The School of Welsh has a full week at the National Eisteddfod in Maldwyn

Staff from Bangor University’s School of Welsh are among the adjudicators for three of the main literary prizes at this year’s National Eisteddfod, Montgomeryshire and the Marches, being held 1-8 August, in the village of Meifod. Professor Jerry Hunter will be adjudicating the Prose Medal, Professor Angharad Price adjudicating the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize and Professor Gerwyn Wiliams will be adjudicating the Crown.

Staff and students will also be busy throughout the Eisteddfod week.

‘Diolch, John!’ a meeting to celebrate the life and work of Professor John Rowlands, will be held in the Literature tent (Y Babell Lên) at 2.15 Sunday 2 August. Prof John Rowlands, who died earlier this year was a renowned literature critic and novelist. John was among the most well-known of Bangor University’s alumni, and after retirement from his post at Aberystwyth University’s Department of Welsh, he returned to his old department as an Honorary Professor and part-time lecturer.  The programme for the event has been arranged by Professor Angharad Price and Gerwyn Wiliams. Friends and colleagues  including Simon Brooks, Kate Crockett, Fflur Dafydd, Bleddyn Owen Huws, Twm Morys and Siân Teifi will be taking part.  This will be followed by a reception at Bangor University’s stand on the Eisteddfod field.

Professor Peredur Lynch will host an event to mark the posthumous publication of the last volume of work by the late Gerallt Lloyd Owen, Y Gân Olaf, on Monday, 3 August at 2.15.  The event will include readings and performances of his poetry by Gwenan Gibbard and John Ogwen, two former students of Bangor University, in a meeting arranged by Barddas.

Gerwyn Wiliams will be in the Pavilion for the crowning ceremony, in his role as an adjudicator for that competition, later on Monday afternoon. He will be discussing this year’s competition in a Llenyddiaeth Cymru (Literture Wales) sponsored meeting in the Lolfa Lên (Literature Lounge) on Tuesday at 5.45.

Monday evening at 8.00 sees the inaugural performance of Nansi, Angharad Price’s play about the life of Nansi Richards, ‘Telynores Maldwyn’ or the Harpist of Maldwyn, commissioned by Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, at Y Stiwt, Llanfair Caereinion. The play runs until Friday, 7 August.

Angharad Price will be discussing the production with Arwel Gruffydd, Artistic Director of the Theatr Genedlaethol, and a former student of the School of Welsh, and Director, Sarah Bickerton. The session, chaired by Dr Manon Wyn Williams, a Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol Lecturer in Drama and Scripting at the School of Welsh, takes place at 12.30 on Tuesday 4 Awst, in the Cwt Drama.

Angharad Price takes her place in the Pavilion at 5.00 on Tuesday for the adjudication of the Daniel Owen Prize, awarded to a previously unpublished novel of over 50,000 words, which has a strong storyline.

On Wednesday morning at 11:00am at the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol stand, there will be an opportunity to learn acting skills in a practical workshop with Manon Wyn Williams, former winner of the Bryn Terfel Scholarship.

Student members of Bangor University’s Cymdeithas y Ddrama Gymraeg (Welsh Drama Society) perform Panto by Gwenlyn Parry in the theatre, Theatr y Maes on Wednesday afternoon. Later that afternoon, Prof Jerry Hunter will adjudicate the medal Ryddiaith (Prose Medal), which will be awarded for a volume of creative prose, no longer than 40,000  on the subject: ‘Dwy/Dau’ (Two).

Gerwyn Wiliams joins a panel organised by poetry magazine Barddas, to discuss the condition of contemporary Welsh poetry. This takes place at 1.00 in the Lolfa Lên on Wednesday afternoon.

Prof Peredur Lynch presents the Hywel Teifi Edward Memorial Lecture in the Babell Lên at 11.00 on Thursday 6 August. His subject ‘Awdlau Eisteddfodol 1858-2014: Pa un oedd yr orau? Pa un oedd y waelaf?’ will discuss the varying standards of poetry over the period of the modern Eisteddfod.

Gerwyn Wiliams joins novelist Robin Llywelyn and singer Gwyneth Glyn at the Lolfa Lên at 2.35 on Friday to launch the latest edition of Taliesin, journal of Yr Academi Gymreig.

Closing a busy week, on Saturday at 11.15 in the Babell Lên Angharad Price discusses  her novel O! Tyn y Gorchudd, which was awarded the Prose Medal in the 2002 Eisteddfod in St David’s.

Publication date: 21 July 2015