News Archive

The Literature in Wales Exhibition
At The Guardian Hay Festival
26 May – 2 June

Readers and writers will be flocking to the Literature in Wales Exhibition stand at the Guardian Hay Festival next week to meet, to inspire and intrigue, to talk and listen and chill. The aim of the literature in Wales Exhibition is to celebrate Wales’ rich literary heritage and to introduce classic and contemporary writing from Wales to new audiences. It is supported by a partnership between The Arts Council of Wales, the Welsh Books Council, Welsh Assembly Government, the National Library of Wales and Academi.

The stand will offer a relaxing haven from the Festival field. You can browse and buy books, or take a seat and relax a little. The stand will also host a number of snapshots events throughout the Festival period, including readings by Wales’s National Poet, Gwyn Thomas and the winner of the International Dylan Thomas prize for young writers, Welsh author Rachel Trezise. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams will visit the stand to read some extracts from his published poetry collections. Other guest writers at the Literature in Wales stand during the festival include Gwyneth Lewis, Manon Rhys, James Hawes and Owen Sheers.

Saturday 26 May

Tessa Hadley
11am - 2pm
Novelist and critic. Author of Accidents in the Home (Jonathan Cape, 2002)



Tristan Hughes
2pm - 5pm
Send my Cold Bones Home (Parthian Books, 2006) is on the Wales Book of the Year 2007 Long List.

Sunday 27 May

Gwyn Thomas
2pm - 5pm
National Poet of Wales. Author of 16 volumes of poetry over five decades. His translation into English language of the Mabinogion is perhaps the finest English language version of the tales.

Monday 28 May

Niall Griffiths
11am - 2pm
Stump (Jonathan Cape, 2003) won the Wales Book of the year Award in 2004. Author of six novels including Runt (Jonathan Cape, 2006).

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams 
3pm - 4pm
Poet. After Silent Centuries (1994). Remembering Jerusalem (2001). Silence and Honey Cakes - the Wisdom of the Desert (Lion, 2004).

Tuesday 29 May

Gwyneth Lewis
11am - 1pm
Poet and prose writer. Composed the words on the front of the Wales Millennium Centre. Wales Book of the Year winner in 2001 with Llofrudd Iaith (Barddas, 200) 2007 Creative Wales Award recipient. First National Poet of Wales.

Des Barry
11pm - 2pm
The Chivalry of Crime (Jonathan Cape, 2001) was voted Best First Novel of the Year by the Western Writers of America and short listed for the Wales Book of the Year Award. 2006 Creative Wales Award recipient.

James Hawes
2pm - 4pm
Novelist and critic. Author of White Merc with Fins (Jonathan Cape, 1996). 2007 Creative Wales Award recipient for a biography of Kafka.

Manon Rhys
2pm - 5pm
Author, television scriptwriter, editor and creative writing tutor. Co-editor of Taliesin, Academi’s Welsh language literary journal. 2007 Creative Wales Award recipient. Manon proposes to write a sequel to her groundbreaking Welsh language novel Rara Avis.

Wednesday 30 May

Mike Parker
11am - 2pm
Travel writer, columnist, fiction writer, broadcaster and stand-up comedian. Author of Neighbours from Hell (Y Lolfa, 2007).

Trevor Fishlock
2pm - 5pm
Staff correspondent of The Times in India, and New York and Moscow bureau chief for The Daily Telegraph. Writes and presents the Wild Tracks Series foe ITV. Author of Conquerors of Time: Exploration and Invention in the Age of Daring (John Murray, 2004).

Thursday 31 May

Jane Morris
11am - 5pm
Runs AMA Books, a small independent publisher in Bulawayo. AMA publishes a creative writing series, Short Stories from Bulawayo. Hosted by Owen Sheers’s 2006 visit to Bulawayo under the aegis of Wales Arts International.

Friday 1 June

Owen Sheers and Tinashe Mushakavanhu
11.30am - 1pm
Owen is a poet, fiction writer and dramatist. The Dust Diaries (Faber, 2004) won Wales Book of the Year Award in 2005. Skirrid Hill (Seren, 2005) won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2006. His first novel is Resistance (Faber, June 2007). Tinashe is Zimbabwean writer from Harare currently studying with Menna Elfyn on her Creative Writing course at Trinity College. Tinashe recently presented a paper at Gregynog, Life Writing in Wales.

Francesca Kay
2pm - 5pm
Poet, gardener, herbalist and writer. Song cycles include Hail Taliesin and The Green Isles of the Ocean. Collaborated with singer songwriter Ray Weatherill in The Last Cut (Accent, 2005), a collection of love songs and poems.

Saturday 2 June

Rachel Trezise
11am - 2pm
Novelist and short story writer. Winner of the first £60,00 EDS Dylan Thomas Prize for her collection of short stories Fresh Apples, (Parthian). Toured with rock band Midasuno researching a travel documentary, Dial M for Merthyr (Parthian, 2007).

For more information contact:
http://new.wales.gov.uk/campaigns/summerevents/hayfestival
or
www.hayfestival.com