Bryn Griffiths (writer)

Bryn Griffiths

Bryn Griffiths
Born Swansea, Wales, UK
Occupation Poet, Writer

Brynllyn David Griffiths is an award-winning[1] poet and writer, who has worked in Britain and Australia.[2] His poems are often concerned with the ocean and the history of Wales.[3]

Biography

Bryn Griffiths was born in Swansea, South Wales, but he lived much of his early life in the coastal countryside of West Wales before returning to St Thomas, near the Swansea waterfront. His poems are often concerned with the ocean and the history and landscapes of Wales, particularly the lower Swansea Valley, devastated by the Industrial Revolution, as exemplified in his first collection of verse, The Mask of Pity.

He went to sea at 17, "shipping out" as a merchant seaman for ten years from the Port of Swansea.

Afterwards he studied at Coleg Harlech in North Wales, before making a career in London as journalist, broadcaster and television scriptwriter.

During his years in London during the 1960s he founded the Welsh Writers' Guild, with Dedwydd Jones, John Tripp, Robert Morgan, Sally Roberts and many other Welsh poets and writers. The Guild was a cornerstone of the Anglo-Welsh literary renaissance, which led to the foundation of the re-created Welsh academi.

Throughout the 1970s Bryn gave poetry readings and lectures in the United Kingdom, North America and Australia, before founding the first Arts and Working Life project for workers in Western Australia. In 1985 he was appointed writer-in-residence to the Australian Merchant Navy and later went back to sea and served for many years as a working mariner before returning to Britain and to South Wales. He remains today a life member of the Maritime Union of Australia and writes poetry, memoirs and maritime history.

Donations

Bryn donated a store of his letters and other papers to Swansea University for researchers studying modern Wales, especially its English-language literature. The papers include correspondence with eminent figures in the cultural and political life of post-war Wales. The collection shines a light on Wales in the 1960s and 1970s, an important period in literature and politics, with the renaissance of Anglo-Welsh literature and the emergence of Welsh nationalism as a political force.[4]

Awards

Bryn received the Community Cultural Development Board's 2004 Ros Bower Memorial Award[1] for his career commitment to the principle of giving all Australians the right to access the arts.

Publications

A partial listing of Griffiths' publications:[5]

Poetry collections

Poetry in anthologies

Plays

Radio Broadcasts

Television broadcasts

Recordings

Journalism for publications and broadcasters

References

  1. 1 2 "Writer and trade unionist wins key arts prize". Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  2. "The Australian Literature Resource". Retrieved 9 September 2009.
  3. "Bryn Griffiths". Retrieved 14 August 2012.
  4. "Swansea writer, poet and mariner donates papers to Swansea University". www.swansea.ac.uk. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
  5. "Bryn Griffiths Publications". Retrieved 14 August 2012.
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