Inspired by the Welsh word coleddu which means to cherish, cultivate, foster growth and friendship, Hywel will hold conversations and creative workshops with those who manage, study, or engage with the river. Insights from these encounters will inform school and community writing workshops, culminating in a hybrid literary work combining poetry, prose, image, sound, and film. Hywel intends to explore how literature can give voice to both people and the river’s wider ecosystem.
Meet the Writer
Hywel Griffiths is a poet, geographer and writer who works as a lecturer in Physical Geography at Aberystwyth University. He has published four volumes of poetry, with his latest – Y Traeth O Dan y Stryd (Barddas Publications, 2023) – reaching the shortlist for the Poetry Category of the 2024 Wales Book of the Year Award. Hywel has won several literary awards including the National Eisteddfod Crown in 2008, the Chair in 2015 and the Wales Book of the Year Poetry Category in 2018 for his book Llif Coch Awst (Barddas Publications, 2017).
Landscape and people’s relationship with place are central themes in his work. His academic research focuses on the geomorphology of rivers and coasts, floods, environmental management and alternative methods of science communication. Hywel is also particularly interested in collaborative methods, engaging scientists, writers and artists to explore contemporary environmental challenges.