Menna Elfyn is the best-known, most travelled and most translated of all Welsh-language poets - until now writing exclusively in Welsh. Her work has been translated into English and other languages by leading poets from around the world.

Following many years of campaigning, Menna Elfyn is moving towards her own sense of resolution as the Welsh language is now accepted and respected as an official language in Wales. In this hybrid book - for the first time - she has translated or written many of the original poems in English, now describing herself as 'a proud bilingual'. Other poems in the book are translated by Emma Baines, Gillian Clarke, Robert Minhinnick and R.S. Thomas.

The poems in Parch offer a voice to those whose liberty or dignity have been undermined, seeking religious, linguistic and cultural tolerance for all, and not shying away from the effects of (in)humanity on our environment, histories and lives.

In Welsh, 'parch' (the 'ch' is guttural) simply means respect. Menna Elfyn's collection explores the many ways in which respect can be expressed, as well as how our world can so often feel parched of simple kindnesses.

About the Author

Menna Elfyn is one of the foremost Welsh-language writers. As well as being an award-winning poet, she has published plays, libretti and children's novels, and co-edited The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry (2003) with John Rowlands.

Her books include two bilingual selections, Eucalyptus: Detholiad o Gerddi / Selected Poems 1978-1994 (Gomer Press, 1995), and Perfect Blemish: New & Selected Poems / Perffaith Nam: Dau Ddetholiad & Cherddi Newydd 1995-2007 (Bloodaxe Books, 2007), a Welsh-only selection Merch Perygl: Cerddi 1976-2011 (Gomer Press, 2011), and two later bilingual collections from Bloodaxe, Murmur (2012), a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation, and Bondo (2017). Optimist Absoliwt: Cofiant Eluned Phillips, her biography of the poet Eluned Phillips, was published (in Welsh) in 2016, and Cwsg: am dro yn ol, a book about sleep illustrated by Sarah Williams, in 2019, both from Gomer Press. Her most recent Welsh language collection, Tosturi (Mercy), with illustrations by Meinir Mathias (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas, 2022), was shortlisted for the 2023 Welsh-language Wales Book of the Year Poetry Award. Describing herself as a 'proud bilingual', she has for the first time in a Bloodaxe collection translated or written many of the original poems in English in her book Parch, due out in 2025.

When not travelling the world for readings and residencies, she lives in Carmarthen. She was Wales's National Children's Laureate in 2002, and was made President of Wales PEN Cymru in 2014. She was, until 2016, Creative Director in the School of Cultural Studies at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David; she is also Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing. She won a Cholmondeley Award in 2022, a prize which recognises a poet's body of work.

Reviews

If there is a poet addressing important issues about language today, it's Menna Elfyn in her latest collection of poems, Bondo (Welsh for 'eaves'). There's no tub-thumping in the book though; the poems are a quiet call for the reconciliation of diversity, a reminder that cultural nuances are what make life meaningful.

-- Carla Manfredino * Wales Arts Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9781780377544
Author Menna Elfyn
Format Paperback
Page Count 112
Imprint Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Publisher Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 10mm