List Of Writers

STEPHENS, MEIC

10 Heol Don, Whitchurch, Cardiff, CF14 2AU
Tel: 02920 623359
Email: hwmcomanco@hotmail.co.uk

Born in Trefforest, near Pontypridd in 1938, Meic was educated at UCW, Aberystwyth and University of Rennes. He taught French at Ebbw Vale Grammar School between 1962–66 and was a reporter with Western Mail 1966–67. Meic then became literature Director with the Welsh Arts Council 1967-90. He was visiting Professor at Brigham University, Utah, 1991-92 and a freelance journalist and arts consultant between 1992-94. 

Meic took up the post of lecturer in Creative Writing, University of Glamorgan, between 1994-2000 and became Professor of Welsh Writing in English 2000-2003 (now Emeritus). He is the founder of Poetry Wales 1965 and its editor until 1973. Meic stood as Plaid Cymru candidate in Merthyr Tydfil at the General Election of 1966 and was White Robe of the Gorsedd of Bards, 1976. He is a Fellow and the only Life Member of the Academi. Meic has an Honorary MA and DLitt by publication, University of Wales, 2000. He is Honorary President, Tonyrefail Branch of the University of the Third Age, 2006. Meic writes obituaries of eminent Welsh people for The Independent. The language of his home is Welsh, which he learned as an adult.

Meic is due to publish a Cardiff based novel, Yeah Dai Dando (Cinnamon Press) in autumn 2008. Funny and fast-paced, it is the story of Dave Dando, a 25-year-old lad from Pontypridd working for the Gwalia Building Society in Cardiff. The book uses narrative, dialogue, internal monologue and ’stream of consciousness’ to convey Dave’s thoughts, as well as Youfspeak and internet language. The plot turns on whether Dave caused the death by drowning of an old man he befriends one boozy evening and whether he is going to make it with a young woman of his own age to whom he is attracted. Dave has strong views about Wales, the Welsh language and Plaid Cymru but they are modified by his meeting the old man and the young woman. The novel has a lot to say about post-Devolutionary Wales.

Selected Publications:
Exiles All (Christopher Davies, 1973)
Linguistic Minorities in Western Europe (Gomer, 1976)
Ponies, Twynrodyn (Combrógos, 1997)
The Literary Pilgrim in Wales (Carreg Gwalch, 2000)
Welsh Names for your Children (St. David’s Press, 2000)
A Semester in Zion: A Journal with Memoirs (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2003)
Poetry 1900-2000 (Library of Wales, Parthian, 2007)
Yeah Dai Dando (Cinnamon Press, 2008)
Necrologies (Seren, 2008)

Contributed to:
The Lilting House (co-editor) (Dent/Christopher Davies, 1969)
Writers of Wales (100 titles) (co-editor) (University of Wales Press, 1971-) 
Artists in Wales (3 volumes) (editor) (Gomer, 1971-77)
The Welsh Language Today (editor) (Gomer, 1973)
Green Horse (co-editor) (Christopher Davies, 1978)
The Arts in Wales 1950-75 (editor) (Welsh Arts Council, 1979)
The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales (editor) (Oxford University Press, 1986)
Cydymaith i Lenyddiaeth Cymru (editor) (Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1986, 1997)
A Book of Wales (editor) (Dent, 1987)
A Cardiff Anthology (editor) (Seren, 1987)
The White Stone (by T.H Parry-Williams) (translator) (Gomer, 1987)
A Dictionary of Literary Quotations (editor) (Routledge, 1990)
The Bright Field (editor) (Carcanet, 1991)
The Oxford Literary Guide to Britain and Ireland (editor) (Oxford University Press, 1992)
Most Peculiar People: Quotations about Wales and the Welsh (editor) (University of Wales Press, 1992)
A Rhondda Anthology (editor) (Seren, 1993)
Collected Poems of Harri Webb (editor) (Gomer, 1995)
For the Sake of Wales: The Memoirs of Gwynfor Evans (translator) (Welsh Academic Press, 1996)
Collected Poems of Glyn Jones (editor) (University of Wales Press, 1996)
The Basques: Their Struggle for Independence (translator) (Welsh Academic Press, 1997)
No Half-Way House: Selected Political Journalism of Harri Webb (editor) (Y Lolfa, 1997)
Monica (by Saunders Lewis) (translator) (Seren, 1997)
Collected Stories of Rhys Davies (three volumes) (editor) (Gomer, 1997-98)
A White Afternoon: New Welsh Short Fiction (translator) (Parthian, 1998)
The New Companion to the Literature of Wales (editor) (University of Wales Press, 1998)
Shadow of the Sickle (by Islwyn Ffowc Elis) (translator) (Gomer, 1998)
A Militant Muse: Selected Political Journalism of Harri Webb (editor) (Seren, 1998)
Illuminations: Welsh Short Prose (translator) (Welsh Academic Press, 1998)
Return to Lleifior (by Islwyn Ffowc Elis) (translator) (Gomer, 1999)
Looking up England’s Arsehole: Patriotic Poems and Boozy Ballads of Harri Webb (editor) (Y Lolfa, 2000)
Rhys Davies: Decoding the Hare (editor) (University of Wales Press, 2001)
A Community and its University (co-editor) (University of Wales Press, 2003)
The Plum Tree: The Short Stories of John Gwilym Jones (translator) (Seren, 2004)
The Corgi Series (twenty-four titles) (editor) (Carreg Gwalch, 2004/5)
Leslie Norris: Complete Poems (editor) (Seren, 2008)




Eligible Writers on Tour subjects offered:
1. Own poetry
2. Welsh writing in English
3. Editing magazines and books
4. Creative writing, etc

AGE RANGE: 11+.