Professor Emerita of Poetry, and former Poet Laureate for Children in Wales, Menna Elfyn has been honoured with one of the main prizes by The Society of Authors at a special ceremony in Southwark Cathedral London on the 1 June, 2022. The prestigious Cholmondeley Award...

Last night (7th April, 2022) Menna Elfyn, Emerita Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David launched her new volume of poetry entitled 'Tosturi’ [Compassion]. During the launch held at Canolfan S4C Yr Egin, there were readings from...

Published in Welsh in the Welsh national paper - Western Mail. Roeddwn am ysgrifennu colofn yr wythnos hon am y  ddeddf  a basiwyd  gan Senedd Cymru i wahardd taro plant. Mae hon yn ddeddf hynod bwysig , un a ddylai ddiogelu hawl y plentyn i gael ei drin heb drais....

No one owns a language. Language is our own or our way of treating it. That is why the Welsh language belongs to everyone in Wales from those who read and know place names to calling friends with their Welsh names. I remember a student telling me that she once shared...

It's uncertain days for Ukraine for Russia and for the world. If there was a war game, this was it. When writing the column on February 1st, no one is really sure, except maybe one man of the way the wind will blow. If wisdom has been called for, now is the time to...

Happy New Year. And it's always an honour to be able to write this column. Now is the time to announce the royal honours for this dame or other or knight after knight. The most perplexing step was to make Tony Blair, for his deadly ventures in Iraq a Knight Companion...

There is a campaign to stop buying new clothes for a year. No, I won't promise yet not to buy anything for a whole year but I do have admiration for those who have started the campaign for the sake of the environment. I've been slowly trying to get rid of clothes in...

What a good word ‘strength' is? We can put so many words to boost it and now we have a new word in Welsh cyfnerthydd for ‘booster’ which is a jab to join the other two. One must praise those whose job it is to do this kind of work. It can’t be easy to retell time and...

A century ago, there was an attempt to classify the rivers according to the fish that were there. We did plenty of studying when we were children and the fish to be seen – seemed so transparent. Catching them of course was another matter but my brother managed to...

I remember thinking as a child that the word ‘oes’ in Welsh was a question - (is there?) but that was before I learnt ‘yn oes oesoedd’ at the end of the Lord’s Prayer which meant ‘forever and ever’. So it became a very ordinary and extraordinary word to me, to do with...

As President of Wales PEN Cymru, and on behalf of PEN members, we celebrate PEN International’s centenary as an organisation that has defended the rights of writers worldwide since its foundation in 1921. The main objective of PEN is to defend the freedom of...

Coming and going. Sea stories always give me sea sickness. Although there is nothing more enjoyable than swimming in Pembrokeshire. By the time you read this I may have had a swim for the first time this year. But in Mexico years ago I nearly drowned out of my depth...

Colofn Gymraeg bob pythefnos yn y Western Mail, cyhoeddwyd gyntaf ar 24 Mehefin O am ryddhad pan ddaeth y chwiban ar ddiwedd y gêm rhwng Cymru a’r Eidal. A thrwy gydol y gêm dal anadl, ambell ebwch a gwg. Sawl un ohonon ni geisiodd rhedeg gyda nhw ar y cae, yn ein...