Poetry 1900-2000 (Library of Wales) - Softcover

Meic Stephens

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1902638883 ISBN 13: 9781902638881

Publisher: Parthian Books, 2007

Synopsis

The most legendary names in poetry from Wales David Jones, Idris Davies, Vernon Watkins, RS Thomas, Dylan Thomas and Alun Lewis are featured here alongside many living greats such as Dannie Abse, Tony Conran, Gillian Carke, Tony Curtis, Robert Minhinnick and Gwyneth Lewis. Every decade of the century is featured, as is almost every part of Wales urban, industrial and rural and many of the poems reflect our history from Edwardian times to the post-industrial present. Biographical notes are provided for all the poets. A few lesser names have been selected to suggest continuity and the changing literary scene over the century. Wales now has a rich, vibrant and varied literature in English and this anthology reflects it comprehensive, authoritative and lively way.

About this title

Review:

A wonderful compendium of good poems and poets worth meeting ... But it is also an act of empowerment that reaches beyond individuals and single artistic genres, in a way that only poetry can. --Alan Riach, New Welsh Review

Meic Stephens, with his huge knowledge of Welsh writers, has done this editing fairly, sensitively and comprehensively. --John Idris Jones, Roundyhouse Poetry Magazine

'This anthology is a wonderful compendium of good poems and poets worth meeting, many worth returning to again and again. But it is also an act of empowerment that reaches beyond individuals and single artistic genres, in a way that only poetry can.' --Alan Riach, New Welsh Review

About the Author:

Writer and editor Meic Stephens was one of the leading figures in Welsh literature in both languages over more than fifty years. In an early career that encompassed work as a teacher, journalist and Welsh language activist, which included standing as a parliamentary candidate for Merthyr, Stephens had things to say and the ability to communicate them. He was born in Trefforest and educated there, Pontypridd and Aberystwyth. A fluency in languages took him to France. He always claimed French was his second-language, which he mastered before Welsh. Once fluent in Welsh he would write, edit and translate from all its literary forms. As a committed internationalist he wanted to enable a wider readership to engage in a literary tradition he loved. He founded the magazine Poetry Wales in 1965 and edited it until 1973, providing a platform for emerging Welsh literary talent at the time such as Gillian Clarke and more established figures like Leslie Norris with whom he developed a life-long friendship. From 1967 to 1990 he was the literature director of the Arts Council of Wales. He joined the University of Glamorgan in 1994 and was awarded a Chair as Professor of Welsh Writing in English 2000. He was series editor for the Writers of Wales series, the editor of the New Companion to the Literature of Wales and a founder of the Rhys Davies Literary Trust. A serious writer throughout a long-life he wrote poetry, prose and criticism in both English and Welsh and occasional penses in French. He married Ruth Meredith, a fellow Welsh language-activist, who he had met as a student. They had four children. His anthology of the best of Welsh poetry in the twentieth century Poetry 1900-2000 is a set text for the study of English in schools in Wales. He died, aged 79, in 2018.

About this edition

• Publisher: Parthian Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1902638883
• ISBN 13: 9781902638881
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 877
• Editor: Meic Stephens