Writers of Wales

11 December 2010 - 26 November 2011

Islwyn Ffowc Elis

Islwyn Ffowc Elis was born at his aunt's house in Acton, near Wrexham, in 1924, but was brought up a farmer's son at Glynceiriog. After receiving his secondary education at Llangollen, he went to the University College of Bangor, and then - at his father's insistence - trained for the Presbyterian ministry at the Theological Colleges in Aberystwyth and Bala. During the Second World War he was a conscientious objector on religious grounds.

Islwyn completed his pastoral studies at Bala, where he met his future wife, Eirlys Owen. Ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1950, he then moved to Anglesey but, unhappy with the institutionalised church, he resigned in 1956 to concentrate on his writing.  He was the first Welsh author to attempt to make a living solely as a writer.

It was the same zeal for his country that influenced his literature that also motivated his political work on behalf of Plaid Cymru. He ran as a candidate in Montgomeryshire in the 1959 and 1964 general elections, and in a 1962 by-election.

As a novelist Elis showed a great willingness to try out different forms. He pioneered the use of genres unfamiliar to Welsh-speaking readers, provided them with a highly readable prose often set in contemporary settings, and did much to establish the novel as a major genre in Welsh language literature.

In 1999 the Arts Council of Wales chose Cysgod Y Cryman (The Shadow Of The Sickle, 1953) as the Welsh-language book of the 20th century. In this work he attracted thousands of new readers by using his native tongue to tackle the conflict between capitalism and communism.

Gillian Clarke

Gillian Clarke is one of the central figures in contemporary Welsh poetry. Her own poems have achieved widespread critical and popular acclaim, but she has also made her mark through her inspirational role as a teacher, as editor of the Anglo-Welsh Review from 1975-1984, and as founder and President of Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre.

Gillian was born in Cardiff in 1937, and brought up in Cardiff and Penarth, though she spent part of the Second World War in Pembrokeshire. Although both of her parents were native Welsh speakers, she was brought up speaking only English, and she learnt to speak Welsh as an adult. After graduating in English from University of Wales, Cardiff, she spent two years working for the BBC in London.

She then returned to Cardiff where she married and had three children. She worked as an English teacher in Reardon-Smith Nautical College, and later was a lecturer in art history at Gwent College of Art and Design between 1975 and 1984. In the mid 1980s she moved with her second husband to rural Ceredigion, after which time she spent some years as a creative writing tutor at the University of Glamorgan. She became the third National Poet for Wales in 2008.

Gillian has created numerous collections of poetry for adults and children, as well as dramatic commissions and articles in a wide range of publications. She is an Anglo-Welsh writer; her poems are written in English but show an emotional attachment to the Welsh language and culture. Accessibility, humanity, and  and an empathy to Wales and its legends are characteristic of her work.

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