LLIF: The Writers

Meleri Davies is a poet and community developer from the Ogwen Valley. Her first poetry volume, Rhuo ei distawrwydd hi (Roaring Her Silence), was published by Cyhoeddiadau’r Stamp in November 2024. Her poetry has been published in publications including Poetry Wales and Ffosfforws, and she won the Chair at the Dyffryn Ogwen Eisteddfod and the flash fiction competition at the National Eisteddfod.

For a decade, Meleri served as Chief Executive of Partneriaeth Ogwen, a social enterprise in Dyffryn Ogwen. She remains actively involved in community energy ventures as a volunteer director with Ynni Ogwen and Ynni Cymunedol Cymru. In 2019, she received national recognition for environmental regeneration, winning the Cynnal Cymru Sustainability Champion and Green Energy Pioneer Regen Awards.

Her creative work draws inspiration from her upbringing, her family, and the community where she lives and where she is raising her family.

Hywel Griffiths is a poet, geographer, and author working as a Reader in Physical Geography at Aberystwyth University. He has published four poetry volumes, with his latest – Y Traeth O Dan y Stryd (The Beach Under the Street) – shortlisted for the Poetry Category at Wales Book of the Year in 2024. Hywel is the winner of several significant literary awards, including the National Eisteddfod Crown in 2008 and Chair in 2015.

Landscape and relationships between people and place are central themes in his work. Hywel is particularly interested in collaborative approaches, engaging with scientists, writers, and artists to explore contemporary environmental challenges.

Elinor Gwynn is an environmentalist and writer whose career seamlessly blends nature conservation, landscape heritage management, and creative pursuits. Her writing has appeared in diverse publications including Earth Heritage, Natur Cymru, Planet, Y Naturiaethwr, Golwg, Barn, O'r Pedwar Gwynt, and the Welsh Place Names Bulletin.

Elinor has been recognized at the National Eisteddfod, winning awards for scientific and environmental articles, and poetry, including the Crown in 2016. She was also a recipient of a commission award for a Welsh book about walking and she played a significant role in the British Council-funded Living Language Land project in the lead up to COP26, exploring the relationship between minority languages and environmental understanding.

Mererid Hopwood is Professor of Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University, dedicated to teaching languages and literature across all age groups. She is the current Archdderwydd and Secretary of Academi Heddwch Cymru (the national Peace Institute of Wales).

She has won the National Eisteddfod Chair, Crown and Prose Medal, the 2015 Book of the Year Poetry Award, the Glyndŵr Medal for her contribution to literature and the Hay Festival Poetry Medal.

Her work spans poetry, children's literature, translation, and the collaborative arts, engaging with musicians, visual artists, dramatists, actors, and dancers.

Passionate about linguistic diversity, Mererid advocates for preserving and developing the world’s linguistic diversity and for understanding the profound connection between language and the natural environment.

clare e. potter is a poet, radio presenter, and arts practitioner who studied and taught in New Orleans. Driven by the belief that poetry can be a force for personal and social change, she facilitates creative projects with community groups. Her accolades include two Literature Wales Writers’ Bursaries, Arts Council of Wales funding for various projects, and the 2024 RSL Jerwood Poetry Award for Wales.

clare potter's diverse achievements include translating the poetry of Ifor ap Glyn during his tenure as National Poet of Wales (2016-22), being a Hay Festival Writer at Work, and directing a BBC documentary that inspired community action. Her awards also include funding for a poetry/jazz collaboration responding to Hurricane Katrina's trauma.

Her recent poetry collection Healing the Pack will be followed by her Welsh language pamphlet Nôl Iaith in 2025, continuing her commitment to innovative and socially engaged literary work.

Gianna Olinda Cadonau is a multilingual writer creating poetry and prose in the Romansh language and German. Her poetry collections Ultim'ura da la not/Letzte Stunde der Nacht (2016) and Pajais in uondas/wiegendes Land (2020) reflect her nuanced explorations of landscape, societal change, and personal experience. Her debut novel Feuerlilie (2023) further delves into themes of belonging, isolation, and transformation.

As the head of the Lia Rumantscha's cultural department, Gianna actively promotes Romansh cultural heritage. Adopted from India and living in the Engadine region, she brings a unique perspective to Romansh literature, addressing themes of home, migration, and cultural identity. She is currently developing a new novel and co-authoring a theatre play, continuing her mission to bring Romansh culture to wider audiences.

Gianna Olinda Cadonau’s visit to Wales is sponsored by the Embassy of Switzerland in the United Kingdom

Pol Guasch is a rising literary star whose writing in Catalan has been translated into ten languages. His latest novel, Ofert a les mans, el paradís crema (2024), explores climate catastrophe through a narrative of fire and survival, while his previous work Napalm al cor has been internationally recognized as a profound allegory of linguistic and cultural oppression. As the youngest recipient of the Anagrama Prize for Books in Catalan, Pol critically engages with contemporary issues of climate collapse, violence, and cultural oppression through speculative and allegorical storytelling.

Having already been adapted for theatre, Pol Guasch's work is currently being developed for film. His literary achievements have gained international recognition, with participation in prestigious residencies like the Santa Maddalena Foundation and Art Omi Ledig House. He aims to bridge generational divides, creating literature that speaks to younger audiences while challenging global perspectives on contemporary crises and establishing himself as a leading voice in contemporary Catalan and Spanish literature.

Pol Guasch’s visit to Wales is sponsored by the Instituto Cervantes.

Kristin Höller is a writer with a diverse literary portfolio, including two novels published by Suhrkamp: her debut Schöner als überall (More beautiful than anywhere) in 2019 and Leute von früher (People from the past) in 2024. She also writes radio plays for public broadcasters and has a notable theatre play, Ein Wahnsinn was Menschen einander (Its crazy what people do to each other), which premiered at the Schauspielhaus Leipzig in 2021. Her current work-in-progress explores themes of financial inequality in friendships, shared memories, and the relationship between garden design and the human desire to domesticate nature.

Since autumn 2024, Kristin Höller has been a lecturer at the Institute of Literature in Leipzig, where she leads a workshop in Scenic Writing. Her current radio play project Wölfe (Wolves) tells the story of a remote village's ambivalent struggle with the outdoors, continuing her exploration of complex human-environment interactions.

Kristin Höller’s visit to Wales is sponsored by the Goethe-Institut London.

Maarja Pärtna is an accomplished Estonian poet, essayist, and translator. Her recent poetry trilogy – comprising Vivarium (2019), The Living City (2022), and On the Edge of Uprising (2024) – critically examines personal environmental experiences and the broader climate crisis. Emerging from northeastern Estonia, a region dramatically transformed by industrial processes, Maarja's work explores themes of collective trauma, urban nature, and ecological devastation under capitalist systems.

Recognized with prestigious awards including the Gustav Suits Poetry Prize and the Juhan Liiv Poetry Prize, Maarja Pärtna is a member of the Estonian Writers' Union and serves as Tartu's City Writer for 2024. She holds a master's degree in world literature from the University of Tartu and extends her linguistic contributions through translation work, including essays by notable authors like Margaret Atwood and Robert Macfarlane.

Maarja Pärtna’s visit to Wales is sponsored by the Estonian Embassy in London.

Tina Perić is a prominent voice in contemporary Slovenian literature whose work spans various aspects of arts and culture. In 2024, she published her debut book "Ćrtice", which was awarded the prize for Best Debut of the Year. Her collection of stories offers subtle insights into everyday life, interwoven with reflections on societal and personal issues. Known for her evocative style, she explores themes of identity, language, and the complexities of modern existence, delving into the intersections of individual memory and broader cultural narratives.

Holding a dual degree in South Slavic languages and Sociology of Culture, Tina Perić is a translator and a founding member of the Soglasnik Language Cooperative. She has written lyrics and sung in the electro-punk band Ludovik Material, with whom she has released two full-length albums and toured Europe. Looking ahead, she aims to continue exploring new literary forms and engage with global audiences, contributing to the ongoing conversation about literature's role in shaping cultural and social dialogue.

Tina Perić’s visit to Wales is sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in London.

Ligija Purinaša is a poet and journalist writing in Latgalian and Latvian. She has published two critically acclaimed poetry collections: Sīvīte (Woman, 2019), which was shortlisted in the Best Debut category at the Annual Latvian Literature Awards in 2020, and Pierobežas (Borderlands, 2022), longlisted for the Best Poetry Collection. Her poems have been translated into English, German and Czech, and her upcoming third book, a collection of prose in verse titled Magnificat, is set for publication in 2025.

Ligija Purinaša is currently working on her first novel exploring women's relationships with the environment. Her interests extend to social history and women's rights, with a philosophical approach that views art as a means of inner freedom. Her literary work demonstrates a commitment to exploring complex social themes through diverse literary forms.

Ligija Purinaša’s visit to Wales is sponsored by Platform Latvian Literature.

Mónika Rusvai is a writer and researcher who has authored two novels and several short stories. Her second novel, "Kígyók országa" [Country of Snakes], won the Zsoldos Péter Award in 2024. In her fiction, she strives to undermine the nature-culture divide, to show the interconnectivity of all beings – human and nonhuman, animate and inanimate – through innovative storytelling that blends literary mythmaking with Central European history and Hungarian and Slavic folklore.

Mónika Rusvai works as a research associate at the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She holds a PhD in environmental humanities, with her research focusing on critical plant studies and plant-human relations. Her academic work, particularly her dissertation investigating magical woods in fantasy literature, complements her creative writing's exploration of ecological and interdisciplinary themes.

Mónika Rusvai was nominated for this Residency by the Liszt Institute London.

Kim Simonsen is the author of seven books, widely published and translated, particularly in the United States. His 2024 poetry collection, "The Biological Composition in a Drop of Seawater Resembles the Blood in My Veins," was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. This work explores the sea as a unifying element, gathering diverse living beings to examine water, origin, and death through a lens of ecocritical and ecofeminist thought, particularly focusing on the relationship between a son and his recently deceased father.

Kim Simonsen holds a doctorate and occasionally teaches, including creative writing courses. He owns the writer-run publishing house Eksil and directs the Faroese Literature Festival. His literary achievements include winning the Faroese Literature Prize in 2014, and his works have been translated into English, Danish, Italian, Macedonian, and Hungarian.

Kim Simonsen’s visit to Wales is sponsored by FarLit.

Syds Wiersma is a poet, translator, and film archivist who primarily writes in Frisian, the second national language of the Netherlands which is spoken by the majority of the population of Friesland. He has published six poetry collections, with important themes including spirituality, language, and ecology. His work often focuses on environmental concerns, particularly poems about the threatened peat meadow areas in his native region, which have experienced dramatic biodiversity loss.

Syds's work has a distinctly European character, inspired by travels through Poland, France, Ireland, and Slovenia. His latest collection - Fiere Wake / A Far Wake - is a record of three long journeys through Ireland. In 2018, he co-founded the Frisian Poetry Collective RIXT, which now includes over fifty poets and regularly organizes poetry events. He is currently engaged in a translation project, collaborating with a Catalan poet to translate modern Catalan poetry into Frisian, with an anthology planned for publication around 2027.

Syds Wiersma’s visit to Wales is sponsored by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the UK.