Culture, Welsh Language and Sport Committee

Policy review - English Medium Writing In Wales

Contributor: Jeni Williams

Appendix Rationale for contribution: I am an academic with a long-term research and teaching interest in Welsh Culture, including Welsh Writing in English and Art in Wales. As theatre critic for the New Welsh Review between 1997-2002, I attended hundreds of performances by Wales-based companies and wrote substantial quarterly review articles (2-4,000 words) on the Welsh theatre scene. Most of these performances took place within Wales but, where relevant, I went further afield, including Denmark and Italy. I remain interested in Welsh theatre and for the past two years have presented discussion papers to the Symposia on English language Welsh writing for the theatre held in the Soho Theatre, London. I seek to contribute to wider cultural discussion within Wales and write occasional reviews and articles on Welsh writing and art in publications such as Books in Wales, Planet and New Welsh Review to that end. I have produced reader’s reports for the Grants Panel of the Welsh Books Council and, before that, for the Literature Section of the Arts Council of Wales. I am a past judge for the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year prize. I have set up and am currently organising a new open access programme of fortnightly talks by Wales-based artists and writers, The Mary Lloyd Jones Lectures on Welsh Art and Culture, to be given throughout the coming academic year at Trinity College, Carmarthen where I work. My contribution reflects, in general, my academic interest. For a more detailed discussion of the position of new writing for the theatre however I refer the committee to the Appendix: the discussion paper I presented at the second Sorted Symposium at the Soho Theatre, London on 21st June 2003 and which is posted in the 'Commentary’ section of the Theatre-Wales website. I propose to take the terms of reference one by one. i The contribution of English-medium books and writing in Wales to Welsh culture 'I loved the course... I didn’t expect to…I thought it would be all about Eisteddfods [sic].’ 'It was interesting…For the first time ever I liked every book on the course.’ 'It was a perfect counterpart to [the module on] Postmodernism’ 'It meant so much to me … it wasn’t like the other courses… it was about me, about the people I grew up with.’ (Student feedback on third year undergraduate literature module studying Welsh Writing in English at Trinity College, Carmarthen) I start with the responses of four very different students to a module on English medium Welsh literature because I think they neatly illustrate a range of negative preconceptions about the material and its value, preconceptions that vanished on closer inspection. The first student believed that 'Welsh writing’ was inward looking and dominated by what she thought of as a fossilised, irrelevant tradition, the second that the books that we studied would be less interesting than others because of their Welsh provenance, the third that somehow 'Welsh writing’ would be rendered irrelevant by a context of globalisation. The students came from very different backgrounds - including one from Scotland, one from England, and the other two from rural and post-industrial Wales respectively and, although the student who made the last comment related the texts directly to his personal background in Wales, the others (including those not represented here) were equally convinced as to its value and relevance to their own. Such comments are typical of student responses to this kind of course. Teaching Welsh Writing in English is always rewarding. This tiny sample of two male and two female students reflects the value of studying Welsh writing for framing and exploring a multi-faceted modern identity for Wales. The fact that the writers whose work was discussed on this module could be met or, at the least, corresponded with, made the student experience of the work more vivid and immediate. And certainly the fact that these writers lived and worked within Wales made the students feel part of a culture within which they could contribute. For the first time they were not studying work produced elsewhere. If education is to be about cultural empowerment, about learning to ask questions and think in innovative ways, about developing a sense of self-worth and self-confidence rather than about absorbing knowledge of a number of standard, centrally defined texts, then the study of the literature being produced within Wales is of equal value to any other, and for students living within Wales gives a sense of being grounded in the culture within which they find themselves. The comparison with London-based students is instructive: students living and studying in London feel themselves to be at the centre of a rich cultural tradition. In London it is far easier to feel able to become a writer, an artist, and, more generally, to feel part of a dynamic and significant social network. This factor should be born in mind when considering the small but worrying drop in the pass rate for literature in this year’s GCSE results. Studying contemporary Welsh writing in English may produce a more engaged pupil at this level. Of course literature is far more than a tool for developing a confident, self-reflective and articulate graduate. The mass media do not engage directly with the experience of living in Wales. Books and plays are small scale enough to so. The writing of any literature engages with social realities and explores alternative social worlds. Chris Meredith’s superb novel Shifts, for example, considers the unravelling of personal relationships as a steelworks closes and its community crumbles, Alan Osborne’s savage Merthyr Trilogy explores the nihilism of a world without work, Niall Griffiths gives a hoard of drifters their various distinctive voices in Grits, Trezza Azzopardi reveals the lost histories of Cardiff Docks in The Hiding Place, Sheenagh Pugh ponders on place names and people in her poetry collection Stonelight, Stevie Davies mulls over racism and history in The Element of Water. These are all powerful works of literature that have no equivalent elsewhere. Without the rights words, without relevant stories, people are unable to make sense of their experiences. Welsh writing in English enriches Welsh culture by providing these words and stories. Finally, of course, books and plays are written by creative people and one characteristic of a healthy and dynamic nation is that it does not need to import such 'products’ from elsewhere but produces them at home through nurturing its gifted citizens - just as it should offer opportunities to those gifted in science, technology and sport. Summary of the contribution of English-medium books and writing in Wales to Welsh culture from the perspective of higher education:

• studying Welsh writing in English frames and explores the multi-faceted, modern identity of Wales;
• for students the study of work produced by Wales-based writers whose proximity means that they can be approached produces a sense of inclusion within a dynamic creative culture;
• the study of contemporary Welsh writing in English gives both Welsh and non-Welsh students living within Wales a sense of the culture within which they find themselves;
• the variousness of English-medium Welsh writing is a testimony to the range and dynamism of the broader culture of Wales;
• If education is to be about cultural empowerment, about learning to ask questions and think in innovative ways, about developing a sense of self-worth and self-confidence rather than about absorbing knowledge of a number of standard, centrally defined texts, then the study of the literature being produced within Wales is as valuable within this process as that of any other literature.

ii. The support mechanisms available to writers in Wales, including playwrights and screenplay writers This is not an area in which I have expertise but I would argue that the provision of even small writing bursaries can give an individual writer space to think and work, commissions can stimulate more focused work and high profile writing prizes operate not only as incentives but generate publicity and sales. At present a limited number of writing bursaries are provided by the academi, (though these are not available for the playwright or screenwriter); playwrights and screenwriters may achieve commissions though these are increasingly scarce and Wales-based publishers do not have the capital to offer advances to their writers who then gravitate towards bigger, London-based publishers; the Welsh Book of the Year prize is becoming a far more substantial event, but it encompasses too bewildering a mix of writing: novels, poetry, travel, history, criticism… the Cardiff International Poetry Competition is prestigious the Theatre in Wales prizes are not. We need a (small) number of focused and individually sponsored competitions. The various Creative Writing departments in the universities could facilitate daylong writing festivals for school and college students where they would be able to meet writers, hear talks on the work, workshop preselected pieces of student work and see dramatised extracts from contemporary Welsh plays. Opportunities to use writing centres and retreats such as Ty Newydd and Enlli Island, or to be writers in residence/community writers are at least as valuable as direct financial provision. Such schemes could be extended. Summary of suggestions

• enable publishers to offer advances to keep and develop writers on their lists;
• diversification and sponsorship of 'Welsh Book of the Year’ prize;
• establish university-led Writing Festivals;
• extension of writers in residence/community writer schemes
• the support mechanisms for the production and marketing of new writing, including private sector support; and
• mechanisms for raising public awareness of English-medium Welsh literature and writers

I do not think that these two aspects can be separated from each other. The marketing of new writing and the increased public awareness of writers seem to me to be two sides of the same coin and so I will discuss them together. At the level of the market, Welsh publishers need to develop an infrastructure of promotion and distribution networks. The newly centralised buying policy of London-based chains such as Waterstones and Smiths is a serious barrier to this infrastructure. Welsh culture is severely undermined by this policy, reduced to the tourist-dominated idea of 'local interest’ along with maps, strange customs and lovespoons. After a recent complaint about the shrinkage of the 'Welsh interest’ section of the Swansea city branch of Waterstones, I ended up making a list of suggested purchases for the salesperson responsible for that section. Consultation about the contents of this list led to discussions with the Books Council who sent Dominic Williams to talk to the store. I feel strongly that significant pressure should be put on these chains to change. I cannot believe that they could operate in this way in Scotland for example. Public readings are not particularly lucrative but they provide a link between writers and their readers and can heighten a writer’s profile - especially if linked to a scheme such as the Books Council promoted 'Summer readings.’ Without the support of an interested and intelligent readership texts appear only to vanish. This kind of readership can be nurtured in three ways: improved distribution (but see above), by promoting new readers (see Parthian Book’s innovative 'New Writers, New Readers’ programme), and by promoting the study of this writing in schools and colleges. My area of expertise is clearly related to this last point. A major stumbling block for the study of Welsh Writing in English, both at school and college level is the paucity of critical readings to which the student may refer. The Welsh universities are producing a generation of subtle and informed academics, many of whom gives papers at the annual Welsh Writing in English conference, publish in the academic journal Welsh Writing in English and contribute valuable articles to publications such as New Welsh Review and Planet. The University of Wales Press commissions monographs, collections of criticism and the relented 'Writers of Wales’ series and occasional monographs and collections appear from Seren and Gomer. Parthian has begun to commission essays to be published alongside its playtexts, the reprint of Meredith’s Shifts as a Seren 'classic’ includes a useful essay. So the situation is changing but it is difficult to compete with the material plentifully available for the school study of canonical texts such as Of Mice and Men. Welsh texts may form options on the curriculum but without the support literature they are unlikely to be chosen for study. Without school study there will be less likelihood that students will elect to study Welsh writing at university, because of this there are less teaching posts in the area and young academics encounter a glass ceiling. Many are forced to diversify, either leaving academia altogether or moving onto teach and research other areas. A core of key texts should be established with room for new and more experimental material. We need a targeted range of material aimed at schools, including short studies and video interviews (such as those produced by the University of Glamorgan ten years ago) Summary of suggestions to improve the production and marketing of new writing, raise public awareness of English-medium Welsh literature and writers

• pressure should be put on London-based chains such as Waterstones and Smiths to change their centralised buying policy to accommodate a section to be called 'Welsh Culture;’
• schemes to promote Welsh Writing such as the 'Summer readings’ should be extended;
• the development of both new writers and new readers should be a priority;
• a core of key texts should be established with room for new and more experimental material;
• a targeted range of secondary material aimed at schools should be produced.