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MEDIA RELEASE
10 March 2010

Welsh Writing Thrives in Recession

Seventeen writers, including three who are currently unpublished, have been awarded a Writer’s Bursary by the Welsh National Literature Promotion Agency, Academi. The bursaries which total £95,000 will allow the writers to take the time out of employment to write. As well as supporting new talent, bursaries have also been awarded to a number of established figures in the literary world. Fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction are all well-represented in the 2010 list.

Peter Finch, Chief Executive of Academi said: “When there is a recession writing flourishes. Academi’s popular bursaries scheme helps writers steer a way through difficult financial times. This year’s awards have been given to a mix of professional and newcomer, novelist and poet, short fictioneer and critic. The new literary works the bursaries buy will make a real difference to our culture.”

English language poetry in Wales will be particularly enriched with poets Damian Walford Davies, Tiffany Atkinson, Samantha Wynne Rhydderch and Ivy Alvarez all taking time out to work on new collections. Damian’s second poetry collection will explore art and life and the metaphysics of space flight, landscape and family history while fellow Aberystwyth University lecturer Tiffany Atkinson will explore literary heritage colliding with twenty-first century life and idiom. Samantha Wynne Rhydderch’s collection will delve into the rich history of the Welsh woollen industry, Lancashire’s cotton mills and witchcraft. Ivy’s collection will partly concentrate on the lives of ordinary people who might have lived in the relocated Welsh buildings at St Fagan’s National History Museum.

Christopher Lloyd switches from writing travel guidebooks to fiction. An Academi bursary will allow him to research his first crime novel set in Girona. Jim Bowen will take some time out from farming to write a novel about disability, courage and care. New writer Ann McManus will work on her first collection of short stories.

Byron Rogers, winner of the James Tait Black prize for his biography of R S Thomas, will write a literary memoir, revisiting Welsh locations and subjects of his previously published essays. Alex Keegan will switch from writing short stories and crime novels to concentrate on researching his mother’s biography and her possible involvement in the Profumo scandal in the 1960s. Jane MacNamee’s research and writing will take her along the coastline of Wales to work on essays about landscape, locations and characters.

The Welsh-language recipients are poets Dafydd John Pritchard and Karen Owen, novelists Daniel Davies and Robat Gruffudd, short story writer Dafydd Apolloni and literary critic Euros Lewis. Eiry Miles has been awarded a New Writer’s Bursary.

Gwen Davies, Chair of the Academi Bursaries Panel commented: “I am delighted that priorities this year have meant an avoidance of capping. This has enabled us to make awards that are as close possible to the writers’ requirements in the case of 17 well-deserved applicants.”

[Ends]
For more information contact:
Academi, Chief Executive: Peter Finch,
Mount Stuart House, Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff, CF10 5FQ.
029 2047 2266 / post@academi.org
www.academi.org

Notes to editors

Academi
• Yr Academi Gymreig is the Welsh National Literature Development Agency and Society for Authors. It was established in 1959, following discussions between Bobi Jones and Waldo Williams.
• In 1998 the Society's role increased greatly when it won the Arts Council of Wales franchise to become Wales' National Literature Promotion Agency.
• The Academi works in partnership with Ty Newydd Writing Centre in Llanystumdwy. The Academi works with the support of the Arts Council of Wales.
• The Academi is responsible for organising the Book of the Year award, literary events (conferences, dinners, poetry tours, lectures), writers’ bursaries, Writing Squads, various support schemes.
• The Academi has joined the Urdd, Welsh National Opera and other organisations as a resident of the Wales Millennium Centre.
• Academi is pleased to be the recipient of an Arts Council of Wales Beacon Company Award 2008 – 2010.

Bursaries
Writers’ Bursaries are awarded annually by the Academi and full details are available at www.academi.org

A full list of all bursary recipients is shown below. Academi will be pleased to supply further biographical details for journalists wishing to run features on writers who may be of particular interest to their readers.

Academi Bursaries Panel 2009-10:
Gwen Davies (Chair), Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Catherine Fisher, Amanda Hopkinson, Idris Reynolds.

Academi Writers’ Bursaries 2010

Name / Language of proposed work / Bursary / Amount awarded:

Byron Rogers English Published   £10,000
Daniel Davies Cymraeg Published   £6,536
Jane MacNamee English New Writer’s Bursary £4,300
Dafydd Apolloni Cymraeg Published   £2,400
Tiffany Atkinson English Published   £3,849
Damian Walford Davies English Published   £3,044
Dafydd John Pritchard Cymraeg Published   £7,626
Samantha Wynne Rhydderch English Published £5,040
Christopher Lloyd English Miscellaneous Fund £2,000
Jim Bowen English Published £4,000
Eiry Miles Cymraeg New Writer’s Bursary  £4,000
Ann McManus English Miscellaneous Fund £1,040
Robat Gruffudd  Cymraeg Published £9,000
Karen Owen Cymraeg Published £10,000
Euros Lewis Cymraeg Published £10,000
Alex Keegan English Published £11,360
Ivy Alvarez English Miscellaneous Fund       £805

Cyfanswm / Total: £95,000

Academi
Mount Stuart House,  Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff CF10 5FQ.
Chief Executive: Peter Finch
phone: 029 2047 2266  fax: 029 2049 2930
www.academi.org    post@academi.org

Academi is supported by the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government.
 Academi works in partnership with the Ty Newydd Centre for Writers.
Registered charity number 50640