Status | Active |
---|---|
Founded | 1892 |
Founder | JD Lewis |
Country of origin | Wales |
Headquarters location | Llandysul |
Publication types | Books |
Official website | gomer |
Gomer Press (Welsh: Gwasg Gomer) is a family printing (and formerly publishing) company based in Llandysul, west Wales. It was the largest publishing house in Wales.[ citation needed ]
The company was first established in 1892 and began as a general store and printer; [1] it is owned by the same family to this day. Jonathan Lewis, the great grandson of the company's founder, became managing director in 1995. [2]
In September 2019, it was announced that Gomer would be closing their publishing arm to focus on printing. Its 55 employees were retained but would no longer publish new titles, of which it produced 36 in 2018. This marked the end of 66 years of publishing. [3]
Specialising in books which have a distinctive Welsh identity, Gomer had four distinct lists:
The English list for adults features fiction, history, travel writing, biography, literature, cookery, sport, and visual arts. Authors and artists include Gillian Clarke, Jim Perrin, Kyffin Williams, Eddie Butler, Jeremy Moore, and Idris Davies.
Pont Books is an imprint designed to produce English books with a Welsh connection for children. [ needs update ] It has published the last seven books to win the Tir na n-Og Award from the Welsh Books Council in the English-language category that honours the year's best book with "authentic Welsh background". Award winners include Graham Howells (2009), Daniel Morden (2007 and 2013), and Jennifer Sullivan (2006 and 2012). [4] [5] [6]
Books for children of all ages in the Welsh language published by Gomer range from Smot's board books to teenage fiction. There are a number of different series, including Chwedlau o Gymru (Legends from Wales series), Cyfres Llyffantod (Hoppers series), and Cyfres Clwb Cysgu Cŵl (Sleepover Club series), Sali Mali , Tudur Budr (Dirty Bertie), Helpwch Eich Plentyn (Help Your Child), Cyfres Lolipop (Lollypop series), as well as a wide range of titles by prolific author and poet T. Llew Jones.
From 2000 to 2012, at least six Gwasg Gomer publications have won one of the two annual Welsh-language Tir na n-Og Awards. [5]
Gomer published the work of a number of the Welsh language's eminent literary figures, past and present, such as Islwyn Ffowc Elis, T. Rowland Hughes, Gwenallt, Hywel Teifi Edwards, Angharad Price, Fflur Dafydd, and Owen Martell. There were also two bilingual series: Trosiadau/Translations and Cip ar Gymru/Wonder Wales.
The Grey King is a contemporary fantasy novel by Susan Cooper, published almost simultaneously by Chatto & Windus and Atheneum in 1975. It is the fourth of five books in her Arthurian fantasy series The Dark is Rising.
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.
Jennifer Sullivan is a Welsh writer for children and adults, and a former literary critic. She is best known for her Magic Apostrophe series of children's fantasy books. She is a recipient of the Tir na n-Og Award.
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.
Menna Elfyn, FLSW 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.
Gwyn Thomas, FLSW was a Welsh poet and academic. He was the second National Poet of Wales, holding the role between 2006 and 2008.
The Tir na n-Og Awards are a set of annual children's literary awards in Wales from 1976. They are presented by the Books Council of Wales to the best books published during the preceding calendar year in each of three awards categories, one English-language and two Welsh-language. Their purpose is "[to raise] the standard of children's and young people's books and to encourage the buying and reading of good books." There is no restriction to fiction or prose. Each prize is £1,000.
Pont Books is the name of the imprint for young people published by Gomer Press, the largest independent publishing house in Wales. Pont Books was launched in 1991. The logo shows its intention of building bridges between young people in Wales, whatever their background and whichever languages they speak. Pont publications are all in English but there is always a strong Welsh connection.
Grahame Davies LVO 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.
Graham Howells is a Welsh illustrator and children's author. Howells was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and lived in Bahrain, Malaysia, Singapore, and Germany, before moving to Pembrokeshire, west Wales.
Emily Huws is a Welsh language children's author. She is a recipient of the Mary Vaughan Jones Award.
Angharad Tomos is a Welsh author and prominent language activist. She is a recipient of the Tir na n-Og Award.
Professor David Gwyn Williams, usually known simply as Gwyn Williams was a Welsh poet, novelist, translator and academic.
Irma Chilton, also known as I. M. Chilton, was a Welsh children's writer in the English and Welsh languages. She was a recipient of the Tir na n-Og Award presented by the Welsh Books Council, and of eisteddfod prizes.
Myrddin ap Dafydd is a Welsh writer, publisher and chaired bard. In 2018 he was elected Archdruid of Wales.
Gareth Finlay Williams was a Welsh language author who wrote novels for children and adults, as well as creating many television drama series.
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.
Caryl Lewis is a Welsh novelist. She won the Wales Book of the Year in 2005 with her novel Martha Jac a Sianco, which was adapted into a film in 2008.
John Selwyn Lloyd known professionally as J. Selwyn Lloyd, was a Welsh-language author of novels for children and young adults.
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.