Inaugural National Poet of Wales
Gwyneth Lewis
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Gwyneth_Lewis.jpg/220px-Gwyneth_Lewis.jpg) |
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In office
2005?2006
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Preceded by
| Inaugural holder
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Succeeded by
| Gwyn Thomas
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Born
| 1959 (age 64–65)
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Nationality
| Welsh
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Occupation
| Writer
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Website
| gwynethlewis
.com
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Gwyneth Denver Davies
MBE
,
FLSW
(born 1959), known professionally as
Gwyneth Lewis
, is a Welsh poet, who was the inaugural
National Poet of Wales
in 2005. She wrote the text that appears over the
Wales Millennium Centre
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Gwyneth Lewis was born into a
Welsh
-speaking family in
Cardiff
. Her father started teaching her English when her mother went into hospital to give birth to her sister.
[1]
Lewis attended
Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen
, a bilingual school near
Pontypridd
, and then studied at
Girton College, Cambridge
,
University of Cambridge
, where she was a member of Cymdeithas Y Mabinogi. She was awarded a double first in English literature and the Laurie Hart Prize for outstanding intellectual work. Lewis then studied creative writing at
Columbia
and
Harvard
, before receiving a D.Phil. in English from
Balliol College
,
Oxford
, for a thesis on 18th-century literary forgery featuring the work of
Iolo Morganwg
.
[2]
Lewis was made a
Harkness Fellow
and worked as a freelance journalist in New York for three years. She then returned to Cardiff as a documentary producer and director at
BBC Wales
.
[2]
She left the BBC in 2001 after receiving a £75,000 grant from the
National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
to carry out research and sail to ports linked historically with the inhabitants of her native Cardiff.
Lewis later wrote the words which appear over the
Wales Millennium Centre
, which opened in November 2004. The same words form the title of
Karl Jenkins
's cantata
In These Stones Horizons Sing
, which is partly set to lyrics by Gwyneth Lewis. In 2005 she was elected Honorary Fellow of
Cardiff University
. The same year she was made the first
National Poet of Wales
.
[3]
[4]
Lewis was a judge for the 2011
Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine
. On 6 August 2012, Gwyneth Lewis won Y Goron (the Crown) at the
National Eisteddfod
at
Llandow
for a collection of poems on the set title of
Ynys
(Island).
In 2013, Lewis was elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.
[5]
Lewis was appointed
Member of the Order of the British Empire
(MBE) in the
2022 Birthday Honours
for services to literature.
[6]
She returned to Balliol College to serve as Artist in Residence in 2023 and again in 2024.
[7]
Music
[
edit
]
Lewis entered the world of music in partnership with
Richard Chew
.
Redflight/ Barcud
was her first
libretto
, commissioned and presented by
Welsh National Opera
with pupils from Ysgol Capel y Cynfab, Cynghordy and Ysgol Cil-y-cwm.
The Most Beautiful Man from the Sea
is an
oratorio
for 600 voices, with music by Chew and
Orlando Gough
. It was given its world premiere at the
Wales Millennium Centre
by the Chorus of Welsh National Opera and 500 amateur singers.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Married to Leighton, a former
boatswain
with the
Merchant Navy
, Lewis has had a well documented battle in the past with
clinical depression
and
alcoholism
.
[8]
[9]
Her personal battles inspired her first book,
Sunbathing in the Rain: A Cheerful Book on Depression
and also a collection of poems,
Keeping Mum ? Voices from Therapy
.
Having agreed to change their lifestyles for their own good, Lewis and her husband bought the small yacht
Jameeleh
, taught themselves to sail, and set out to cross the Ocean to Africa. The journey inspired her 2005 book
Two in a Boat ? The True Story of a Marital Rite of Passage
.
[9]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Llwybrau bywyd
?
Urdd Gobaith Cymru
, 1977
- Ar y groesffordd
?
Urdd Gobaith Cymru
, 1978
- Sonedau Redsa a Cherddi Eraill
? Gomer, 1990
- Parables and Faxes
?
Bloodaxe
, 1995
- Cyfrif Un Ac Un yn Dri
? Barddas, 1996
- Zero Gravity
? Bloodaxe, 1998. Inspired by an astronaut cousin's voyage to repair the
Hubble Space Telescope
. The BBC later based a documentary on the poetry.
[10]
- Y Llofrudd Iaith ? Barddas
, 2000: won the Welsh Arts Council Book of the Year Prize.
- Sunbathing in the Rain: A Cheerful Book on Depression
? Flamingo, 2002
- Keeping Mum
(republished in 2005 as
Chaotic Angels
) ? Bloodaxe, 2003
- Two In A Boat: A Marital Voyage
? Fourth Estate, 2005. Recounts a voyage with her husband on a small boat from Cardiff to North Africa, during which her husband was diagnosed with cancer.
- A Hospital Odyssey
? Bloodaxe, 2010
- The Meat Tree
? Seren, 2010
- Sparrow Tree
? Bloodaxe, 2011
- Y Storm
, 2012. Lewis's translation of Shakespeare's
The Tempest
)
[11]
- The Book of Taliesin
(translation and introductions with Rowan Williams; Penguin, 2019)
Prizes and awards
[
edit
]
Current list of prizes and awards:
[12]
- 1977 ? Literary Medal at the
Urdd Gobaith Cymru
[2]
- 1978 ? Literary Medal at the
Urdd Gobaith Cymru
- 1988 ? Eric Gregory Award
- 1995 ? Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Prize Parables and Faxes
- 1995 ? Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection) (shortlist) Parables and Faxes
- 1998 ? Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year) (shortlist) Zero Gravity
- 2000 ? Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Award Y Llofrudd Iaith
- 2001 ? National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) Award
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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