List Of Writers

MINHINNICK, ROBERT

11 Park Avenue, Porthcawl, CF36 5EL
Tel: home (01656) 773627; work (01656) 783405
Email: robertm@phonecoop.coop

Poet, essayist, editor. Robert was born in Neath in 1952. His first collection of poems was published in 1978. Robert won an Eric Gregory Award in 1983; and Cholmondeley Prize in 1998. He was editor of Poetry Wales quarterly magazine from 1997 - 2008. Robert also edited Green Agenda: Essays on the Environment of Wales (Seren, 1994). His book Watching the Fire Eater (Seren, 1992) won the 1993 Wales Book of the Year, and To Babel and Back (Seren, 2005) won the 2006 Wales Book of the Year award.

Robert’s title Sea Holly (Seren, 2007) was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, worth £10,000. This award marks a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry which evokes the spirit of a place. King Driftwood (Carcanet, 2008) was on the 2009 Wales Book of the Year Long List.

Selected Publications:
Watching the Fire Eater (Seren, 1992)
Badlands (Seren, 1996)
Selected Poems (Carcanet, 1999)
To Babel and Back (Seren, 2005)
Sea Holly (Seren, 2007)
King Driftwood (Carcanet, 2008)
Fairground Music: The World of Porthcawl Funfair (Gomer, 2010)



Sea Holly (Seren, 2007)

A story of drifting, burnt-out lives, shadowed by the mysterious disappearance of a vivacious girl. It tells the story of John Vine an English teacher who has left job and moved to a nearby coastal caravan park. Key to the novel is a deeply rooted sense of place: a decaying seaside town where addicts and immigrants exist cheek by jowl with town houses and middle-class intelligentsia.


To purchase this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover


King Driftwood (Carcanet, 2008)

Driven by a vigorous rhythmic energy, Robert Minhinnick’s poems evoke the dense and different realities of communities, the cadences of voices and weather, shared maps of streets and cafés, custom and memory, that define life in Wales, Iraq and Argentina.

To purchase this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover




 

Eligible Writers on Tour subjects offered:

1. Watching the Fire Eater is an ’A’ level text in WJEC areas. Offers discussions of, and background to, this text.
2. Camcorder creative writing projects in schools
3. Creative writing through environmental issues
4. Journalism and media projects
5. For adults: writing workshops and readings of own work

AGE RANGE: Has worked with pupils between 9 and 18 and has experience of special schools and children with learning difficulties.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: Vegetarian