Our Bookshelf
Browse our Bookshelves, selected annually by the Exchange as a window to recent Welsh literary works which we recommend for translation.
‘[A book] that made me sit still after reading it in one sitting, and marvel at the ability of the poet to express such a profound experience, giving voice to grief and to joy. These poems didn’t come from the heart but from the gut and through the blood of the heart.’
Menna Elfyn, Wales Book of the Year Awards judge 2025
‘The complicated experience of trying to cope with grief whilst raising young children at the same time is deeply explored in this volume, but in a style that is easy to understand and full of beautiful imagery.’
Nici Beech, Barn
Rhuo ei Distawrwydd hi(Roaring her Silence)
Read sample of this bookThree generations of women from the same Welsh family form the backbone in this debut book of poetry. The grief and joy of being a woman, a daughter and a mother intertwine through the poems, which are sometimes self-restrainingly subtle and at other times explosive.
Losing her mother to motor neuron disease a decade ago was the spur for poet, Meleri Davies, to take hold of her writing again, and the opening poems of the book communicate with the grief left after her death. The expectations placed on her mother during her lifetime are expectations that continue to be loaded onto women today, and the collection carries this idea at its core.
Throughout the book, and when reaching the poems that greet her children’s future towards the end of the collection touching on themes such as the environment, language and community, Meleri Davies expresses much of what circumstances didn’t allow those that came before her to express. Therefore, this book is not only a beautiful collection of poetry, but a powerful and determined action – one that roars from the silence that was.
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Cyhoeddiadau'r Stamp (2024)
978-1-7384794-4-3
56pp
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Cyhoeddiadau'r Stamp (2024)
Cyhoeddiadau’r Stamp | cyhoeddiadau.ystamp@gmail.com
Reviews
‘[A book] that made me sit still after reading it in one sitting, and marvel at the ability of the poet to express such a profound experience, giving voice to grief and to joy. These poems didn’t come from the heart but from the gut and through the blood of the heart.’
Read more reviewsMenna Elfyn, Wales Book of the Year Awards judge 2025