British Council Literature Seminar

Francesca Rhydderch is a Welsh novelist and academic. In 2013, her debut novel, The Rice Paper Diaries, was longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and won the Wales Book of the Year Award 2014 for Fiction. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and magazines and broadcast on Radio 4 and Radio Wales.She was born in Aberystwyth and obtained a BA in Modern Languages from Newnham College, Cambridge, and a PhD in English from Aberystwyth University. She worked as the Editorial Assistant at Planet: The Welsh Internationalist, and became Associate Editor of the magazine in 1999. As the recipient of a BBC/Tŷ Newydd bursary in 2010, she attended the creative writing course by BBC Executive Producer Kate McAll and novelist Patricia Duncker. She was appointed Editor of New Welsh Review in 2002. In 2015, she and Penny Thomas edited the New Welsh Short Stories. She has been a Creative Writing Associate Professor at Swansea University since 2015

Niall Griffiths was born in Liverpool in 1966, studied English, and now lives and works in Aberystwyth. His novels include: Grits (2000), a tale of addicts and drifters in rural Wales; Sheepshagger (2001) telling the story of Ianto, a feral mountain boy; Kelly & Victor(2002); Stump (2003), which won two Book of the Year awards; Wreckage (2005); Runt (2007);Ten Pound Pom (2009); and A Great Big Shining Star (2013). Grits, Kelly & Victor and Stump were made into films for television; Broken Ghosts (2019). Niall Griffiths has also written travel pieces, restaurant and book reviews, and radio plays.In 2010, his book, In The Dreams of Max and Ronnie was published, one of Seren's 'New Stories from the Mabinogion' series. Griffiths first collection of poetry Red Roar: 20 Years of Words was published by Wrecking Ball Press in 2015. He won the Wales Book of the Year Award in 2020.

Manon Steffan Ros was born in Rhiwlas, Snowdonia. After leaving school, she worked as an actress for a few years before becoming a writer. Her first novel for adults Fel Aderyn, reached the shortlist for Wales Book of the Year and her novel Blasu won the Fiction Prize of the 2013 Wales Book of the Year. Ros translated Blasu into English with the title The Seasoning which was published by Honno in 2015. As well as her books for adults, Ros has found great acclaim in her children’s writing. She has won the prestigious Tir Na N-Og prize for Welsh children’s literature five times, with her novels Trwy’r Tonnau (2010), Prism (2012), Pluen (2017) Fi a Joe Iestyn (2019), and most recently Pobol Drws Nesaf (2020).

Zoë Brigley grew up in Caerphilly in the Rhymney Valley, with  strong  family  roots  in  the  Llynfi  Valley,  especially Maesteg. She is currently working as  an Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University in the USA. She is the  author of three books of poetry: Hand & Skull (2019), Conquest (2012), and The Secret (2007). All three collections received UK Poetry Book Society Recommendations. She also published a chapbook Aubade After a French Movie (2020), and she  has a collection of nonfiction essays: Notes from a Swing State: Writing from Wales and America (2019). She won an Eric Gregory Award in 2003 for the best British poets under 30 and was longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize for the best international writers under 40. She received a Welsh Academy Bursary in 2005. Her  writing appears in publications like Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Review, Chicago Review, Australian Book Review, PN Review, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Copper Nickel,and Poetry Wales.

Charlotte Williams OBE is an academic, writer and activist. She is Honorary Professor in the School of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences, Bangor University. Charlotte’s contributions to post-colonial writing include her memoir, Sugar and Slate (2002), exploring her Welsh-Guyanese heritage and diasporic identity which was awarded Welsh Book of the Year in 2003; co-editor of Denis Williams: A Life in Works, New and Collected Essays (Rodopi 2010), several short stories and regular contributions to Internationalist Journals including Planet, Wales Review Online, Wasafiri. In 2005 she was Chair of the judging panel for Welsh Book of the Year and in 2021 she once again is on the judging panel for Welsh Book of the Year (creative non-fiction category). Charlotte was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List (2007) for services to ethnic minorities and equalities in Wales. 

Richard Gwyn is a Welsh writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. After studying anthropology at the London School of Economics, he started travelling widely across Europe, living in Greece and Spain, working on fishing boats and as a farm labourer. These experiences “on the road” would influence his literary style and the themes of his work. Gwyn not only narrates his adventures as a traveller, but also his battle for life after being diagnosed with hepatic disease, an experience that re-ignited his own interest in the ways that language and culture influence our understanding of illness. His work is characterised by leaving aside grand narratives in  preference for a more fleeting and fragmentary representation of the world, which has consolidated him as one of the most fascinating voices in the UK’s contemporary literature.

Hanan is a Welsh-Iraqi writer who explores narrative history and the ways we connect. She has collaborated with platforms including BBC Wales, Film4, Bush Theatre, and Hay Festival. She is co-founder of the 'Where I'm Coming From' collective. Her pamphlet My Body Can House Two Hearts is published by Burning Eye Books.

Ifan is the BA Journalism Course Leader at Bangor University. His research interests include nationalism, minority language media, digital media, and devolution. He completed a Ph.D. in nationalism and the Welsh press in the 19th century. He is a published author of four novels, Igam Ogam (2008), Yr Argraff Gyntaf (2010), Dadeni (2017), and Babel (2019). Babel won the Welsh language Wales Book of the Year award in 2020 and Igam Ogam won the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize for best novel at the 2008 National Eisteddfod in Cardiff.

Eluned Gramich is a Welsh-German writer and translator. She has lived in Wales, Germany, and Japan, and her memoir Woman Who Brings the Rain was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year 2016. In her recently-submitted PhD novel, she explores the legacy of the German Expulsions on modern-day Germany.

João Morais writes fiction and poetry and is from Cardiff. His short story collection, Things That Make the Heart Beat Faster (2018), is out now with Parthian Books.

The winner of The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize 2020 for his debut novel Hello Friend We Missed You, Richard Owain Roberts is also the author of the acclaimed short fiction collection All The Places We Lived and the subject of the forthcoming ULTRA: Perfection Is The Enemy of Delivered, a documentary film covering the collection’s Serbian translation tour. He lives in Cardiff.

Alex Wharton is an award-winning writer, author and performer of poetry. In 2020, he won Rising Stars Wales Award, launched by Literature Wales and Firefly Press. Alex has tutored for Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre and wrote a commissioned Poem for the Future Leaders of Wales graduation ceremony.