The Writers of Wales Database

JENKINS, MIKE

26, Andrew’s Close, Heolgerrig, Merthyr Tudful CF48 1SS
Tel: 01685 376726
Email: mjenkins1927@gmail.com
Website: www.mikejenkins.net

Poet, story writer and novelist. He is a former teacher at Comprehensive school level for nearly 30 years and is now a fulltime writer and is available for readings and workshops at any time. Mike has lived in Merthyr for over 30 years and was winner of an Eric Gregory Award in 1979 and the Welsh Arts Council Young Writer’s Prize in 1984. Mike also won the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry and the 1998 Wales Book of the Year (English section) for Wanting To Belong (Seren, 2000), a book of interlinked stories for teenagers. He was a runner-up in Academi's 2009 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition.

He is a former editor of Poetry Wales and has co–edited Red Poets magazine for many years. His latest novella The Fugitives Three (Cinnamon Press, 2008) centres on three young people in a South Wales Valley’s estate whose stories intertwine and who, despite the odds, refuse to live lives of quiet desperation. It is fast-paced and written in a tight dialect in the third person narrative. Mike is a Fellow of Academi. Read his poem for Glyn Jones here.

Mike and painter Michael Gustavius Payne have recently been successful in an application to the Arts Council of Wales to tour a body of work across Wales in 2011 and 2012. The exhibition, currently being developed, will be titled 'Dim Gobaith Caneri', meaning “no hope like a canary” exploring ideas inspired by traditional Welsh idioms and phrases.

Reviews:

"…Mike Jenkins writes in a unique style that is sometimes raucous and often sardonic, but it can also be tender and plaintive, with a deep understanding of ’ordinary’ lives…"
Prof. Meic Stephens, Introduction to Corgi Series (3)


With respect to The Fugitive Three (Cinnamon Press, 2008):

"…narrated in a clipped, cartoon-like manner, blunt and humorous…The Fugitive Three is about isolation and the loss of the mother. It concerns the indiifference (and worse) of society and shows how youngsters may be scarred but still possess a razor-edge resilience that can help them survive their wasted lives…"
John Pikoulis


Selected Publications:
The Common Land (Poetry Wales Press, 1981)
Invisible Times (Seren, 1986)
A Dissident Voice (Seren, 1990)
Graffiti Narratives (Planet, 1994)
This House, My Ghetto (Seren, 1995)
Red Landscapes: New and Selected Poems (Seren, 1999)
Wanting to Belong (Seren, 2000)
Coulda Bin Summin (Planet, 2001)
Barbsmashive (Spells Trouble) (Pont, 2002)
Laughter Tangled in Thorn and Other Poems (Corgi Series: 3) (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2002)
Poems for Underage Thinkers (Pont, 2004)
The Language of Flight (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2004)
Child of Dust (Gomer, 2005)
Walking on Waste (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2007)
The Fugitive Three (Cinnamon Press, 2008)
The Climbing Tree (Pont, 2010) 
Moor Music (Seren, 2010)

Contributed to:
The Valleys (co–editor) (Poetry Wales Press, 1984)
Magpies - Short Stories from Wales (contributor) (Gomer, 2000)
Welsh and Proud of it (contributor) (Pont, 2007)



Barbsmashive (Spells Trouble) (Pont, 2002)

A novella for 10-12 year olds.

"…The creature that appears amid the rubbish on Marc’s estate is real enough. No-one seems to have made it; no-one seems to be controlling it either. Why should Marc take it on then? Especially when his adventures always end up in trouble…"

To purchase this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover



The Fugitive Three (Cinnamon Press, 2008)

In the South Wales town of Cwmtaff Shelly Bush, a fiery, intelligent girl whose mother died of a drug overdose is left at the mercy of harsh ’care’ system. Other characters include Sam Taylor, who seems adept only at getting life wrong and Mary Croft, a gifted A-level student who feels alienated from her father.

To purchase this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover

Eligible Writers on Tour subjects offered:

1. Read and discuss own work
2. Workshops for adults and children in poetry and fiction
3. Talk and discussion on Welsh writing in English

AVAILABILITY: Most days, evenings and weekends.
AGE RANGE: Primary school upwards for both readings and workshops.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: Non car-driver.