Richard Gwyn

Richard Gwyn

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 Richard Gwyn

Richard Gwyn grew up in Crickhowell, Powys. He studied anthropology at the London School of Economics and worked in a variety of jobs in London before taking off for a decade of aimless travel around the Mediterranean.

A poet, novelist and translator, he has published four volumes of poetry, most recently 'Stowaway: A Levantine Adventure' (Seren, 2018) and has edited an anthology of new Welsh poetry, 'The Pterodactyl's Wing' (Parthian, 2003). Having lived in Catalunya, Greece and France for long periods, he now lives in Cardiff and is Professor of Creative and Critical Writing at Cardiff University. The Colour of a Dog Running Away (Parthian), his first novel, was published In 2005. It was a Book of the Year for both The Independent and Waterstones. In 2007 it received the Welsh Books Council Publishers Award for fiction and has been translated into many languages. His second novel, Deep Hanging Out (2007) is published by Snowbooks. Amemoir and meditation on illness, travel and writing, his publication, The Vagabond's Breakfast (Alcemi, 2011), won the Wales Book of the Year Award 2012 non-fiction category. His most recent novel is The Blue Tent (Parthian, 2019).

In 2012, he founded Fiction Fiesta, a festival for literature in translation connecting Wales and Latin America. He reviews Spanish and Latin American fiction for The Independent. His most recent works of translation include A Complicated Mammal: Selected Poems of Joaquín O. Giannuzzi (2012), The Spaces Between: Poems by Jorge Fondebrider (Cinnamon, 2013) and Impossible Loves, his selection of poems by the Colombian Darío Jaramillo (Carcanet, 2019). He has also compiled and translated a second major anthology, The Other Tiger: Recent Poetry from Latin America (Seren, 2016).

Read the blog of Richard Gwyn's alter-ego, Ricardo Blanco here.

Watch Richard discuss and read from his book, The Blue Tent, here, and discuss his latest collection of poetry, Stowaway: A Levantine Journey and reads three poems from the collection here.