Writer, translator and editor, Aled Islwyn was born in Port Talbot, South Wales, in 1953. He has published one volume of verse, Dyddiau Gerwyn (The Days of Gerwyn, 1977), but is best known as a Welsh novelist. His fiction has been characterised by an emphasis on emotional concerns underlain by a sharp, lyrical intensity. He explores the interplay between individual and society, focusing on the psychology of identity and sexuality with great intensity and lyricism.

Aled Islwyn won the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize at the National Eisteddfod in 1980 for Sarah Arall (Another Sarah; Y Dref Wen, 1982), and won again in 1985 with Cadw’r Chwedlau’n Fyw (Keeping the Legends Alive; Y Dref Wen, 1984).

A collection of short stories, Unigolion Unigeddau (Gomer, 1994) won the 1995 Wales Book of the Year award. Out with It (Parthian, 2008) is his first collection of short stories in English. His most recent novel is Milwr Bychan Nesta (The Soldier; Gomer, 2009).