Our Artist of the Day today is Menna Elfyn. She will be working on a collaborative piece with Elizabeth Ashworth,Jobina Tinnemans, Craig Morrison and Joel Cockrill. The piece, Intense Colour Movement, is an explosion and exploration of colour and will be projected onto Plas Mawr, one of the finest examples of a Tudor building in the UK.
Menna is one of the most celebrated and admired Welsh poets.
Menna Elfyn was born in the Swansea valley but raised in Carmarthen. She has a BA in Welsh literature and a PhD from University of Wales, Trinity Saint David where she is Director of Creative Writing. She has published twelve collections of poetry, children’s novels, libretti for UK and US composers as well as plays for television and radio. Her most recent collection in Welsh is Merch Perygl from Gomer Press in 2011 and her bilingual volume Murmur was published by Bloodaxe Books, in autumn 2012. This volume was selected by Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation, the first ever book of Welsh poetry in English translation to be chosen. Her work has been translated into eighteen languages for which she received an International Foreign Poetry Prize in 2009. A columnist with the ‘Western Mail’ since 1994 she has collaborated widely with many artists.
Ganed Menna Elfyn yng Nghwm Tawe ond treuliodd y rhan helaethaf o’i bywyd yn Nyfed. Cafodd radd yn y Gymraeg ac yna Ddoethuriaeth o Brifysgol Cymru, Y Drindod Dewi Sant lle y mae’n Gyfarwyddwr Ysgrifennu Creadigol. Cyhoeddodd ddwsin o lyfrau o farddoniaeth, hefyd nofelau i blant, libreti at gyfer cyfansoddwyr yng Nghymru ac yn yr Unol Daleithiau yn ogystal ag ysgrifennu dramâu ar gyfer radio a theledu. Ei chyfrolau diweddaraf yw Merch Perygl ( Gomer, 2011) a Murmur ( Bloodaxe Books, 2012) a chafodd y gyfrol ddwyieithog ei dewis gan Gymdeithas Lyfrau ar Farddoniaeth gan ennill cymeradwyaeth a chlod ar gyfer 2012. Mae ei gwaith wedi ei gyfieithu i ddeunaw o ieithoedd a derbyniodd Wobr Ryngwladol yn 2009 am y gwaith hwnnw. Mae’n golofnydd gyda’r ‘Western Mail’ er 1994 ac wedi cyd-weithio gyda nifer o artistiaid yng Nghymru a thu hwnt.
