Elfyn, Menna

(1951- )

   Welsh-speaking poet, born near Swansea, she is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of Yr Academi Gymreig (the Welsh Arts Council for Wales). Since 1998 she has been writing director of the M.A. creative writing program at Trinity College, Carmarthen, and poet laureate for the Children of Wales since 2002. Although she writes in Welsh, her work has been translated into 15 languages; her English language translators include Tony Conran and Gillian Clarke (see entries). Her first bi-lingual book of poetry, Eucalyptus: Detholiad O Gerddi/Selected Poems 1978-1994, was published in 1995 and was followed by Cell Angel (1996) and Cusan Dyn Dall/Blind Man's Kiss (2001). Her two books of children's poetry are Ff wl Yn Y Dwr: Casgliad O Gerddi I Bobl Ifanc (1999) and Caneri Pinc ar Dywod Euraid (2003). She has also written stage plays, adaptations and scripts for television, radio plays, textbooks and libretti, and co-wrote The Garden of Light (1999) for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Some of her poems: "Baggage Carousel," "Bags," "Litany on Beginning a Burial," "Stone Poem," "The Theology of Hair."

   Sources: An Introduction - Crossing Borders (Menna Elfyn) (http://www.mennaelfyn.co.uk/pages/Erthyglau/ Winter%20Words%20-%20Menna%20Elf yn.htm). British Council Arts (http://www.contemporarywriters.com). The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry. Menna Elfyn and John Rowland, eds. Bloodaxe Books, 2003. The Royal Literary Fund (http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/profile.cfm?fellow=24&menu=3).