date have garnered several national prizes, and in 2017 he was named as one of Literature Across Frontiers' "Ten New Voices", a scheme intended to find "the most interesting writers working in Europe today". His work has been translated into more than twenty languages, with full collections published in Spanish, German, Serbian, and now ¿ thanks to the thoughtful translation work of Jayde Will ¿ English. Readers encountering his work for the first time will encounter moments of reality too strong to be stored on film, the body as a book written in scars, truths only seen on the face of a sleeping man, and question marks sharpened like knives. They will visit the hairdressers, the laundrette and the dentist, and in each place find profound insights into the human condition.Filled with beauty, sorrow and yearning, this is poetry that both transcends and honours the time, place and language of its creation ¿ and is now set to be enjoyed by readers throughout the English-speaking world.

An epic journey, in poetry, through a hundred years of history at London's Holloway Prison.

Madame Spots is lauded for setting up a free school in her village, but her seductive silk qipao and obvious wealth elicit deadly envy as well as admiration. The Phoenix Widow finds a jar of ingots but loses her precious son to wily and, ultimately, unwise kidnappers. Little Spoon stumbles into Running Cow Valley Village with two pails on her water pole and inadvertently becomes a hero to people parched of leadership. Feng Laicai, a diminutive farmer with a life of bad luck behind him, is suddenly thrust into the spotlight, thanks to a scholarly goat.Set in the counties of the Western Plain, these bleak yet beautiful stories shed an incisive light on the extraordinary lives of colourful people. While closely observing the triumphs and tragedies of a cast of unforgettable characters, the ten stories that make up this important collection also bear witness to the evolution of rural China from the early days of the 20th century to the late 1980s, skillfully illustrating the often brutal battle between tradition and progress.

A man does battle with a wolf, two sworn brothers lock horns - literally - as they drink and brag the night away and an old man turns to his flame-bellied stove for comfort when facing a bitter winter alone.These are just some of the fascinating folk who inhabit the magical stories of Hong Ke. Set in Xinjiang, the gateway between China and Middle Asia, The Howl of the Wolf paints a colourful picture of frontier life in all its earthy glory.

This is a book for people who like to gorge on language; a meal too big for people who hate to throw away their food. It is about life's extremes - those times when you do things to excess, and those when you avoid doing anything at all. Sometimes political, sometimes sexual and always hungry, this visceral, arresting debut pamphlet marks the arrival of an unforgettable new 'mouth' in UK poetry.

In A Bench for Billie Holiday, James Nash tenderly retraces seventy years of life through seventy new sonnets. Whether lightly sketching moments of truth or revisiting his younger self with the benefit of insight and experience, he imbues each fourteen-line fragment with wit, wisdom and wonder.Looking back from various locations, each ideal for serious thought (whether the train, a bike or a sea-facing bench), he pieces together autobiographical shards of truth that reflect both the smallest details of his own life and the larger issues we face as a society, nation and species.A perfect follow-up to his beloved first volume of sonnets, Some Things Matter, this book adds new breadth and depth to the work of one of Yorkshire's most popular poets.