Menna Elfyn
Menna Elfyn | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1951 (age 74–75) |
| Nationality | Welsh |
| Genre | poetry |
Menna Elfyn FRSL, FLSW (born 1951) is a Welsh poet, playwright, columnist, and editor who writes in Welsh. She has been widely commended and translated. She was imprisoned for her campaigning as a Welsh-language activist.[1]
Background
[edit | edit source]During the 1970s and 1980s, Menna Elfyn was a member and sometime official of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg. She was twice imprisoned for acts of civil disobedience.[2] She described the ordeal of being forced to speak in the English language to her parents when they visited her in prison.[1]
Elfyn has published ten volumes of poetry and a dozen more of children's books and anthologies. She has also written eight plays for the stage, six radio plays for the BBC, and two plays and several documentaries for television. She co-edited The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry with John Rowlands, which won a Poetry Book Society recommendation.[3] She has won numerous prizes for her work, including a Creative Arts prize to write a book on sleep (Cwsg: am dro yn ôl).
When Elfyn issued her bilingual selected poems Eucalyptus, (Gwasg Gomer, 1995), Tony Conran described her as "the first Welsh poet in 1500 years to have her work known outside Wales." He gave similar praise to her second bilingual volume, Cell Angel (1996).[4]
Her work has been translated into 18 languages, including Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Lithuanian. She was Writing Director of the Masters Programme in Creative Writing at Trinity University College, Carmarthen, and a Literary Fellow at Swansea University.[5][6]
Elfyn lives in Llandysul. Her daughter, Fflur Dafydd, is a writer and musician.
Published works
[edit | edit source]Poetry
[edit | edit source]- Mwyara, Gwasg Gomer (1976) Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)., OCLC 877136990
- Stafelloedd Aros, Gwasg Gomer (1978) Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)., OCLC 877138151
- Tro’r Haul Arno, Gwasg Gomer (1981) Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)., OCLC 16591556
- Mynd Lawr i’r Nefoedd, Gwasg Gomer (1985) Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)., OCLC 14904018
- Aderyn Bach Mewn Llaw: cerddi 1976–90, Gwasg Gomer (1990) Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)., OCLC 831354680
- Eucalyptus, Gwasg Gomer (1995)
- Cell Angel, Bloodaxe Books (1996)
- Cusan Dyn Dall/ Blind Man's Kiss, Bloodaxe Books (2001)
- Perffaith Nam, Gwasg Gomer (2005) Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)., OCLC 59352065
- Perffaith Nam. Perfect Blemish, Bloodaxe Books (2007) Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)., OCLC 255911683
- Er dy fod , Gwasg Gomer 2007 (book for learners/learning a language)
- Merch Perygl: Cerddi 1976-2011 (Gomer Press, 2011)
- Murmur (Bloodaxe, 2012)
- Bondo (Bloodaxe, 2017)
- Edited, with John Rowlands: The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry (Bloodaxe, 2003)
Prose
[edit | edit source]- Optimist Absoliwt: Cofiant Eluned Phillips (biography of Eluned Phillips) (Gomer Press, 2016)
- Cwsg: am dro yn ôl (illustrated by Sarah Williams) (Gomer Press, 2019)
Other works
[edit | edit source]- Red Lady of Paviland A project with composer Andrew Powell, Musical Director Craig Roberts and the Burry Port Town Band, the centrepiece of which will be Menna and Andrew's new work 'Y Dyn Unig' (The Lonely Man).
- Menna Elfyn (ed.) Cyfrinachau by Eluned Phillips (Honno, 2021)
Awards
[edit | edit source]- Major Prize for Volume of Poetry (Stafelloedd Aros), Wrexham National Eisteddfod. (1977)
- Member of the Gorsedd for contribution to Welsh Literature. (1995)
- Poet Laureate for the Children of Wales (2002)
- Creative Wales Award (2008)
- Anima Istranza Foreign Prize for Poetry (2009)
- Arts Council Prize for 'Aderyn Bach mewn Llaw'
- Longlisted for book of the year, ' Cusan Dyn Dall/ Blind Man's Kiss
Menna Elfyn became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2015.[7] In 2018, she became a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.[8]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Bloodaxe Books Retrieved 8 August 2017
- ^ Poetry International Rotterdam Retrieved 23 April 2017.
- ^ British Council Retrieved 23 April 2017.
- ^ University of Wales, Trinity St David Retrieved 23 April 2017.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Menna Elfyn Website
- Menna Elfyn Profile at BBC Wales
- Menna Elfyn Profile at British Council
- Menna Elfyn Profile at Bloodaxe Books
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- 1951 births
- 20th-century Welsh dramatists and playwrights
- 21st-century British dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century Welsh poets
- 21st-century Welsh poets
- 20th-century Welsh women writers
- 21st-century Welsh women writers
- Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
- Living people
- Welsh women poets
- Welsh language activists
- Welsh-language poets
- Welsh children's writers
- British women children's writers
- Welsh women dramatists and playwrights
- People associated with Trinity University College
- People associated with Swansea University
- Welsh prisoners and detainees
- Welsh book editors
- Welsh women editors
- People from Ceredigion
- Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales