Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg: Caryl Lewis and Gwen Davies in Conversation
The joys and challenges of Welsh-English translation
Multiple Wales Book of the Year winner Caryl Lewis speaks to her translator Gwen Davies about her new novel, The Jeweller.
They consider the joys and challenges of Welsh-English translation, Caryl’s career writing Welsh-language books for adults, young adults and children, and the state of Welsh literature today.
‘Caryl Lewis’s novels and short stories are already considered to be contemporary classics in the original Welsh. In this lyrical, muscular translation by Gwen Davies, English-speaking readers are given the opportunity to appreciate the full power of Lewis’s work.’ Francesca Rhydderch
Caryl Lewis has published 11 Welsh-language books for adults, three novels for young adults and 13 children’s books. Caryl won the Wales Book of the Year in 2005 and 2016 and the Wales Book of the Year Fiction (Welsh Language) Award in 2017, in addition to being shortlisted on several other occasions. Caryl wrote the script for a film based on her book Martha, Jac a Sianco, which won the Atlantis Prize at the 2009 Moondance Festival. Her television credits include adapting Welsh-language scripts for the acclaimed crime series Y Gwyll / Hinterland.
Gwen Davies has edited the literary journal, New Welsh Review, since 2011. As well as being a writer’s mentor for Literature Wales and a creative- and copy-editor, she is a literary translator from Welsh to English. Among her book publications as translator are White Star and Martha, Jack and Shanco. She is contributing editor of the gothic short-fiction collection inspired by folk tales, Sing Sorrow Sorrow: Dark And Chilling Tales (2010) and her shorter translations have been published in Best European Fiction 2011 and Best European Fiction 2019, as well as in New Welsh Reader/Review and the 26 Treasures anthology. Her debut original short story, the queer, gothic, feminist The Hardest Button to Button, was published in New Welsh Reader 119.Images: Caryl Lewis © Keith Morris, cover artwork from The Jeweller, Gwen Dabis © Jessica Raby