Academic Work
Hunter's academic interests and publications cover the whole history of Welsh-language literature from the middle ages to contemporary literautre. [5] However, much of his main research products have involved in various ways particularly known for his research exploring the writing of Welsh Americans and of the Welsh in America, in English but particularly in Welsh. His first monograph, Soffestri’r Saeson (University of Wales Press, 2000), a study of the use of prophecy as political propaganda in the Tudor age, was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award in 2001. Llwch Cenhedloedd, ('The Dust of Generations', Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2003), a history of the American Civil War based on Welsh-language evidence (mainly letters and other material written and published in Welsh on both sides of the Atlantic), won the Wales Book of the Year award in 2004. His has also published a book on the prominent Welsh American anti-slavery campaigner, Robert Everett: I Ddeffro Ysbryd y Wlad ('To Awaken the Nation's Spirit', Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2007), again drawing on a wealth of Welsh-language evidence mainly unused by historians. [5] His interest in the Welsh-language history of his native United States has also led to the publication of an English-language volume Welsh Writing from the American Civil War: Sons of Arthur, Children of Lincoln (University of Wales Press, 2007). 2012's Llwybrau Cenhedloedd ('Nations' Pahths') describes the work of Welsh missionaries amongst the Cherokee, whilst 2024's Dros Gyfiawnder a Rhyddid ('For Justice and Freedom') explores the written history of Welsh-speaking soldiers in the American Civil War, particularly the Welsh American Union regiment known as the Cambrian Guards, most of whom were Welsh-speaking.
In 2013, Hunter was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. [14] Hunter is a member of Gorsedd Cymru, with the bardic name 'Gerallt Glan Ohio'. [15]
Fiction
As a novelist, Hunter is best known as a writer of historical fiction for adults, and many of his novels, like his academic work, explores the history of the Welsh in America, though he has also explored genres such as dystopian fiction, and with his very first fiction book, Ceffylau'r Cymylau (Gwasg Gomer, 2010) which was written for his daughters, fantasy and children's fiction. [11]
His first novel for adults, Gwenddydd (Gwasg Gwynedd, 2010), is a ostensibly a novel about a brother and siter during the Second World War, however in it in fact a retelling in modern clothes of the medieval legend of Myrddin (Merlin) and his sister Gwenddydd, as recounted in the thirteenth-century poem 'Cyfoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd ei Chwaer'; the novel won for him the Prose Medal that year at the National Eisteddfod of Wales. [16] The Prose Medal is one of the major literary awards at the Eisteddfod, and though it had previously been won by individuals who had learned Welsh as adults, Hunter was the first winner to be originally from outside the United Kingdom. Gwenddydd has been described as "an important contribution to War fiction in Wales." [17]
Gwenddydd was followed by a second comparatively short historical novel, Gwreiddyn Chwerw ('Bitter Root', 2012), set this time in the nineteenth century. Hunter's third novel however, Ebargofiant ('Oblivion', 2014), was both a ambitious step forward and something of a stylistic departure, being a post-apocalyptic portrayal of a world ravaged by global environmental collapse. Written in an original, non-standard Welsh orthography, it has been compared to Finnegan's Wake [18] and Samuel Beckett [3] and variously described as "original," "experimental and "revolutionary". [19] Ebargofiant is regularly featured on list of the greatest Welsh language novels of the 2010s. [3] [20]
Hunter returned to historical fiction for his fourth novel, Y Fro Dywyll ('Dark Territory'), published in the same year as Ebargofiant and depicting a 16th century adventurer searching for a Welsh colony in North America. [21] Its reviews variously described Hunter as a "boundary tester par excellence" and "a master at work", [2] and it was placed on the Wales Book of the Year Shortlist for 2015. [22] Y Fro Dywyll is, as of 2026, the only one of Hunter's novels to be translated into English, by Patrick Ford as Dark Territory. A Bulgarian translation also exists, by Daniel Aleksandrov Todorov. [23]
With his next novel Hunter returned once again to the history of the Welsh in America. Ynys Fadog (2018) ('Madog's Island'), which follows a family of Welsh settlers to the United States over multiple generations, has been claimed to be the longest novel ever written in Welsh [20] and been described as a "Welsh War and Peace". [24] It netted Hunter another book of the year nomination, his fourth overall (as of 2025). [25]
Hunter's first novel of the 2020s, 2021's Safana, was both a continuation and departure from his previous work. Once again returning to American history in the person of George Whitefield, the novel also incorporates elements of fantasy alternate history. [4]
