Literature Wales’ Top 10 of 2025
2025 Wales Book of the Year Award
On a lovely summer’s evening in July, we were able to celebrate some of the best literary works of the year as we revealed the winners of Wales Book of the Year 2025. It was nice to celebrate together with the authors and their families, their readers and their publishers.
Carys Davies’ Clear was crowned Wales Book of the year in the English-language, whilst Iola Ynyr received the Award in the Welsh-language with Camu. The Overall Prizes in English and Welsh were sponsored by Cardiff University’s School of English, Communication and Philosophy, and School of Welsh, and we are grateful to them and to our many other sponsors who provided category and ceremony sponsorship. Their generosity makes these annual Awards possible.
You can find out more about all of this year’s winners on our website, enjoy a gallery of photos from the ceremony, and if you haven’t done so already, why not read the fantastic books over the break?
Our New Children’s Laureates
In September we announced the exciting news that Nicola Davies will be Children’s Laureate Wales 2025-2027, and that Siôn Tomos Owen will take on the role of Bardd Plant Cymru.
The two have now embarked on a journey of fostering creativity amongst the younger generation, rekindling their love of reading, and empowering them to become creative change-makers. We are really looking forward to seeing what 2026 brings!
To get to know our new Children’s Laureate better, we asked a series of quick questions. What is Nicola’s favourite word? Does she have a hidden talent? And which does she like best – poppadoms or bread? Click this link to find out!
Cymru EWRO 2025 Poet
It was an exciting Summer as Cymru’s football team travelled to Switzerland having reached the final stages of the UEFA Women’s EURO tournament for the first time ever!
In collaboration with the Football Association of Wales (FAW), acclaimed poet and spoken word artist, Sarah McCreadie, was commissioned to praise and document Cymru’s efforts.
Sarah was tasked with writing 15 poems during the tournament – from the squad announcement on the summit of Yr Wyddfa, until our final whistle!
A number of the poems were translated into Welsh by Marged Tudur, and you can watch all the video poems on our Youtube channel by clicking on the EWRO 2025 Playlist.
International Collaboration
It was a pleasure to welcome 14 European writers to Tŷ Newydd for two weeks in April for a creative retreat.
A programme of talks, field trips and workshops were organised for the cohort to encourage collaborations, the sharing of ideas and good practice, and to stimulate new projects across Europe. You can read more about the writers on Literature Wales’ website, and about the partners, sponsors and supporters of the LLIF residency.
It was also a privilege for us, together with our partners, British Council Wales, Wales Arts International, and Literature Across Frontiers, to welcome the Ukrainian poet and literary translator Tania Rodionova to our home at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre during the autumn.
This was a golden opportunity to exchange cultures and creative ideas, and foster a closer relationship between the literatures and people of Wales and Ukraine. Read about Tania’s experiences during her two weeks in Wales.
Pencerdd
We’ve just opened applications for the third year of Pencerdd, a Welsh-language opportunity for poets to develop the ancient craft of cynganeddu. The programme is run in partnership with Barddas and aims to develop poets that are new to the tradition and nurture new voices and perspectives within the cynganeddu tradition in Wales.
Children & Young People
This year we’ve been running two local Writing Squads for young people – the Conwy Writing Squad led by Rebecca Roberts, and the Maesteg Writing Squad with Leigh Manley. It was wonderful to be able to bring both Conwy’s Welsh-language and English-language groups together over Easter – click here to get a glimpse of a very creative weekend!
Following the popularity of these local squads, it is a pleasure to be able to say that we are in the process of establishing a National Writing Squad! Our open call has now closed, and in due course we will announce the names of the young people aged 16-18 who have secured a place on the 2026-2027 programme.
In May, five writers went on a tour around Wales to visit a thousand children to share the magic of words as part of the Ffrindiau Bardd Plant (Friends of Bardd Plant Cymru) project.
Together with Nia Morais, who was Bardd Plant Cymru at the time, Mari Lovgreen, Gwennan Evans, Natalie Jones, Sioned Erin Hughes and Rebecca Wilson ran workshops filled with the joy of words in 10 counties across Wales, boosting children’s literacy skills through creativity.
Our Work in the Community
It was a great year for our literary projects in the community, with writing groups flourishing in Bethesda and St David’s.
A celebratory event was held in May to honor the achievements of the Diosg writing group and officially transition its leadership to the Dyffryn Ogwen community. The event also featured the unveiling of a specially commissioned artwork by Catrin Williams, inspired by the group’s creative contributions.
The Welsh-language creative writing group was established by writer and poet Casia Wiliam as part of the Llên mewn Lle / Lit in Place project, a partnership with WWF Cymru, which supports writers and facilitators to work in their local area, using creative writing as a springboard to explore the natural world on their doorstep
The Lit in Place St Davids Project was led by creative writing facilitator Kerry Steed and delivered in partnership with EcoDewi, a Community Interest Company based in St David’s working to improve biodiversity and the natural environment across the peninsula.
Kerry led a wide range of inspiring workshop activities, and brought an array of artists, ecologists and other experts together to work across the community, including: Duke Al Durham, Nicola Davies, Jon Hudson, Lou Luddington and Susan Richardson. Workshops took place in the local school, at EcoDewi’s community garden and the Maes Glas Fryn meadow, on the coastpath near St David’s, and in a workshop space in the heart of the city.
Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre
2026 will be an exciting year for Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre as vital maintenance work is carried out at our headquarters. This work is possible following receipt of a capital grant of £159,610 from the Arts Council of Wales. Read more.
We were also delighted to announce a packed program of creative courses for next year. From Poetry retreats, to folk fiction, to writing for young adults, it’s not too late to book your space – there is something for everyone! Browse the programme and book your place or gift a course this Christmas.
Here’s a glimpse of what’s coming up in 2026:
The Business of Writing: Creating strong foundations to support your author career
Tutor: Clare Mackintosh
Dates: Monday 16 March – Friday 20 March 2026
Creative Writing for New Speakers / Welsh Learners
Tutors: Bethan Gwanas and Dafydd Llewelyn
Dates: Friday (evening) 20 March – Sunday 22 March 2026
Meet the Agent (Retreat)
Tutor: Cathryn Summerhayes
Dates: Monday 27 April – Friday 1 May 2026
As part of Literature Wales’ commitment to making Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre and its courses as accessible as possible, we are pleased to offer a bursary for each course programmed in 2026. Further information on available financial support can be found on our website.
To find out more about what we offer for writers, head to the I am a Writer section on our website.
Our National Ambassadors
It has been an extremely busy year for our national poets, the National Poet of Wales, Children’s Laureate Wales and Bardd Plant Cymru. The poets have penned new poems throughout the year and have run projects across Wales both inside and outside the classroom, reaching thousands of young people.
As well as appearing in countless events and news articles, our National Poet, Hanan Issa, has written several commissioned poems this year, including for National Trust Wales to note a Covid-19 memorial woodland on Erddig estate and ‘Homes that Float’ which responds to the impact of devastating floods in Pontypridd after storms Dennis and Bert.
Hanan also collaborated with international and Welsh poets as part of the Cerdd Tafod Arall | Music of Another Tongue project. Following a quick lesson on the cynghanedd led by Mererid Hopwood and Eurig Salisbury, the poets composed a piece inspired by what they learned about this special craft. Hanan has also been planning an important project looking at women’s health in Wales which will be led by her and Gwyneth Lewis. More information about the Chronic Women project will be revealed in spring 2026.
Before their time as children’s laureates came to an end this summer, Alex Wharton and Nia Morais had an exciting few months inspiring the children of Wales!
As well as holding various workshops in schools and at national festivals, Nia edited an anthology by Welsh women ‘O Ffrwyth y Gangen Hon‘ (Barddas).
Alex was also busy. In May he dusted off his walking boots for the ‘Shorelines and Shipwrecks‘ tour. From Moelfre to Holyhead, he walked 40 miles in 6 days, visiting six primary schools and a library on Anglesey. He was also part of a very special project in collaboration with the HMP Parc Family Unit, where he inspired, challenged and empowered 16 fathers through a series of dynamic creative writing workshops.
Strategic Courses and Programmes
Hand in hand with our annual creative writing courses at Tŷ Newydd, which anyone can attend, we also run a series of tailored courses that aim to tackle underrepresentation in the Welsh literary sector. The courses are free of charge and attendees are selected through a competitive application process.
This spring it was lovely to welcome under-represented Wales-based poets and spoken word artists for our Speak Back residential course. Our creative writing course for deaf and/or/disabled writers Re-inventing the Protagonist returned, as did Writing Well for literary facilitators, and our flagship development programme, Representing Wales. We also ran a free residential course for fiction writers, and launched a series of webinars to inspire and educate Welsh writers. Browse our online events for 2026.
Once again this year we worked in partnership with the Hay Festival for the Writers at Work programme, which offered a jam-packed week of opportunities for writers during the festival. It was also wonderful to support Llyfrau Lliwgar’s open call-out and welcome a crew of LGBTQ+ writers to Tŷ Newydd for a creative weekend.
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Our offices in Cardiff and Tŷ Newydd will be closed between 19 December 2025 – 5 January 2026. We hope you have a lovely rest over the festive period, and a very Happy New Year to you!