The Dylan Thomas ‘Summer Soirées’ are a series of evening literary events co-organised by write4word and the School of English and Creative Writing at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. The events are supported by Literature Wales and run in parallel with the Dylan Thomas International Summer School. This is a residential creative writing programme for American MFA students directed by writers Pamela Petro and Dominic Williams. All events are free entry and open to the public and showcase some of Wales finest professional writers, many with international profiles, in a diverse range of genres. The ambition is to present these writers in informal intimate settings to both an international and an often-isolated rural local audience.

Mererid Hopwood came to the Chair of the Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University in January 2021. Before that she had been Professor of Languages and the Curriculum Cymreig in the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. She has spent her career in the fields of languages, literature, education and the arts. She won the National Eisteddfod of Wales’ Chair, Crown and Prose Medal and Welsh Book of the Year prize for poetry in 2016 for her collection of poems, Nes Draw. She has been children’s poet laureate of Wales (Bardd Plant Cymru) and in 2018 won the Tir na n’Og prize for her writing for children. She has composed words for musicians, visual artists and dancers, and has taken part in literature festivals in Europe, Asia and South America. She has translated many works of literature into Welsh including plays from Spanish and German for Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru. She is Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the Academi Gymreig, and Honorary President of the Waldo Williams Society. She is the secretary of the Academi Heddwch Cymru.