Mererid Hopwood (Wales)

Mererid is Professor of Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University and Chair of the Dinas Llên UNESCO City of Literature Partnership in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, West Wales.

Writing awards include the Wales Book of the Year prize for poetry; the Tir na nOg prize for children’s books; the National Eisteddfod Crown and Chair for poetry and Prose Medal for her novel, O Ran. She is a recipient of the Glyndŵr and the Hay Festival Medal for Poetry. 

Mererid writes in Welsh across genres and has collaborated with musicians, dancers, visual artists and translators, taking part in literature festivals in Asia, South America and Europe. A recent residency in Tŷ Newydd, the national writing centre in north Wales, led to a joyful opportunity to read with Maarja Pärtna in the Hay Festival. She practices the craft of ‘cynghanedd’, a form of poetry unique to Wales, and was the first woman in a centuries’ old tradition to win the Bardic Chair for poetry written in this form. This year sees two of her plays performed across Wales. 

She is the current Archdruid of Wales and founding Secretary of Academi Heddwch Cymru (Wales’s National Peace Institute).