Gwyneth Lewis was born in 1959 in Cardiff, Wales. She attended a bilingual school in Pontypridd and studied English at Cambridge University. She studied at Harvard and Columbia, was a Harkness Fellow and worked as a freelance journalist in New York. She then returned to Britain and worked in television. She won an Eric Gregory Award in 1988.
In 2001 she was awarded a £75,000 research grant by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA). In 2004, Gwyneth Lewis was named as one of the Poetry Book Society’s ‘Next Generation’ poets. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a member of the Welsh Academi and a NESTA Fellow. In 2005 she was elected Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University. Gwyneth Lewis was appointed Wales’ first National Poet from 2005-6, during which time she composed the inscription, sculpted in six-foot high lettering, on the front of Cardiff’s iconic Wales Millennium Centre.
She has published six books of poetry in Welsh and English. Her first collection, Parables and Faxes (Bloodaxe, 1995), like her second, Zero Gravity (Bloodaxe, 1998), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize. She writes in English and in Welsh. Y Llofrudd Iath (The Language Murderer) (Barddas, 2000) won the Welsh Arts Council Book of the Year Prize. Her most recent collection of poems is Keeping Mum (Bloodaxe, 2003), which was shortlisted for the same prize in 2004.
As well as poetry, Gwyneth has written three libretti for Welsh National Opera. Her non-fiction prose works include Sunbathing in the Rain: A Cheerful Book about Depression (Flamingo, 2002) and Two in a Boat: A Marital Voyage (Fourth Estate, 2005).
Bibliography
Sonedau Redsa a Cherddi Eraill, Gomer Press, Llandysul, 1990
Parables and Faxes, Bloodaxe Books, Northumberland, 1995
Cyfrif Un Ac Un yn Dri, Barddas, Wales, 1996
Zero Gravity, Bloodaxe Books, Northumberland, 1998
Y Llofrudd Iaith, Barddas, Wales, 2000
Sunbathing in the Rain: A Cheerful Book on Depression, Flamingo, 2002
Keeping Mum, Bloodaxe Books, Northumberland, 2003
Two In A Boat: A Marital Voyage, Fourth Estate, London, 2005
Links
Gwyneth Lewis' website
The Guardian
An article by Gwyneth Lewis on growing up with Welsh and English.
The Wales Millennium Centre
Gwyneth Lewis’ public poem for the WMC.
