Newport based poet, Des Mannay, is set to have poems archived on the Moon. The 'Writers on the Moon' project is being facilitated by Astrobotic; an official partner with NASA on its Lunar CATALYST program.

Astrobotic state, "We hope this snapshot of writing from around the world in 2021 will reveal the humanity of today to the readers of tomorrow. Items will stay on the Moon forever and serve as a time capsule of our present day culture for future generations. Someday, future Moon archeologists could use these time capsules to remember what life was like in our time."

Des explained, "Fellow poet, Elizabeth Wolf has  included the bilingual anthology, 'Persian Sugar in English Tea Vol. I', in her project, for which she has scored a digital slot on a lunar lander, heading to the moon. Her theme is community on our blue planet and so she also included another anthology and pictures taken on 5 continents plus her own full length poetry book. The anthology  'Persian Sugar in English Tea Vol. I' is one of a 3 volume set written in English and Farsi and distributed to private libraries in the Farsi speaking world.

There is quite an oral tradition in these cultures, so I was really pleased to find the Farsi translation of one of my poems, 'Stoned', was the third most listened to out of the 3 volume set in the Farsi speaking world".

Reflecting on his literary Moon landing, Des said, "Looking back to my childhood, one of my favourite poems was 'The Moon' by Robert Louis Stevenson. Little did I know anything of mine would land there. This news really is out of this world".

For more details about the writers on the moon project visit www.writersonthemoon.com

You can purchase Des' anthology poetry book here www.amazon.co.uk/Persian-Sugar-English-Tea-Bilingual/dp/1981914129