Ifor ap Glyn | |
---|---|
National Poet of Wales | |
In office March 2016 –August 2022 | |
Preceded by | Gillian Clarke |
Succeeded by | Hanan Issa |
Personal details | |
Born | 1961 (age 61–62) London,England |
Nationality | Welsh |
Occupation | Writer |
Ifor ap Glyn (born 1961) [1] is a Welsh television presenter and Welsh-language poet. [2] From 2016 to 2022 he served as National Poet of Wales.
Ifor ap Glyn was born in London into a Welsh-speaking family,but graduated from Cardiff University. [3] He relocated as an adult to Denbighshire and later to Caernarfon. [4]
As a poet Ifor ap Glyn primarily writes in Welsh,though he has also composed poems in English. In 2018 he published Cuddle Call?, his first collection with English translation in a parallel text. [5] In 1999 Ifor ap Glyn won the Crown at the National Eisteddfod of Wales (a feat he repeated in 2013), [6] and in the same year performed at the celebratory concert that marked the opening of the Welsh National Assembly. In 2008,Ifor ap Glyn was appointed Bardd Plant Cymru (Children's Poet Laureate for Wales),holding the role for a year. He has twice represented Wales at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in the USA. [7]
Before becoming a poet and dramatist,Ifor ap Glyn worked as a television producer and scriptwriter,and has worked extensively with the theatre company Cwmni Dda. [8] [9] He also served as the executive producer of the documentary film Cysgod Rhyfel (The Shadow of War),a 2014 documentary film that explored the mental effects of conflict on former soldiers and their families. [10]
On 1 March 2016,Ifor ap Glyn was appointed National Poet of Wales,succeeding Gillian Clarke. [11] During his tenure,Ifor ap Glyn wrote in both Welsh and English,with his commissioned work including poems to mark the 20th anniversary of the Senedd,the centenary of the Armistice,Wales qualifying for the Euro 2016 football tournament,the 80th anniversary of Mynydd Epynt eviction,the reopening of the home of poet Hedd Wyn to the public,and the 2017 Champions League Final being held in Cardiff. He also composed poems for patients at Velindre Cancer Centre,to support DEC Cymru's Indonesia Tsunami appeal,and to welcome Syrian refugees to Wales. [3] [12] His time as National Poet of Wales lasted for six years,coming to an end in 2022. [13] He was succeeded by Hanan Issa,who Ifor ap Glyn said was a poet that he admired and would "bring a fresh voice to the national conversation”. [14]
Idris Davies was a Welsh poet. Born in Rhymney, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, he became a poet, originally writing in Welsh, but later writing exclusively in English.
Gillian Clarke is a Welsh poet and playwright, who also edits, broadcasts, lectures and translates from Welsh into English. She co-founded Tŷ Newydd, a writers' centre in North Wales.
Carnedd Llewelyn, also spelled Carnedd Llywelyn, is a mountain massif in the Carneddau range in Snowdonia, north-west Wales. It is the highest point of the Carneddau and the second highest peak by relative height in Wales, 49th in the British Isles and lies on the border between Gwynedd and Conwy.
The River Dwyryd (Welsh: Afon Dwyryd, meaning a river of two fords, is a river in Gwynedd, Wales which flows principally westwards; draining to the sea into Tremadog Bay, south of Porthmadog.
The post of National Poet of Wales was established in May 2005 by Academi – the Welsh National Literature Promotion Agency and Society for Writers. The current holder of the position is Hanan Issa, who was appointed for a period of three years in July 2022.
Narrow-gauge railways were used extensively in the slate industry of Great Britain, especially in Wales. Many quarries had internal tramways, some using many dozens of miles of track. Others had private lines that stretched from the quarry to transhipment points on local railways, rivers, roads or coastal ports.
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.
Gwyneth Glyn is a Welsh language poet and musician.
Rob Piercy is an artist and painter. Born in Porthmadog, he was also an art teacher at Ysgol Eifionydd, Porthmadog for 15 years, before leaving to concentrate on painting in 1989. He has his own gallery in Porthmadog, which he established in 1986. His main subjects for his works are landscapes and beaches in his local area, especially the landscape of Snowdonia. An experienced mountaineer, he is a member of the Alpine Club of Great Britain.
Mike Jenkins is a Welsh poet and fiction writer in English. He is also the father of the Plaid Cymru politician Bethan Sayed and of the journalist Ciaran Jenkins.
Emily Huws is a Welsh language children's author. She is a recipient of the Mary Vaughan Jones Award.
Richard Bryn Williams, or Bryn Williams (1902–1981), was a Welsh-Argentine writer, poet, playwright and historian. From 1975 to 1978 he was Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales.
Myrddin ap Dafydd is a Welsh writer, publisher and chaired bard. In 2018 he was elected Archdruid of Wales.
"Trouble at a Tavern", or "Trouble at an Inn", is a short poem by the 14th-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, in which the poet comically narrates the mishaps which prevent him from keeping a midnight assignation with a girl. Dafydd is widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets, and this is one of his best-known poems. It has been described as "glorious farce", "one of Dafydd ap Gwilym's funniest and most celebrated cywyddau", and "the most vivid of [his] poems of incident".
The Llwyngwern quarry was a slate quarry in Wales that opened by 1828 and continued working until about 1950. The quarry is located on the western flank of Mynydd Llwyn-gwern.
Cambergi quarry was a slate quarry in Cwm Hengae, west of Aberllefenni in North Wales. It operated between 1873 and about 1895.
"The Poet and the Grey Friar" is a satirical poem in the form of a traethodl by the 14th-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh-language poets. In it he relates an imaginary conversation with a Franciscan friar in which, rejecting the ascetic philosophy of the friar, he sets out a defence of love, poetry and the worldly life. It was included in The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse and The Penguin Book of Welsh Verse.
"The Woodland Mass" or "The Mass of the Grove" is a poem in the form of a cywydd by the 14th-century bard Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets. It is one of his most popular works. Sometimes seen as blasphemous, it presents a woodland scene in which a thrush, sent by the poet's lover, and a nightingale officiate at a Mass celebrating both God and sexual love. "The Woodland Mass" is an example of a common type of medieval Welsh poem in which some bird or beast is used as a llatai or love-messenger, though this poem is unusual in that the message is sent to Dafydd rather than by him.
"To the Yew Tree Above Dafydd ap Gwilym's Grave" is a 14th-century Welsh-language poem in the form of a cywydd, and is usually seen as either an elegy written after the death of Dafydd ap Gwilym or a mock-elegy addressed to him during his lifetime. Its author, Gruffudd Gryg, also wrote another elegy or mock-elegy on his friend Dafydd, and conducted a controversy in verse with him in which Dafydd's poems were criticised and defended. The cywydd on the yew tree constitutes the main evidence for the widespread belief that Dafydd is buried at Strata Florida Abbey in Ceredigion. It has been called "a superb poem, perhaps Gruffudd Gryg's best...a remarkably sensitive and perceptive act of poetic homage that acknowledges, far more than any more direct statement ever could, Dafydd's status as a true athro for his generation". It was included in both The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse and The Penguin Book of Welsh Verse.
Hanan Issa is a Welsh-Iraqi poet, film-maker, scriptwriter and artist. She is the current National Poet of Wales.