Davies, Grahame

(1964- )

   Poet, editor, novelist and literary critic, he was born and brought up in Coedpoeth near Wrexham in northeast Wales. After graduating in English literature from Cambridge University, he was a journalist with the Thomson organization at Newcastleupon-Tyne and worked on newspapers in south Wales from 1985 until 1991. Since then he has worked for BBC Wales and is currently the executive producer of BBC Wales' Welsh-language New Media Services. In 1997, he was awarded a doctorate by the University of Wales. His first volume of poetry, Adennill Tir (1997), won the Harri Webb Memorial Prize, and in 1998, he was second to Emyr Lewis in the competition for the National Eisteddfod Crown. In 2000, he co-edited Oxygen, a bilingual anthology of Welsh poets under age 45. His second volume of poetry, Cadwyni Rhyddid (2001) won the Wales Arts Council's 2002 Book of the Year award at the Hay on Wye Festival of Literature, with a prize of ₤3,000. Some of his poems in English: "Grau," "Red," "Rough Guide," "Valley Villanelle." Some of his Welch poems: "Llwyd," "Tywyllwch," "Villanelle y Cymoedd," "Y Mynyddoedd."

   Sources: Life and Work of Grahame Davies (http://www.grahamedavies.com/english_about.shtml). New Media and the Welsh Language (http://spruce.flint.umich.edu/Davies, Grahameellisjs/Grahame%20Davies.pdf ).