William Owen Roberts

Last updated

Wiliam Owen Roberts (born 1960) is a Welsh language novelist and writer of plays for radio, television and theatre.

He was born in Bangor, Gwynedd, and studied Welsh Literature and Theatre Studies at the University of Wales from 1978 to 1981. [1]

His writing is characterised by its originality and daring, dealing with subjects and ideas new to Welsh-language literature. For example, his first novel, Bingo!, is a reworking of the diaries of Franz Kafka. His second novel, Y Pla (lit. 'The Plague', translated into English as Pestilence) is perhaps his best known and has been translated into multiple languages including English, Dutch and German. [2]

Unlike many Welsh-language writers, much of his writing deals with areas of history not directly related to Wales, for example, his 2001 novel Paradwys is about the Atlantic slave trade, as is his 2008 novel, Petrograd, set during the Russian Revolution, which went on to win the Wales Book of the Year award. [3]

His work has been described as an example of the postmodern tradition.

His novels include:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saunders Lewis</span> Welsh writer and politician

Saunders Lewis was a Welsh politician, poet, dramatist, Medievalist, and literary critic. He has been described by Jan Morris as, "the most passionate of twentieth century Welsh patriots", and as being, "one of the few twentieth century writers in Welsh with a European reputation, but for many Welshmen [he was] chiefly the keeper of the national conscience."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welsh literature in English</span> Works written in the English language by Welsh writers

Welsh writing in English, is a term used to describe works written in the English language by Welsh writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Salesbury</span> Welsh scholar

William Salesbury also Salusbury was the leading Welsh scholar of the Renaissance and the principal translator of the 1567 Welsh New Testament.

Islwyn Ffowc Elis was one of Wales's most popular Welsh-language writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Roberts (author)</span> Welsh author writing in Welsh

Kate Roberts was one of the foremost Welsh-language authors of the 20th century. Styled Brenhines ein llên, she is known mainly for her short stories, but also wrote novels. Roberts was a prominent Welsh nationalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Owen Sheers</span> Welsh poet, author, playwright and Television presenter

Owen Sheers is a Welsh poet, author, playwright and television presenter. He was the first writer in residence to be appointed by any national rugby union team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. Llew Jones</span> Welsh childrens writer

Thomas Llewelyn Jones was a Welsh language author. Over a writing career of more than 50 years, he became one of the most prolific and popular authors of children's books in Welsh. He wrote, and was generally known, as T. Llew Jones.

Siân James was a Welsh novelist, academic and translator, who wrote in English. Her third novel, A Small Country, is seen as a classic of Anglo-Welsh literature. Her 1996 short-story collection Not Singing Exactly won the English-language category in Wales Book of the Year, the first book by a woman to do so.

The Wales Book of the Year is a Welsh literary award given annually to the best Welsh and English language works in the fields of fiction and literary criticism by Welsh or Welsh interest authors. Established in 1992, the awards are currently administered by Literature Wales, and supported by the Arts Council of Wales, Welsh Government and the Welsh Books Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethan Gwanas</span> Welsh language author

Bethan Gwanas is a popular contemporary Welsh author, who publishes almost exclusively in the Welsh language. A prolific writer, she has had 17 titles published in the last decade. Whilst not just a fiction writer, she has written novels for teenagers and Welsh learners, though most of her recent work has been for adults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welsh-language literature</span> Literature from Wales in Welsh

Welsh-language literature has been produced continuously since the emergence of Welsh from Brythonic as a distinct language in around the 5th century AD. The earliest Welsh literature was poetry, which was extremely intricate in form from its earliest known examples, a tradition sustained today. Poetry was followed by the first British prose literature in the 11th century. Welsh-language literature has repeatedly played a major part in the self-assertion of Wales and its people. It continues to be held in the highest regard, as evidenced by the size and enthusiasm of the audiences attending the annual National Eisteddfod of Wales, probably the largest amateur arts festival in Europe, which crowns the literary prize winners in a dignified ceremony.

Grahame Clive Davies CVO is a poet, author, editor, librettist, literary critic and former journalist. He was brought up in the former coal mining village of Coedpoeth near Wrexham in north east Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parthian Books</span> Publishers from Wales

Parthian Books is an independent publisher based in Cardigan, Wales. Editorially-led, it publishes a range of contemporary fiction, poetry, drama, art books, literature in translation, and non-fiction. Since its foundation in 1993, Parthian has published some of the best-known works of contemporary Welsh literature including Work, Sex and Rugby (1993) by Lewis Davies, In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl (2000) by Rachel Trezise, Crawling Through Thorns (2008) by John Sam Jones, Pigeon (2017) by Alys Conran, and Hello Friend We Missed You (2020) by Richard Owain Roberts. It is involved in the European literary scene and has also published celebrity autobiographies, such as Griff Rhys Jones' Insufficiently Welsh, and Boyd Clack's Kisses Sweeter Than Wine. In 2019, Parthian was recognised as the Small Press of the Year for Wales at the "Nibbies", the British Book Awards. Parthian's motto is "A Carnival of Voices in Independent Publishing".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre of Wales</span>

Theatre in Wales includes dramatic works in both the Welsh language and English language. Actors from Wales have also achieved international recognition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Literature in the other languages of Britain</span> Literature from Britain not written in English

In addition to English, literature has been written in a wide variety of other languages in Britain, that is the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. This includes literature in Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Latin, Cornish, Anglo-Norman, Guernésiais, Jèrriais, Manx, and Irish. Literature in Anglo-Saxon is treated as English literature and literature in Scots as Scottish literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manon Steffan Ros</span> Welsh novelist, playwright, games author, scriptwriter and musician

Manon Steffan Ros is a Welsh novelist, playwright, games author, scriptwriter and musician. She is the author of over twenty children's books and three novels for adults, all in Welsh. Her award-winning novel Blasu has been translated into English, under the title of The Seasoning. In May 2021 she was described as "arguably the most successful novelist writing in Welsh at the moment". In June 2023 she won the Yoto Carnegie Medal for The Blue Book of Nebo, her English translation of her novel Llyfr Glas Nebo.

Alice Matilda Langland Williams, more commonly known as Alys Mallt and Y Fonesig Mallt, was a Welsh political writer and celtophile. She was born in Brecknockshire to an English-speaking family, but learned the Welsh language when influenced by the circle of Welsh heiress Augusta Hall, Baroness Llanover.

John Gwilym Jones was a Welsh dramatist, novelist, short-story writer, drama director, academic and critic, considered a pre-eminent figure in those fields. In particular, he is widely acknowledged to be one of the two greatest 20th-century Welsh playwrights, along with Saunders Lewis; of his many plays, Hanes Rhyw Gymro (1964), Ac Eto Nid Myfi (1976) and Yr Adduned (1979) are considered masterpieces. Almost all of his work was written in the Welsh language. A writer in the modernist tradition, he is credited with introducing Brechtian techniques, stream-of-consciousness narrative and Freudianism to Welsh literature. Creative writers such as Kate Roberts and John Rowlands owed him a profound debt, and a whole generation of critics were influenced by his work as a teacher of Welsh literature.

Meg Ann Elis, also known as Marged Dafydd or Margaret Dafydd, is a Welsh writer, translator and language activist. She stood unsuccessfully as a Plaid Cymru candidate for the Delyn constituency in the National Assembly for Wales election in 1999 and again in 2007.

Rhiannon Ifans, FLSW is a Welsh academic specialising in English, Medieval and Welsh literature. She was an Anthony Dyson Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, in University of Wales Trinity St. David. She twice won a Tir na-n-Og prize for her work and won the literary medal competition at the Welsh Eisteddfod, for her 2019 debut novel, Ingrid, which was chosen for the Welsh Literature Exchange Bookshelf. In 2020, Ifans was elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.

References

  1. "Grammar, Style, and Usage".
  2. http://www.wai.org.uk/index.cfm?UUID=4D5C6AB1-65BF-7E43-33DDAEBBF9381B4A [ dead link ]
  3. "Story collection wins book prize". BBC News. 15 June 2009.