Author of the Month
Each month on the Libraries Wales website, we will focus on an inspiring author based in or writing about Wales. You’ll have an introduction to their latest book, a short biography of the author, what inspires them to write, and any advice they have for young writers, all available in exclusive interviews which you can read here.
Since introducing this feature, some of our focused authors to date have been Jon Blake, Dai Smith, Rob Gittins, and our very own Children’s Laureate Wales, Eloise Williams.
Are you a teacher or librarian? A special flyer will be available to download and print every month based on each of our showcased authors that can be used for educational purposes.
We will focus on two authors every month writing in English and Welsh. Link to the Welsh-language Author of the Month available here.
April 3, 2023
Judith Barrow
Although Judith was born and brought up in a small village on the edge of the Pennine moors in Yorkshire, for the last forty years she has lived with her husband and family near the coast in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. She has an MA in Creative Writing, B.A. (Hons.) in Literature, and a Diploma […]
Read moreMarch 9, 2023
Beatrice Wallbank
Beatrice grew up in mid Wales. When not wandering about in wild places thinking about stories she works backstage in theatre, storytelling in a different form. She also really likes “old stuff” and is a historian of things relating to the sea in early medieval Wales. The Sleeping Stones is her first book. The […]
Read moreFebruary 1, 2023
Sian Collins
Born in St David’s, Pembrokeshire, and raised in Carmarthenshire, Siân has lived much of her life outside Wales. An Edinburgh University graduate, she has taught Anglo Saxon and Medieval Literature to university students in South Africa, worked as an assistant editor on the medical journal The Lancet, and ran English and Drama departments in […]
Read moreJanuary 4, 2023
Eluned Gramich
Eluned Gramich is a writer, translator and editor, orginally from west Wales. She has a BA in English Literature from Oxford University, an MA in Creative Writing (Prose) from the University of East Anglia, and a PhD in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth and Cardiff Universities, funded by the SWW DTP. She has lived in England, […]
Read moreDecember 1, 2022
Angela Graham
Angela Graham is from Belfast. A fluent Welsh-speaker, she is an award-winning TV producer and film maker. Her debut collection of short stories A City Burning (Seren Books) appeared in 2020 and was longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2021. Her poetry is widely published. She won first prize for poetry in […]
Read moreNovember 1, 2022
Mari Ellis Dunning
Mari Ellis Dunning’s poems and short fiction can be found in recent and upcoming editions of The Ghastling, Litro Magazine and Poetry Wales, amongst others. She has also been the winner of The Terry Hetherington Young Writers Award, and placed second in both the Lucent Dreaming Short Story Competition and the Sylvia Plath Poetry […]
Read moreOctober 5, 2022
Eloise Williams
Eloise was the inaugural Children’s Laureate Wales 2019-2021, an initiative run by Literature Wales. Having originally trained in Theatre at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, she went on to work as a performer, theatre maker and creative practitioner for over a decade before studying for a Masters in Creative and Media Writing at […]
Read moreSeptember 6, 2022
Rebecca F. John
Rebecca F. John grew up in Pwll , a small coastal village in Carmarthenshire. She holds a BA in English with Creative Writing and an MA in Creative Writing from Swansea University, as well as a PGCE PCET from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Her short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio […]
Read moreAugust 1, 2022
Nigel Jarrett
Nigel Jarrett is a former daily-newspaperman and a double prizewinner: the Rhys Davies Award for short fiction and the inaugural Templar Shorts award. His first story collection, Funderland, was widely praised. His debut poetry collection, Miners at the Quarry Pool, was described by Agenda poetry magazine as ‘a virtuoso performance’. Jarrett’s first novel, Slowly Burning, […]
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