Shock of the New. This is what Ezra Pound wanted. What Robert Hughes thought that art generated right through the last century. Flickering change. In 2008 has this changed?  Literature may still be new but does it continue to make waves? BayLit, the Academi’s annual bilingual festival will try to find out. Expect the young, the new, and the alternative.

Events run from Wednesday 8 October to Tuesday 14 October 2008. Watch out for innovation in literature, film, politics, poetry, and other creative places in the contemporary soul.

Highlights include acclaimed poetry collective Aisle 16 taking us on a bizarre poetic travelogue of motorway service stations, and Cymdeithas y Rhyfeddod attempting to define the imagination with their extraordinary multimedia experiment featuring 24 familiar voices from Welsh-language Literature. An evening of Speedy Scripts from young Welsh playwrights Ceri Elen, Huw Foulkes, Lleucu Siôn, Elis Gomer and Gwilym Dwyfor follows the arrival of the World Poets Tour to Cardiff, led by Choman Hardi. Poet, critic and newly appointed editor of New Welsh Review Kathryn Gray introduces an evening featuring young Welsh writers Zoe Brigley, Meirion Jordan, Louise Walsh, Tom Anderson and Joe Dunthorne.

Join BayLit at The Point on Thursday 9 October for The Big Gig and Poetryfilm which combines experimental film and live readings from Lois Barrar, Rhys Iorwerth, Iwan Rhys, Tiffany Atkinson, Richard Marggraf Turley and Anna Lewis. This will be followed by music from Jamie and the Lionhearts and Derwyddon Dr Gonzo. Drop into Borders, Cardiff during the week for one of BayLit’s lunchtime readings. Two workshops from Yemisi Blake and Eurig Salisbury look at the Creative Art of Blogging and a revolutionary new take on cynghanedd. Finally, is rural the new urban? Cynan Jones, Horatio Clare and Tom Bullough discuss while David Llewellyn asks the question are we shocked yet? All this and much more…