Winners of the 2016 M. Wynn Thomas Prize
The annual M. Wynn Thomas Prize has been established to celebrate outstanding academic work in the field of Welsh Writing in English. This year, we are delighted to announce the winner in the Open Category, Professor David Lloyd of Le Moyne College (Syracuse, USA), and the winner of the New Scholars Category, Nathan Llewelyn Munday (Cardiff University).
The winning essays are:
Once again, the overall quality of the submissions was high. Reading all submissions, the judging panel made up of Dr Heather Williams (Centre of Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth), Dr Emma Schofield (Cardiff University), and Dr Alyce von Rothkirch (Swansea University) had a difficult but rewarding job on their hands. However, the winners emerged clearly.
David Lloyd is professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Programme at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, USA. The son of immigrants from Wales, he grew up in the Welsh American community of Utica, New York.
A poet, fiction writer, and critic, he is the author of nine books. These include three poetry collections, including Warriors (Salt Publishing) and two works of fiction, Over the Line (novel), Boys: Stories and a Novella (short stories). His poems have appeared in numerous journals including Crab Orchard Review, New Welsh Review, Planet, and Poetry Wales. His books relating to Wales include Imagined Greetings: Poetic Engagements with R. S. Thomas (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch), Other Land: Contemporary Poems on Wales and Welsh-American Experience (Parthian), Writing on the Edge: Interviews with Writers and Editors of Wales (Rodopi), and the first anthology of contemporary poetry from Wales published in the United States, The Urgency of Identity: Contemporary English-Language Poetry from Wales (Northwestern University Press). He reviews contemporary poetry and fiction and has published extensively on modern Welsh poetry, including essays on R. S. Thomas, Leslie Norris, and Brenda Chamberlain. In 2001 he was a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in residence at Bangor University. In 2000, he received the Poetry Society of America’s Robert H. Winner Memorial Award.
David Lloyd says: "I am deeply honored to be awarded the M Wynn Thomas 'Open' category prize for my essay on Brenda Chamberlain – recognition that is especially meaningful given the high standard of scholarly work being published on Welsh writing in English in recent years."
Nathan Llewelyn Munday originally comes from Carmarthenshire, but now lives in Cardiff. He is a SWW-DTP (AHRC-funded) doctoral student at Cardiff and Aberystwyth Universities supervised by Professors Katie Gramich and Sarah Prescott. His doctoral thesis is the 'Sacred re-territorialization of Modern Welsh Poetry'.
Since beginning his PhD, he has written a chapter on Ann Griffiths and her influence on modern poets. He also co-runs a seminar series with Cynan Llwyd (PhD Welsh) called 'Cymru, Cristnogaeth a'r Celfyddydau'/'Wales, Christianity and the Arts' which is an interdisciplinary and intellectual space to discuss the importance of Christianity in Welsh literature. He will be giving a paper in the NAASWCH conference in Harvard this coming July relating to the essay he wrote for the prize.
Nathan Munday says: "M. Wynn Thomas’s In the Shadow of the Pulpit has always been an important book for my work. Winning the prize named after him is such a privilege and I hope that he will enjoy my essay! This essay shows how important religious experiences were, and are, in Welsh writing. By presenting these two very different poets side-by-side, I have aimed to reveal the complexity of those experiences by drawing on my interdisciplinary interests in science, theology and language."
The Association of Welsh Writing in English gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support and sponsorship by University of Wales Press and Parthian, publishers of the Library of Wales series of key texts in the field of Welsh writing in English, as well as exciting new Welsh voices.
The winning essays are:
- David Lloyd, 'Brenda Chamberlain and American Modernism', International Journal of Welsh Writing in English, 3 (2015), pp. 21-47.
- Nathan Llewelyn Munday, '"Ann heard him speak, and Pantycelyn": The unexpected relationship between R.S. Thomas, Williams Pantycelyn and Calvinistic Methodism' (unpublished).
Once again, the overall quality of the submissions was high. Reading all submissions, the judging panel made up of Dr Heather Williams (Centre of Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth), Dr Emma Schofield (Cardiff University), and Dr Alyce von Rothkirch (Swansea University) had a difficult but rewarding job on their hands. However, the winners emerged clearly.
David Lloyd is professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Programme at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, USA. The son of immigrants from Wales, he grew up in the Welsh American community of Utica, New York.
A poet, fiction writer, and critic, he is the author of nine books. These include three poetry collections, including Warriors (Salt Publishing) and two works of fiction, Over the Line (novel), Boys: Stories and a Novella (short stories). His poems have appeared in numerous journals including Crab Orchard Review, New Welsh Review, Planet, and Poetry Wales. His books relating to Wales include Imagined Greetings: Poetic Engagements with R. S. Thomas (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch), Other Land: Contemporary Poems on Wales and Welsh-American Experience (Parthian), Writing on the Edge: Interviews with Writers and Editors of Wales (Rodopi), and the first anthology of contemporary poetry from Wales published in the United States, The Urgency of Identity: Contemporary English-Language Poetry from Wales (Northwestern University Press). He reviews contemporary poetry and fiction and has published extensively on modern Welsh poetry, including essays on R. S. Thomas, Leslie Norris, and Brenda Chamberlain. In 2001 he was a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in residence at Bangor University. In 2000, he received the Poetry Society of America’s Robert H. Winner Memorial Award.
David Lloyd says: "I am deeply honored to be awarded the M Wynn Thomas 'Open' category prize for my essay on Brenda Chamberlain – recognition that is especially meaningful given the high standard of scholarly work being published on Welsh writing in English in recent years."
Nathan Llewelyn Munday originally comes from Carmarthenshire, but now lives in Cardiff. He is a SWW-DTP (AHRC-funded) doctoral student at Cardiff and Aberystwyth Universities supervised by Professors Katie Gramich and Sarah Prescott. His doctoral thesis is the 'Sacred re-territorialization of Modern Welsh Poetry'.
Since beginning his PhD, he has written a chapter on Ann Griffiths and her influence on modern poets. He also co-runs a seminar series with Cynan Llwyd (PhD Welsh) called 'Cymru, Cristnogaeth a'r Celfyddydau'/'Wales, Christianity and the Arts' which is an interdisciplinary and intellectual space to discuss the importance of Christianity in Welsh literature. He will be giving a paper in the NAASWCH conference in Harvard this coming July relating to the essay he wrote for the prize.
Nathan Munday says: "M. Wynn Thomas’s In the Shadow of the Pulpit has always been an important book for my work. Winning the prize named after him is such a privilege and I hope that he will enjoy my essay! This essay shows how important religious experiences were, and are, in Welsh writing. By presenting these two very different poets side-by-side, I have aimed to reveal the complexity of those experiences by drawing on my interdisciplinary interests in science, theology and language."
The Association of Welsh Writing in English gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support and sponsorship by University of Wales Press and Parthian, publishers of the Library of Wales series of key texts in the field of Welsh writing in English, as well as exciting new Welsh voices.
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