The Writers of Wales Database

ELFYN, MENNA

Cysgod y Graig, Stryd y Gwynt, Llandysul SA44 4BH
Tel: (01559) 362122
Email: menna@elfyn.fsnet.co.uk
Website: www.mennaelfyn.co.uk
Audiovisual footage available here

Menna Elfyn is an award-winning poet and playwright. She is the best known and most translated of all modern Welsh-language poets. Author of over twenty books of poetry, children’s novels and educational books, numerous stage, radio and television plays, she has also written libretti for US and UK composers. In 1999, she co-wrote ‘Garden of Light’, a choral symphony for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra which was performed at the Lincoln Centre in New York. She received a Creative Arts Award in 2008 to write a book on ‘Sleep’. Menna is Director of the Masters Programme in Creative Writing at University of Wales, Trinity Saint David and is Literary Fellow at Swansea University. In April 2010, Sunflowers in your Eyes, an anthology of  four Zimbabwean women poets edited by Elfyn, will appear from Cinnamon Press. Recently, she was awarded the International Anima Istranza Foreign Prize for Poetry in Sardinia.

Menna is a Fellow of the Welsh Academi. A new bilingual publication, Murmur (Bloodaxe), is to be published in September 2012.

Reviews:

"…The international range of her subjects, inventiveness and generosity of vision place her among Europe’s leading poets…"
Bloodaxe

With respect to Perfect Blemish: New & Selected Poems 1995-2007 (Bloodaxe, 2007):

"…Elfyn’s poetic has been made from the bandaging of the wounds of Wales, the Welsh, women and the world…"
Claire Crowther

"…Elfyn is a poet of healing who, despite satirical impulses, is fundamentally both compassionate and celebratory. Like a soul doctor she questions and probes, like St Teresa she endures the darkness, but in the end she sings a song which affirms that flawed humanity is indeed perfectible…"
Katie Gramich

"…It is deeply reflective, poignant, and empathetic of the dispossessed… Possibly, one of the best books of contemporary poetry there is, and has to be a  must have for any reader of poetry. It is certainly one that you will read and re-read to unearth limitless gems of discovery..."
Mike Clement

"...one of the few great voices to emerge from Wales at the end of the 20th century...Elfyn releases her soul as song..."
Hayden Murphy


Selected Publications:
Mwyara (J.D. Lewis, 1976)
Stafelloedd Aros (J.D. Lewis, 1978)
Tro’r Haul Arno (Gomer, 1982)
Hel Dail Gwyrdd (Gomer, 1985)
Mynd lawr i’r nefoedd (Gomer, 1986)
Aderyn Bach Mewn Llaw: Detholiad O Gerddi, 1976-1990 (Gomer, 1990)
Y teulu a’r gymuned (Canolfan Astudiaethau Addysg, 1991)
O’r Iawn Ryw: Cerddi Gan Fenywod Yng Nghymru (Honno, 1991)
Madfall Ar Y Mur (Cyfres Cled) (Gomer, 1993)
Eucalyptus (Gomer, 1995)
Cell Angel (Bloodaxe, 1997)
Trying the Line: A Volume of Tributes to Gillian Clark (Gomer, 1997)
Camlas Y Cwm: Pontardawe (Cyfres Y Man A’r Lle/Places Series) (Gwasg Gregynog, 1999) 
Ffwl Yn Y Dwr: Casgliad O Gerddi I Bobl Ifanc (Gomer, 1999)
Cusan Dyn Dall: Blind Man’s Kiss (Bloodaxe, 2001)
Rana Rebel (Gomer, 2002)
Caneri Pinc Ar Dywod Euraid: Cerddi Bardd Plant Cymru 2002-3 a Beirdd Ifanc Cymru (Hughes & Sons, 2003)
Perffaith Nam (Gomer, 2005)
Perfect Blemish: New & Selected Poems 1995-2007 (Bloodaxe, 2007)
Er Dy Fod (Gomer, 2007)
Cerddi Menna Elfyn (Gomer, 2011)

Contributed to:
Glas-nos: Poems for Peace/Cerddi dros Heddwch (co-writer) (CND Cymru, 1987)
Seren Poets: The Bloodstream No. 1 (co-writer) (Seren, 1989)
The Adulterer’s Tongue: An Anthology of Welsh Poetry in Translation (co-writer) (Carcanet, 2003)
The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry (co-writer) (Bloodaxe, 2003)
Sunflowers in Your Eyes (editor) (Cinnamon, 2010)