Arts Council of Wales
Address: Central Office
Arts Council of Wales, Bute Place, Cardiff, CF10 5AL
Tel: 0845 8734 900
Fax: 029 2044 1400
SMS: 07797 800504 (SMS charged at caller’s standard network rate only)
Email: information@arts.wales
Website: www.arts.wales
Description of Organization:
Arts Council of Wales (ACW) is responsible for funding and developing the arts in Wales. ACW is responsible to the Welsh Assembly Government for the way this money is spent. ACW is also the distributor of Lottery money for the arts in Wales. ACW is Literature Wales’ main sponsor.
Date Established: 1994
ALCS - Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society
Address: 1st Floor, Barnard’s Inn, 86 Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1EN
Tel: 020 7264 5700
Email: alcs@alcs.co.uk
Website: www.alcs.co.uk
Description of Organization:
The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society is a not-for-profit membership organisation, run by writers, for writers.
ALCS’ purpose is two-fold:
- ALCS collects secondary royalties on behalf of over 87,000 writers across the UK and abroad and pay them directly to its Members, twice a year.
- ALCS campaigns and lobbies on issues of importance to writers both at a national and international level, to ensure that writers’ rights are both recognised and rewarded.
Date Established: 1977
Books Council of Wales
Address: Castell Brychan, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 2JB
Tel: 01970 624 151
Fax: 01970 625 385
Email: castellbrychan@wbc.org.uk
Website: The Books Council of Wales administers three websites:
Corporate website: www.cllc.org.uk includes details about BCW’s services and campaigns.
Welsh Book Trade Info: www.wbti.org.uk This website is being developed by BCW as a comprehensive source of information on the book industry in Wales.
Gwales: http://www.gwales.com This website allows you to search for books from Wales and order securely online.
Description of Organization: The Books Council of Wales is a national body, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, which provides a focus for the publishing industry in Wales. It provides a number of specialist services in the fields of editing, design, marketing and distribution. It also distributes grants to publishers. BCW actively promotes reading and literacy in Wales.
Date Established: 1961
Disability Arts Cymru
Address: Sbectrwm, Bwlch Road, Fairwater, Cardiff, CF5 3EF
Telephone & textphone: 029 2055 1040
Email: post@dacymru.com
Website: www.disabilityartscymru.co.uk
Description of Organization:
Promotes, supports and advocates for Disabled and D/deaf artists in Wales.
Date Established: 1982
National Library of Wales
Address: Enquiries Service, The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3BU
Tel: 01970 632 933
Fax: 01970 632 551
Email: enquiry@llgc.org.uk
Website: www.llgc.org.uk
Description of Organization:
The National Library of Wales has the right to collect, free of charge, a copy of every printed work published in Britain and Ireland. In addition, there are books and pamphlets, magazines and newspapers, microforms, ephemera, and a wealth of electronic material about Wales and the other Celtic countries. There are also thousands of manuscripts and archives, pictures and photographs, maps, sound recordings and moving images.
Date established: 1907
National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE)
Address: PO Box 1, Sheriff Hutton, York YO60 7YU
Email for general enquiries: s.kennedy@nawe.co.uk
Website: www.nawe.co.uk
Description of Organization:
NAWE’s mission is to further knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of Creative Writing and to support good practice in its teaching and learning at all levels.
NAWE promotes Creative Writing as both a distinct discipline and an essential element in education generally. Membership includes those working in Higher Education, many freelance writers working in schools and community contexts, and teachers and other professionals who work with them. NAWE offers various categories of membership to cater for different needs.
NAWE incorporates The Writer’s Compass (formerly literaturetraining) – providing information and advice on professional development for writers and other literature professionals.
Date Established: not noted.
Public Lending Right (PLR)
Address: Public Lending Right, First Floor, Richard House, Sorbonne Close,
Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 6DA
Tel: 01642 604699
Website: www.plr.uk.com
Description of organization:
PLR was established by the Public Lending Right Act 1979 which gave British authors a legal right to receive payment for the free lending of their books by public libraries. Under the Act funding is provided by Central Government and payments are made to eligible authors in accordance with how often their books are lent out from a selected sample of UK public libraries. To qualify for payment authors must apply to the PLR office which maintains a register of eligible authors and books. The Act established PLR as an intellectual property right, entirely separate from copyright.
UK PLR is now the responsibility of the British Library. However, the existing team in Stockton-on-Tees joined the British Library and continues to administer PLR.
Date Established: 1979
Sherman Cymru
Address: Sherman Cymru, Senghennydd Road, Cardiff CF24 4YE
Tel: 029 2064 6900
Website: www.shermancymru.co.uk
Description of Organization:
Theatre and scriptwriting company.
Sherman Cymru makes and curates exciting theatre for Cardiff audiences. Sherman Cymru develops and nurtures the work of Welsh and Wales based artists. Sherman Cymru generates opportunities for the citizens of Cardiff and beyond to connect with theatre through relevant, inspiring and visionary engagement.
Date Established: April 2007 (Sgript Cymru and the Sherman Theatre merged to form Sherman Cymru).
The Association for Welsh Writing in English
Address:
Dr Kirsti Bohata, Department of English Language and Literature, Keir Hardie Building, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, Wales, UK
Email: chair@awwe.org or committee@awwe.org
Website: www.awwe.org
Contact: Dr Kirsti Bohata (Chair) or Dr Matthew Jarvis (Chair): chair@awwe.org.
Description of Organization:
The Association originated as a completely private initiative in December, 1984, when individuals from five of the colleges of the then University of Wales (Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Lampeter and Swansea) met at Swansea to discuss the establishing of an organisation to promote the study of Welsh writing in English.
The Association which resulted from those discussions now exists to promote the study and scholarship of Welsh writing in English, to foster the life of the critical community that has been established around such scholarly activity, and to provide a forum through which the field of study itself can be both promoted and enhanced.
Membership of the Association is open to anyone, both from within and beyond academia.
The annual conference of the Association is a key focus of AWWE’s work. This is held around Easter each year, taking place in mid-Wales at Gregynog Hall, near Newtown, in the historic county of Montgomeryshire. AWWE’s first conference was held in 1986.
The Association is also responsible for producing an annual scholarly journal, the International Journal of Welsh Writing in English, currently published by the University of Wales Press. From 1995 to 2007, the journal was called Welsh Writing in English: A Yearbook of Critical Essays (volumes 1-11), which became Almanac – A Yearbook of Welsh Writing in English: Critical Essays from 2008 to 2012 (volumes 12-16) when it was published by Parthian Books. The journal took on its current title (and restarted its numbering) in 2013 when publication was taken over by the University of Wales Press.
Date Established: 1984
The Rhys Davies Trust
Contact: Peter Finch, The Rhys Davies Trust, 3 Bronwydd Avenue, Penylan, Cardiff CF23 5JP
Website: www.rhysdaviestrust.org
Description of Organisation:
The Rhys Davies Trust, founded in 1990 by Meic Stephens, commemorates the writer Rhys Davies (1901 – 78) and has as its principal aim the fostering of Welsh writing in English. It was founded with money provided by the writer’s late brother, Mr Lewis Davies. A registered charity, the Trust offers financial assistance to literary projects, including the Short Story Competition organised by Literature Wales and sponsors the erection of plaques commemorating eminent English-language writers. The current Trustees are: Professor Dai Smith (Chairman), Dr Sam Adams, Dr Meic Stephens (Secretary) and Mr Peter Finch. All enquiries should be addressed to the Trust’s Secretary, Dr Meic Stephens.
Date Established: 1990
The Society of Authors
Address: 24 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4EH
Tel: 020 7373 6642
Fax: 020 7373 5768
Email: info@societyofauthors.org
Website: www.societyofauthors.org
Description of Organization:
The Society of Authors protects the rights and furthers the interest of all types of writers. It is a membership organisation, and has been serving the interests of professional writers for more than a century. Today it has more than 9,500 Members and Associates representing authors from all sectors and genres.
Advocacy
The SoA campaigns and lobbies central government on the issues that impact on authors and negotiate with publishers and broadcasters. The SoA has subsidiary groups representing the concerns of translators, children’s writers and illustrators, educational writers, and broadcast writers.
Advice
The SoA offers detailed advice and contract vetting to its members and produce guides and resources for all aspects of the profession.
Events
The SoA organises events, including a wide range of conferences, seminars, talks and one-to-one workshops.
Awards, Prizes and Grants
The SoA administers a wide range of grants and prizes.
Date established: 1884
Wales Arts International
Address: Bute Place, Cardiff, CF10 5AL Wales, UK
Tel: 029 2044 1320
Email: info@wai.org.uk
Website: www.wai.org.uk
Contact: Nicola Morgan, Head of Wales Arts International.
Description of Organization:
WAI facilitates international work in the arts through collaborations, projects, networks and communication.
Date Established: 1997
Wales Literature Exchange
Address: Mercator Institute for Media, Languages and Culture, Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3AJ, Cymru/ Wales (UK)
Tel: 01970 622 544
Fax: 01970 621 524
Email: post@waleslitexchange.org
Website: www.waleslitexchange.org
Contact: Nia Davies
Description of Organization:
Wales Literature Exchange is the translation junction connecting writers, translators and publishers in Wales and abroad.
Based in Aberystwyth, the Wales Literature Exchange (WLE) is committed to literary translation as a necessary element in a delicate ecology. Respect for human relations and their context in the world are vital to international exchange, and travelling consciously, always asking why and how.
The WLE is small, but many things: an agency facilitating the sale of translation rights, a translation grant fund for publishers, a workshop bringing together writers and translators, a library of translations, and a curator of translation events. In essence, WLE is a window between Wales and the world.
Date Established: 1998 (established under the name Welsh Literature Abroad)
Wales PEN Cymru
Address:
Wales PEN Cymru, c/o Cae Llo Brith, Llanystumdwy, Cricieth, Gwynedd, LL52 0LW
Email: walespencymru@gmail.com
Website: walespencymru.org
President: Menna Elfyn
Director: Sally Baker
Description of organisation:
Wales PEN Cymru offers Welsh writers the opportunity to join an international organisation and belong to a world community fighting for free expression. Members will receive invitations to events and debates with international writers and activists and be encouraged to take part in PEN campaigns in Wales and further afield.
Membership is open to writers, journalists, translators, editors and students of creative writing who subscribe to the aims of the PEN charter.
Date Established: 2014
Wales PEN Cymru was officially recognised as a PEN Centre at the 99th PEN International Congress in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in October 2014.
WGGB - The Writers' Guild of Great Britain
Address: 1st Floor, 134 Tooley Street, London SE1 2TU
Tel: 020 7833 0777
Email: admin@writersguild.org.uk
Website: writersguild.org.uk
Description: WGGB (Writers’ Guild of Great Britain) is a trade union representing professional writers in TV, film, theatre, radio, books, poetry, animation and videogames. Membership is open to writers of all levels of experience, including emerging and aspiring writers.
Date established: 1959
Writers and Artists
Address: 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP
Tel: +44(0)20 7631 5985
Email: writersandartists@bloomsbury.com
Website: https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/
Description: Writers and Artists aim to ensure that aspiring writers are as informed as possible about the publishing process and the different options available to them. As well as the annual Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook and the Children’s Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook they publish a range of other guides to specific areas of writing and publishing, their website hosts additional information and a community hub, and offer events, courses and editorial services.