Management Board
Cathryn Charnell-White
Chair
Read More Cathryn Charnell-White
Chair
Dr Cathryn Charnell-White is Head of Department of Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University. Her research focuses on Welsh identity, women and poetry in Early Modern Wales. She was the departmental Equality and Diversity Champion (2018–20) and sat on the central committee for equality and diversity. She is an advocate for ensuring that students see themselves reflected in the curriculum and has developed a new module in partnership with the Department of Theatre Film and Television called ‘Testunau’r Enfys’ (Rainbow Texts), which will be the first LGBT+ module of its kind in a Welsh Department. Cathryn was elected as a Literature Wales Board Member in November 2019.
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Steve Dimmick
Deputy Chair
Steve Dimmick is a Blaina boy. His love of words came from his father, who formed the Poems and Pints community in Blaenau Gwent. Steve runs the CardiffRead book club, the city’s longest running gathering of spine breakers. In this capacity he’s welcomed the likes of Manon Steffan Ros, Chris Power, Owen Sheers, Belinda Bauer, Lemn Sissay and many more through the doors of Canton Library. Day to day, he’s Dad to three children, and sits as a Parent Governor for Ysgol Plasmawr. Steve is also a trustee with National Theatre Wales.
A lover of languages, Steve was a Welsh Learner of the Year finalist in 2018. As Commercial Director for Awen Cultural Trust, Steve’s remit is to Make People’s Lives Better; something he hops to achieve as a Trustee with Literature Wales.
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Nasir Adam
Trustee
Nasir Adam was raised in Butetown, the son and grandson of merchant Navy seamen, he is now a community campaigner who is passionate about social justice, literature & heritage, cultural democracy, equity, representation, and embeddedness. Nasir’s academic background is in social studies and community education, coupled with hands-on community development has equipped him with a deep understanding of the complexities and nuances of marginalized communities. He is currently the Curator of Black History at the National Museum of Wales.
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Casi Dylan
Trustee
Casi Dylan grew up in Ceredigion and now lives and works in Glasgow. She has extensive experience in areas that intersect literature, well-being, and social participation, including positions with The Reader Organisation and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. She now works as an Events and Engagement Manager at the University of Glasgow. She is a Wales Literature Exchange Associate, and writes regularly for the book magazine O'r Pedwar Gwynt.
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Margiad Eckstein
Trustee // Director with Safeguarding brief
Margiad Eckstein comes from Cricieth, and studied English at Cardiff University. She has extensive experience of teaching in a variety of settings, most recently as a Head of Learning Support, with particular responsibility for students with additional needs. Margiad has performed on the comedy circuit, is an active member of amateur writing groups, and since retiring has volunteered with organisations supporting and befriending refugees, and people seeking asylum. She is passionate about enabling young people to find confidence and hope in their own voices and experiences.
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Rachel Harries
Trustee
Rachel Harries has many years' experience of working in governance in the public sector and currently works for Audit Wales. She also feels strongly about the importance of ensuring voices from all backgrounds are represented in the arts, particularly literature.
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Mohamed Hassan
Trustee
Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Mohamed first moved to Wales in 2007. He studied Photography at Carmarthen School of Art, prior to completing a masters in Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales. In recent years, Mohamed’s work has been included in several prestigious group exhibitions, including: ‘Facing Britain: British documentary photography since the 1960s’ curated by Ralph Goertz (multiple venues across Europe, 2021-2023),‘Many Voices, One Nation’, curated by Ffotogallery and the Senedd (multiple venues across Wales, 2019-2020), and The Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize (National Portrait Gallery, 2018). His work has also recently been acquired by collections including the National Museum of Wales and the UK Government Art Collection.
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Owen Hathway
Trustee
Born and raised in the Rhondda, Owen studied International Politics at Aberystwyth University before moving into a career in various policy and communications roles spanning 20 years. Currently Owen is the Assistant Director for Insight, Policy, Public Affairs and Community Investments at Sport Wales. In this role he oversees the organisations’ research work, relationship with the Welsh Government and other key stakeholders, as well as having responsibility for distributing Welsh Government and Lottery funding to clubs and community groups in every corner of Wales. Prior to joining the organisation, Owen led the communications work for Plaid Cymru at Senedd Cymru and developed a passion for the role of culture in education and engaging young people, stemming from his time leading the policy, public relations and public affairs work in Wales for the UK’s largest teaching union.
Owen Co-Chairs the strategic management board of the Welsh Institute of Physical Activity, Health and Sport and is a Board Member at both Amgueddfa Cymru and the Geraint Thomas Cycling Trust.
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Asma Khan
Trustee
Asma Khan is a Research Associate at Cardiff University. She is a social scientist who examines the experiences of ethnic and religious minority groups in contemporary Britain, with specific research interests in labour market inequalities and mental health. Asma enjoys working on co-produced projects with third sector organisations to conduct research that helps people to live healthy, happy and productive lives.
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Richard King
Trustee
Richard King was born into a bilingual family in South Wales and for the last twenty years has lived in the rural county of Powys, in mid-Wales. He is the author of Original Rockers (2015), which was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, and How Soon Is Now? (2012), which was Sunday Times Music Book of the Year, both published by Faber. The Lark Ascending was published in 2019, and was a Rough Trade, Mojo and Evening Standard Book of the Year. His latest book, Brittle With Relics, was published in hardback by Faber in February 2022 and paperback in 2023.
Before his career as an author, King worked in the independent music business, co-founding the record label Planet Records in Bristol at the age of twenty-two. The label’s roster was drawn from the city's underground music culture, releasing music by Movietone, Third Eye Foundation, Crescent, and Flying Saucer Attack, along with occasional American bands including Yo La Tengo and Harry Pussy. In 1996, King established a working relationship with Domino Records in London, an association that continued, with various degrees of formality, for over fifteen years.
King has also regularly worked as a curator, programming and producing events at the Barbican Centre, London, the Cultural Olympiad, London 2012, the Hay Festival, Green Man Festival, where he curated the Babbling Tongues stage for five years and the International Festival of Apathy, Bristol. King was an honorary founding partner of the Do Lectures.
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Charlotte Williams
Trustee
Charlotte Williams OBE FLSW is an author, academic and cultural critic. Her writings span academic publications, memoir, short fiction, reviews, essays and commentaries. She has written over fourteen academic books, notably the edited collection ‘A Tolerant Nation? Ethnic Diversity in a devolved Wales (2003 & 2015) and her creative non-fiction includes her award-winning memoir Sugar and Slate (Wales Book of the Year 2003) republished in 2022 by Parthian for the Library of Wales Series and in 2023 by Penguin as part of their Black Britian Writing Back Series. Charlotte is Professor Emeritus at Bangor University and holds Honorary fellowships at Wrexham University, University of South Wales and Cardiff Metropolitan University. She is a member of the Learned Society of Wales, a non-executive Director of Estyn and Advisor to the Welsh government on the implementation of the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan.
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Martin Willis
Trustee
Professor Martin Willis FRSA FRHistS is an academic at Cardiff University. He has worked in Higher Education for over twenty-five years, teaching in universities across Scotland, England and Wales. He was Head of the School of English, Communication and Philosophy at Cardiff University from 2019-2024 and Academic Lead for the Welsh Crucible Future Research Leaders Programme, working to inspire young researchers to focus on Wales’ future prosperity. His own research focuses on literature’s engagement with the sciences, where he endeavours to illuminate the continued importance of literary creativity in understanding the world around us.
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