In a session on 'African American influences on Contemporary Celtic Poets' the Welsh poet Menna Elfyn, and the Scottish poet and novelist Jackie Kay will read from and discuss their writings.
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Menna Elfyn is a poet and playwright who writes with passion of the Welsh language and identity. She describes herself as a Christian anarchist and has published many volumes of Welsh-language poetry, including Aderyn Bach Mewn Llaw (1990), winner of a Welsh Arts Council Prize; the bilingual Eucalyptus: Detholiad o Gerddi / Selected Poems 1978-1994 from Gomer, and Cell Angel (1996) from Bloodaxe. Having written recently of travelling though 'Harlem Gyda'r Nos' ['Harlem By Night'] she will speak of eh African American influence on her politics and poetry. |
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Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh, to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was adopted at birth and was brought up in Glasgow, studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Stirling University where she read English. The experience of being adopted by and growing up within a white family inspired her first collection of poetry, The Adoption Papers (1991) that won her a Scottish Arts Council Book Award, the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award and a commendation by the Forward Poetry Prize judges in 1992. Other collections of poems include Other Lovers (1993) and Off Colour (1998) and her poems have appeared in many anthologies. Her first novel, Trumpet, published in 1998, was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Inspired by the life of musician Billy Tipton, the novel tells the story of Scottish jazz trumpeter Joss Moody whose death revealed that he was, in fact, a woman. Her recent book, Why Don't You Stop Talking (2002), is a collection of short stories, and she has also published a novel for children, Strawgirl (2002). Her latest collection of poetry is Life Mask (2005). |