In 1974 Carcanet published its first Welsh title, Sam Adams’s anthology Ten Anglo-Welsh Poets, including work by Gillian Clarke, who was to become a key Carcanet poet, Gwyn Williams, Glyn Jones, Roland Mathias, Harri Webb, Leslie Norris, John Ormond, Raymond Garlick, John Tripp and John Pook. Twenty-nine years later Robert Minhinnick, another key Carcanet poet, edited our anthology The Adulterer’s Tongue: Six Welsh Poets, a facing-text anthology, with Bobi Jones, Menna Elfyn, Emyr Lewis, Iwan Llwyd, Gwyneth Lewis (who is part of our Cardiff Jubilee celebrations) and Elin ap Hywel.

Carcanet’s earliest Welsh poet is Henry Vaughan (1621-1695), the Olor Iscanus or Swan of Usk. The bulk of the Welsh list is twentieth- and twenty-first-century, from Vernon Watkins and Lynette Roberts (and Robert Graves, whose roots are deep in Wales), Edward, Helen and Myfanwy Thomas, to Gillian Clarke, the first National Poet, Robert Minhinnick, joint founder of Friends of the Earth Cymru, Patrick McGuinness, Kelly Grovier and Rowan Williams. We have just published our host Richard Gwyn’s English translations of the great Colombian poet Darío Jaramillo and, from Bangor, Carol Rumens’s anthology Smart Devices: 52 Poems from The Guardian ‘Poem of the Week’, with its refreshingly Welsh inflections.

Please join us to celebrate Carcanet’s Jubilee at our Cardiff party, a day of presentations, discussions and poetry readings, during which we intend to explore the relationships between publisher and poet over the years, Carcanet’s involvement with historic Welsh poetry, and the state and development of poetry publishing in Wales today. The schedule of events is below, and all are welcome to join us for the full day or the evening readings (which can be booked separately). This is an essential day of events for anyone interested in poetry and publishing.

This is the third in a series of celebratory symposia around the UK and Ireland for Carcanet’s Jubilee. Later events will take place at the Scottish Poetry Library and the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts.

Carcanet at 50: Cardiff University schedule

13:00 – 13.15 Welcome & opening remarks

13.15 – 14.00 Panel 1: Carcanet Welsh Poets

14.00 – 14.30 Discussion

14.30 – 14.45 Break

14.45 – 15.30 Panel 2: Historic Carcanet Poets

15.30 – 16.00 Discussion

16.00 – 16.15 Break

16.15 – 17.00 Panel 3: Welsh Poetry Publishing

17.00 – 17.30 Discussion

17:30 – 19.30 Break

19.30 – 21.30 Evening Readings

Speakers

Confirmed speakers so far include Robert Minhinnick, Gillian Clarke, Jeremy Over, Sam Adams, Patrick McGuinness, Grevel Lindop, Lleucu Siencyn (Literature Wales), Simon Thirsk (Bloodaxe) and Gwyneth Lewis.

The full programme will be announced shortly.

Registration is free but essential. All are welcome to join us for the full day, or to join for the evening readings —please visit the separate Eventbrite listing here. There is also a Facebook event.

For any enquiries about the event please email jazmine@carcanet.co.uk or call 001618348730.