Authors Sophie Buchaillard (‘Assimilation’; ‘This is Not Who We Are’) and Richard Gwyn (‘Ambassador of Nowhere’; ‘The Other Tiger’) bring a wealth of experience and knowledge, journeying through topics of travel, voyages, belonging and identity. Discussing how memoir and fiction can aid in a better understanding of ourselves and our neighbours.

Sophie Buchaillard is a Franco-British novelist, essayist and critic who has lived in South Wales for two decades, after travelling and living extensively abroad. Originally trained as a political scientist, she worked as a campaigner and a strategist, and co-authored ‘Talented Women for a Successful Wales’, a report on improving gender parity in Wales. Her recent PhD in Creative and Critical Writing ‘Between Cultures: Travel Writing, Identity and the Global Novel’ explores the role of the novel in redefining our relationship to travel and identity. Her debut novel ‘This Is Not Who We Are’ (Seren, 2022) was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2023. She contributed essays on migration to ‘Woman’s Wales’ (Parthian, 2024), edited by Emma Schofield, and to ‘An Open Door: New Travel Writing for a Precarious Century’ (Parthian, 2022) edited by Steven Lovatt. She is currently writing a memoir and a poetry collection. ‘Assimilation’ is her second novel.

Richard Gwyn is a Welsh writer and translator. Having started out as a poet, he has published four collections, most recently ‘Stowaway: A Levantine Adventure’ (2018). He is the author of three novels, including ‘The Colour of a Dog Running Away’ (2005) which was translated into many languages and brought him international recognition. He is a translator from Spanish, specialising in poetry and short fiction. For five years, he travelled widely in South America, which resulted in ‘The Other Tiger’ (2016), a major anthology of contemporary Latin American poetry which he selected and translated. His other translations from Spanish include Impossible Loves by Darío Jaramillo and ‘Invisible Dog’ by Fabio Morábito. For ten years he was Professor of Creative and Critical Writing at Cardiff University. He is the author of ‘Ricardo Blanco’s Blog’, which can be found at richardgwyn.me