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Richard Gwyn

Professor Richard Gwyn

Personal Chair

School of English, Communication and Philosophy

Email
Gwyn@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 74887
Campuses
John Percival Building, Room 1.10, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU

Overview

I am part of the English Literature and Creative Writing sections of the School.

More information about my work as a writer is available from my own website, at richardgwyn.me

 

Some recent publications:

Six poems, translated from the Spanish of Fabio Morábito , Poetry Wales 59: 2, November 2023, pp 35-38

Non-fiction:  ‘Ambassador of Nowhere’, in the Berlin Literary Review, 05 May 2023.
https://theberlinliteraryreview.com/richard-gwyn-ambassador-of-nowhere/

Six poems, translated from the Mexican Spanish of Fabio Morábito, PN Review 270 (March-April 2023) pp. 21-23

‘Mochyn Daear’ Non-fiction/memoir extract, in Modron online magazine March 2023.
https://modronmagazine.com/prose-by-richard-gwyn/

Essay: ‘Returning to Animism in the Anthropocene’. The Big Read, in Wales Arts Review, 11 January 2023.
https://www.walesartsreview.org/returningtoanimismintheanthropocene/

Essay: ‘Nicaragua: Whatever Happened to the Revolution?’ Southwest Review, Spring 2022. 

Review Article: ‘Translating the untranslatable: On Jean Giono’s Les Grands Chemins’. Wales Arts Review, 02.02.2022. 

'Playas de La Boquilla'. Firmament, Vol 1 No 4 (Oct. 2021)

'They Call Me The Ambassador'. Long Read, The Common, October 2021.

'Hide & Seek'. Limited edition short story. Three Impostors Press, 2021.

‘With Lowry in Cuernavaca’. Essay in PN Review 255, Sept-Oct 2020.

‘Contagion Fictions: Love in the Time of Cholera’. Essay in Wales Arts Review, September 2020.

‘Contagion Fictions: Tracing truth in Saramago’s Blindness’.  Essay in Wales Arts Review, September 2020.

Impossible Loves: Poems by Darío Jaramillo. Book of translations & afterword (October 2019). Manchester: Carcanet.

The Blue Tent. A novel (May 2019). Cardigan: Parthian.

Stowaway: A Levantine Adventure Poems (October 2018). Bridgend: Seren.

The Other Tiger: Recent Poetry from Latin America (October 2016). Translations from the Spanish. Bridgend: Seren.

 

 

Publication

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

  • Gwyn, R. 2008. The color of a dog running away. New York: Anchor Books.
  • Gwyn, R. 2008. Sexual water: poetry, Dionysus and the aquatic ape. In: Byron, G. and Sneddon, A. J. eds. The Body and the Book: Writings on Poetry and Sexuality. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 11-24.
  • Gwyn, R. 2008. Hunger for Salt. In: Byron, G. and Sneddon, A. eds. The Body and the Book: Writings on Poetry and Sexuality. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, pp. 25.
  • Gwyn, R. 2008. Love Story. In: Byron, G. and Sneddon, A. eds. The Body and the Book: Writings on Poetry and Sexuality. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 26.

2003

1999

1998

  • Elwyn, G. and Gwyn, R. 1998. Stories we hear and stories we tell... In: Greenhalgh, T. and Hurwitz, B. eds. Narrative based medicine: dialogue and discourse in clinical practice. London: BMJ Books, pp. 165-175.

Articles

Book sections

  • Gwyn, R. 2019. Border Country. In: Wack, A. ed. Poems from The Borders. Bridgend: Seren, pp. 28.
  • Gwyn, R. 2014. Cómo me convertí en traductor. In: Fondebrider, J. ed. Poetas que traducen poesía. LOM, Santiago, Chile, pp. 55-63.
  • Gwyn, R. 2010. Insomnia. In: The Reader. No. 37. Liverpool: University of Liverpool, pp. 13-22.
  • Gwyn, R. 2010. The Handless Maiden. In: Davies, G. ed. Sing, Sorrow, Sorrow : Dark and Chilling Tales. Bridgend: Seren, pp. 59-69.
  • Gwyn, R. 2008. Sexual water: poetry, Dionysus and the aquatic ape. In: Byron, G. and Sneddon, A. J. eds. The Body and the Book: Writings on Poetry and Sexuality. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 11-24.
  • Gwyn, R. 2008. Hunger for Salt. In: Byron, G. and Sneddon, A. eds. The Body and the Book: Writings on Poetry and Sexuality. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, pp. 25.
  • Gwyn, R. 2008. Love Story. In: Byron, G. and Sneddon, A. eds. The Body and the Book: Writings on Poetry and Sexuality. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 26.
  • Elwyn, G. and Gwyn, R. 1998. Stories we hear and stories we tell... In: Greenhalgh, T. and Hurwitz, B. eds. Narrative based medicine: dialogue and discourse in clinical practice. London: BMJ Books, pp. 165-175.

Books

Conferences

Research

Research interests

  • narrative nonfiction/memoir
  • the novel, especially experimental and hybrid forms
  • fiction set in Wales
  • microfiction and the prose poem
  • translation theory and practice 
  • contemporary Hispanic American and Iberian literatures
  • history and cultures of the Mediterranean

Teaching

I teach on the MA in Creative Writing and on a range of Undergraduate modules. 

In recent years I have specialised in teaching modules in (a) narrative nonfiction; (b) general fiction; (c) microfiction and the prose poem. 

I have supervised a wide range of PhD students over the past fifteen years.

Biography

I began my academic career as a linguist, and my first academic publications were in the semiotics of illness and interpersonal sociolinguistics. At the same time I was publishing poetry, and in 2003 I transferred from the 'Language and Communication' section of the School to 'English Literature.' Since then I have published two further poetry collections, two anthologies of poetry, three novels, many articles and stories, and a memoir, The Vagabond's Breakfast, which won a Wales Book of the Year Award in 2012. My most recent novel is The Blue Tent (2019).

I also work as a translator from Spanish, and have published a major anthology of Latin American Poetry, The Other Tiger (2016) which included poems by 97 poets from 16 countries. Edith Grossman wrote that 'this is a book that belongs in every library . . . the translations are beautiful and to the point.' I have also published collections of poetry by the Argentine poets Joaquín O. Giannuzzi and Jorge Fondebrider. My most recent book of translation is a selection of poems by the Colombian Darío Jaramillo, titled Impossible Loves (2019).

Supervisions

I currently supervise or co-supervise six PhD students in Creative and Critical Writing.

I will consider applications from outstanding candidates wishing to carry out research in creative and critical writing, specializing in non-fiction, fiction or hybrid genres. I especially welcome innovative proposals that overlap with my own research interests, specifically:

  • Narrative nonfiction & memoir
  • Short fiction & the mixed genre novel
  • Fiction set in Wales
  • The prose poem
  • Borges & Hispanic American literature
  • Translation studies