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Alan Llwyd

Professor of Welsh, Swansea University
Alan Llwyd is one of Wales’ most prominent poets for generations. In 2023, he won the Chair in the Llŷn and Eifionydd Eisteddfod. Previously, he managed to win the 'double', namely the Chair and the Crown in the same year - twice - in 1973 and 1976. He is the first poet since the relaxation of the ‘twice only’ rule to win the Chair for the third time.

Alan lives in Morriston, Swansea and was born in Dolgellau in 1948. He lived in the village of Llan Ffestiniog in Meirionnydd until 1953, and from the age of five he grew up on a farm in Llŷn. He spent the rest of his childhood as well as his adolescence in Llŷn. He was a pupil at Ysgol Botwnnog until 1967, when he went to the Bangor University to study Welsh.

He graduated in 1970, after which he worked in the Awen Meirion bookshop in Bala for two years, before moving to Swansea in 1976 to work as an editor for Gwasg Christopher Davies. Between 1980 and 1982 he worked for the Welsh Joint Education Committee in Cardiff, and from 1982, he worked full-time for Cymdeithas Barddas.

He worked for Barddas for almost thirty years, promoting poetry, and editing the Society's magazine and publications. He published more than 300 books during his periods as publisher and editor for various organisations. Alan Llwyd, together with the late Penri Jones, founded Llanw Llŷn, Pen Llŷn's local paper.

As a poet and writer, he has published more than 80 books, including three complete collections of poems. It won the Nonfiction-Creative Book of the Year category in 2013 and 2020, and the Poetry Book of the Year category in 2019. In 2018, it won the Cwlwm Cyhoeddwyr Cymru Award for a special contribution to the publishing world. He has won over 50 literary awards so far.

In 1993, he won the BAFTA Cymru award for Best Film Script in Welsh, namely the script of the film Hedd Wyn, which was nominated for an Oscar.

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