In May, poet and academic Nerys Williams undertook a three-week literary residency in Brussels, exploring the parallels between Hedd Wyn and Irish poet Francis Ledwidge, who both died in Ypres on 31 July 1917. During her time in Flanders, Nerys visited the area surrounding Artillery Wood, where both poets are buried.
Read Nerys’ blog posts, written during her residency at Passa Porta, here: Blog One / Blog Two / Blog Three.
Originally from Carmarthenshire, Nerys is an Associate Professor in American Literature at University College Dublin and a Fulbright alumnus. She has written extensively on contemporary poetry and her collection, Sound Archive (Seren, 2011) has won several awards. She is the current holder of the Poetry Ireland Ted McNulty single poem prize and lives in Kells Co. Meath, Ireland, with her husband and daughter.
Passa Porta (www.passaporta.be), the International House of Literature in Brussels, was the main base for this residency. Passa Porta is located in the heart of Brussels, and offers a unique working and meeting place for authors, readers, translators and literary mediators from across the world.
Residency Dates: Monday 8 – Sunday 28 May 2017
In November, a Flemish writer will undertake a literary residency at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre as part of the Poetry of Loss project.
Tŷ Newydd (www.tynewydd.wales) is the national writing centre of Wales. The Centre hosts an annual programme of creative writing courses and retreats for writers of all ages and abilities, both in Welsh and English. Tŷ Newydd, which was the last home of former Prime Minister David Lloyd George, is located in Llanystumdwy, Gwynedd, and is run by Literature Wales, the national company for the development of literature in Wales.
Residency Dates: Monday 6 – Sunday 26 November