Blogs

AmeriCymru: Hi Neil and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. Care to introduce your online magazine Parallel.cymru for our readers?

Neil: Shw mae Ceri! Great to be here on AmeriCymru- gwych i fod yma ar AmeriCymru. I'd be delighted to share with your readers more about parallel.cymru. Parallel.cymru is a digital magazine that presents articles about Wales and Welsh life in a unique format- each article is bilingual, with side by side Welsh and English (in parallel) . There are many Welsh-language magazines and books, but only a proportion of Welsh speakers feel comfortable reading them. The parallel.cymru presentation makes reading Welsh accessible to all- even for those who don't speak Welsh!

I publish first-person perspective articles by people who are doing things that in some way relate to Wales. Lots of authors have contributed about how and why they wrote their books; there are many articles about the history and development of Wales and the Welsh language; scientists have explained their subject in an accessible way; Welsh learners have shared their experiences; I've also put resources such as grammar and pronunciation guides on it. Unlike traditional magazines I don't take content off, so there's heaps more to explore.

Some of the highlights for a North American audience include:

Diplomat Shelley Hughes: What the Welsh Government office in North America does

Duolingo: Welsh for English Speakers course celebrates 1 million users

New York state's Michelle Fecio: Resources for International learners

Aberystwyth's Nicky Roberts: Learning Welsh with Say Something in Welsh

The History & Development of the Welsh language

For those of you who are fluent in Welsh, the magazine will give you unique and interesting content to read; for those who are learning Welsh, it is the best way to improve your reading skills while based outside of Wales, and for those who aren't familiar with the language, the English adaptations will allow you to enjoy discovering more about Welsh life and culture.

I forgot two things- all content is, and will remain, free for all to read; and it is available on any web browser, on any device, anywhere in the world.

AmeriCymru: What is the philosophy behind the site? What is its mission statement?

Neil: As an active Welsh learner, I found that making the step up from learner-specific materials to fully-fluent books and magazines to be difficult. When you have a limited vocabulary, constantly looking words up in dictionaries takes the enjoyment out of reading. Through speaking to many other users of the Welsh language, I realised that people experience the language on a spectrum of abilities; there isn't a black/white fluent/non-fluent division. However, it is not just learners who have a need for accessible content; many first language speakers don't use the language enough to read regularly, and also thousands of people all over the world aren't catered for by existing Welsh media. The digital aspect of the magazine and accessible presentation solves all of those problems.

The aim is to help everyone, whatever their ability, to enjoy reading in Welsh. The magazine contains good quality, interesting and unique content, and someone with a PhD in Welsh literature can read the same article as someone learning through AmeriCymru.

AmeriCymru: What resources do you provide for beginning Welsh learners?

Neil: Articles are arranged by the level of language. So they are grouped into the registers Simple, Informal, Formal and Literary, plus a section of items that are of specific interest to learners. This means that a relatively new learner can read a Simple article and not have to look at the English often. Welsh is traditionally written using an older form; spoken Welsh has evolved over the centuries and has a simpler and lighter approach. However not many publications reproduce spoken Welsh on the page or the screen; the Simple and Informal sections do this, so that people can read those without having to have learnt formal Welsh.

I've got a series of articles and news items that are in Simple Welsh only- without English- but with tooltips (i.e. hover over a word) to get the translation. I'm very pleased to host a grammar guide by Mark Stonelake . Mark has prepared Welsh for Adults courses in the Swansea Bay area for 20 years, and is an expert on the subject. He has also taught many courses in North America itself. I've presented his grammar work in bite-sized, themed sections that are sequenced in the order that they are taught. They have also been translated so that proficient leaners can read the Welsh version; there is also a search box to make it easy to find the item you want to learn or recap. This is not a course in itself, but it is a great supplementary resource to an existing learning method.

A volunteer, Huw Rowlands (no relation), also narrates many articles; those are denoted by the microphone symbol in the menu. This allows people to listen to the article and match how it is spoken to how it is written. This is particularly useful to people who don't have a lot of opportunity to hear the language, such as the enthusiastic AmeriCymru learners.

AmeriCymru: How might intermediate and advanced learners use the site?

Neil: For those with more confidence in the language the challenge is to read the Welsh and only check the English if there is a word or meaning that you don't understand. It is tempting to read the English and glance at the Welsh, as that feels much easier than taking longer to process and decipher the Welsh. However, being resolved that you will stick to the Welsh as much as possible will allow the content to be a learning resource instead of just a relaxing item to read. Most articles also have a PDF version to download at the bottom of each item, so people can print them off and write on them, share electronically, or use in a classroom setting.

There is a range of resources suitable for confident learners, such an overview of novels and books for learners , an online dictionary and pronunciation guide , themed glossaries and a weekly collection of Welsh-related weblinks .

AmeriCymru: For the general reader what aspects of Welsh life and culture are explored on Parallel.cymru?

Neil: Life itself is random and irregular, and parallel.cymru content reflects that. While common themes are grouped under menus with other, each article represents what one person or group is doing with the language. In the last week of April I published an article about an 85-year old skydiver , a new Welsh-language meditation app , an update from the Chief Executive of the National Eisteddfod ( 100 days to go until Cardiff Bay in August! ), a 1 10-question quiz by Cymdeithas yr Iaith (the Welsh Language Society), a sports column about a rugby game   and an article reflecting on Swansea's contribution and losses in World War One .

AmeriCymru: How would readers go about preparing an article for the site? What is the selection process? What are the criteria?

Neil: One of the unique aspects of parallel.cymru is its emphasis on first-person perspective content, and this opens the content, style of writing, subject matter and access to being published to a much wider range of people than a traditional magazine can offer. There is a range of publishing options; most people write something from scratch; some may adapt other writings or create a concise presentation of their work; others will create a Welsh version of an item they have published in an English-language publication such as The Conversation .

Some people have interesting things to write about, but don't have the confidence to prepare a full article in Welsh; in that case I suggest they write what they can in Welsh to set out their voice and complete the English side, and I will organise a volunteer to complete the Welsh side. All articles are proofread prior to publication, so people don't need to be concerned about using perfect grammar.

The first step would be to drop me an email on parallel.cymru@gmail.com and say what you had an interest in writing about. The next step would be to consider what register of the language you'd feel comfortable writing in: Simple, Informal, Formal or Literary. I'd also suggest considering what do you want the reader to know or do after reading it- what are the key take-aways?

As this is an online-only publication, I don't have target publication dates or set word counts; this means that contributors can enjoy the process of writing, and whether that takes a week or 3 months is OK with me.

When receiving the article, I'd also like images to use and web links to your digital properties. I'll then format the article and organise proof reading, prepare an introductory paragraph and header image and then send a private link to you to look over. Once the article is signed off it will go live with a unique URL for you to share with your network!

You know, I don't have a particular selection criteria. While high-profile individuals and well-known organisations have contributed, all articles get the same home-page space. Learners who have never written in Welsh before have had an article published next to people with 100,000 Twitter followers. People who wouldn't normally have an outlet to share their work/experience/stories with the world have been read more than people who have published books and appear on TV/radio regularly, because what they have written about is unique and not available anywhere else.

So if you have ideas about preparing an item or writing a quiz, there's no reason to be shy- get in touch!

AmeriCymru: What's next for Parallel.cymru? How do you see the site developing?

Neil: As I'm working full time and operating parallel.cymru in my spare time, I have a limited amount of time available to work on the site. My main aims over 2018 are to continue sourcing unique content and to make the magazine more well-known. I've been working with the National Centre for Learning Welsh , the Conversation and the Welsh Books Council   recently, so I'll be enhancing those and seeking more partnerships. I've recently started putting quizzes on the site , and would like to do more inventive things where language and technology intersect. I could use a couple more volunteers to help with translation and ensuring high standards of Welsh language. From a content point of view, I'd like to establish regular columns on subjects such as sports, cookery, healthy & beauty, travel etc (but no politics). I've lined up going to lots of events to promote the site such as Welsh for Adults courses, Cardiff's Tafwyl  and the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff Bay. I'm working on an iOS app at the moment and I've registered the venture as a non-for-profit company. The long term goal is to develop commercial partnerships that allow me to devote more time to the site.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

Neil: The number of people in North America with an interest in Welsh life, language and culture is large, and the enthusiasm for this small and damp, yet beautiful and charming part of world is remarkable. On behalf of everyone in Wales, thank you for your time and interest in us; and particular thanks to those who are learning the language through AmeriCymru or other methods. If you are learning Welsh, don't get worried about mutations and other grammar complexities; just use the language as much as you can, and if you ever get a chance to pop over here and visit, go for it!

Please enjoy reading parallel.cymru, and if you have suggestions or ideas for contributions, do get in touch with me on parallel.cymru@gmail.com .

BBC Wales and Arts Council of Wales are today announcing that the search for Horizons artists to join its 2018 project is now underway.  The applications process is now open and the 12 successful acts will be supported and promoted in various ways by Horizons over the next 12 months.

Horizons is a unique showcase of new, independent contemporary music in Wales.  Now in its fourth-year, Horizons is a collaboration between BBC Wales and Arts Council of Wales .

Since its inception in 2014, Horizons has given a platform to over 36 emerging artists from Wales giving them support and mentoring to help them reach new audiences in Wales, the UK and beyond, and supported many more at festival stages and help release ambitions through the Launchpad fund.

The Horizons project aims to be a comprehensive showcase of promising talent in Wales.  From providing promotional and performance opportunities, over the past four years Horizons has provided new Welsh acts with a breadth of support and some unforgettable experiences as they start their journeys into music.

Horizons acts have been showcased at some of the biggest festivals at home and internationally from Glastonbury,  The Great Escape, Festival No.6, Sŵn, to Eurosonic and SXSW and performed sessions at the legendary Maida Vale Studios .  In the three years of the project previous Horizons alumni include Candelas, Swnami, CaStLeS, Violet Skies, Afrocluster, Baby Queens, Kizzy Crawford, Seazoo, The People the Poet, Reuel Elijah, Danielle Lewis and many more who have benefitted from the Horizon’s Project.

- The 12 artists will be offered a platform at events across Wales and on BBC Wales’ national services - BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio Wales.

- Acts who want to be considered fill in a form online via bbc.co.uk/horizons . Horizons acts will be selected by a panel of experts from within the partnership and the wider music sector.

The Horizons project will be bringing music to many festivals over summer 2018 and will offer more exciting opportunities to Welsh musicians later in the year through its Launchpad funding scheme.

Also new for this year , The Horizons Project has hand picked 12 'Horizons bloggers' who will help spread the word about the Horizons 12 new acts for 2018. Providing personal, insightful and in depth coverage of the acts selected with blogs, podcasts and exclusive content. Horizons Bloggers will also be appearing on panels and on the BBC to help promote the acts and the project's work online and on social media.

Music fans can follow the Twitter account @horizonscymru for all the latest news.

Violet Skies, one of the artists from the 2015 Project says:

“It’s was a mad year for me as part of the Horizons scheme. I’ve been lucky enough to tick off a lot of things from my musical bucket list - The Great Escape, Festival No.6, Sŵn, Maida Vale and now, I’m looking forward to Eurosonic and SXSW festival. It's been a lovely little Welsh family of talented musicians and a really good support team - it's nice to turn up at festivals or a show knowing you have people there to help you. Writing and collaborating with other artists has been a highlight too, and having so many others going through the same as you is so reassuring.”

Lisa Gwilym, BBC Radio Cymru presenter said:

“What I enjoy most about the Horizons project is the opportunity to get to know 12 artists so much better. To be able to follow their journey over the year – from all the festivals to the famous Maida Vale studios – is extremely exciting. I can’t wait to hear and see the range of music on offer from the Horizons artists this year.”

Iolo Morganwg is an enigmatic historical figure in the Vale of Glamorgan and beyond. Gareth Thomas' novel I, Iolo , published this week by Y Lolfa, uses research and evidence recorded by his contemporaries and academics to recount his prodigious and astounding story. Iolo Morganwg had many faces: stonemason, self-taught scholar, poet, hymnist, politician, patriot, revolutionary, druid, failed businessman, drug addict, campaigner for human rights and perpetrator of the greatest act of literary forgery in European history.

The closing years of the 18th century were, in Iolo Morganwg's words, an age of 'unparalleled eventfulness' and he was in the thick of it; a young man of prodigious talent and boundless energy, drunk with words, outraged by injustice and in thrall to the spirit of liberty sweeping across Europe. The scene moves from Cowbridge to the grand drawing rooms of Mayfair, from Gorsedd ceremonies on inhospitable hillsides to the luxurious bordellos of Covent Garden, from his cottage in Flemingston to a hearing before the Privy Council in Downing Street.

Having been inspired by Iolo's story whilst at the National Eisteddfod in Llandow, Gareth Thomas set about learning more. As well as visiting places associated with the bard, such as his memorial at the Church in Flemingston, Gareth also researched the historical figure, reading the work of Gwyneth Lewis, former National Poet of Wales, Geraint Jenkins, Dr Mary-Ann Constantine, an academic specialising in Romantic-era Welsh literature and others. He came to the conclusion that here was a story with real contemporary significance, "the more I learnt, the more I marvelled at his story. It's a tale that needs to be told".

Here is a novel to introduce Iolo Morganwg, his opinions, adventures and the events which gained him a reputation as trickster and forger, to the world. A Welsh version of the novel, Myfi, Iolo, was published at the end of 2017 and has received enthusiastic reviews by the press and was described as ‘a fascinating novel about a fascinating person’ by Dr Mary-Ann Constantine.

Cowbridge History Society, Cowbridge Library, Cowbridge Bookshop and Y Lolfa have teamed up to organise the launch of I, Iolo as a special celebration of the town's most famous - or most notorious - son. Carys Whelan will chair and ask the questions. Two well known actors, Danny Gregan (Stella, Casualty) and Eiry Palfrey (Pobl y Cwm, Poncho Mamgu) will provide a reading, taking the parts of Iolo Morganwg and his long suffering wife Peggy.

Gareth Thomas’ roots are in Cwm Rhondda. He studied drama at Barry and London and worked in England as an actor, teacher and director. At fifty he learnt Welsh and seven years ago he moved to the Vale of Glamorgan and currently lives in Cowbridge.

I, Iolo will be launched at Cowbridge Library, Old Hall Gardens at 6.45pm, to start at 7pm on Monday 30 April 2018.

I, Iolo by Gareth Thomas (£9.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

One woman walked around Wales in a bid to visit and celebrate some of the country’s holiest sites.

In 2015 Anne Hayward spent three months as a pilgrim, travelling on foot to visit some of Wales’ holiest sites and carrying everything she needed to camp along the route. Her main objectives were four ancient places of pilgrimage – Holywell, Bardsey Island, St David’s and Llantwit Major – but she also visited numerous churches and other places of interest along the way.

Her reflections, insights and experiences will be published this week by Y Lolfa.

In A Pilgrimage Around Wales she gives some of the history of those ancient places of pilgrimage and reflects on the spiritual experience of being a modern-day pilgrim.

‘I was very fortunate – ‘blessed’ is a more apt word, perhaps – to have been able to take time out of ordinary life in the spring and summer of 2015 to go on a pilgrimage around Wales. This book is a fruit of that pilgrimage,’ explained Anne.

‘Being on foot, and carrying quite a heavy pack for a small(ish) woman, was both liberating and constraining,’ said Anne, ‘What became increasingly clear during those three months was that my research prior to my walk had left me unprepared for the sheer joy of quietly discovering new places and the enormous sense of achievement that I felt each day. Often what was most overwhelming was the beauty of the ordinariness of many of my days.’

In the book, she also meditates upon the significant conversations she found herself sharing with the strangers she met along her path.

‘The subtitle of this book is In Search of a Significant Conversation , and its contents cause us to appreciate the conversations, random or otherwise, which peppered the author’s pilgrimage around Wales,’ said the Most Reverend John D E Davies, Bishop of Swansea & Brecon and the Archbishop of Wales. ‘Unspoken or spoken, those conversations bring the places to life, and illuminate the faith which motivated the journey.’

‘“ Camping here is my gift to you ,” said one campsite owner to Anne on her tremendous pilgrimage, and this book is a real gift to us, with Anne’s thoughts reminding us of the vast riches we have in Wales in so many ways’ added the Revd Canon Ian Rees, Rector of Central Swansea.

Anne Hayward read History at Oxford University and went on to become a secondary school teacher. Over the last few years, she has walked thousands of miles to places of pilgrimage in Wales, Ireland, Brittany and England. She is a Reader in the Church in Wales and is involved as a licensed Lay Minister in her local church and the wider area. She lives in the Brecon Beacons, and has written articles for various local magazines and newspapers.

A Pilgrimage Around Wales will be launched at 6.30pm on Monday 26 March at Book-ish in Crickhowell.

A Pilgrimage Around Wales by Anne Hayward (£8.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

AmeriCymru: Hi Meredith and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. To begin with can you tell us a little about your Welsh roots?

Meredith: I am... (counts on fingers) 5th generation Welsh-American. My great-great grandfather was a coal miner from the Aberdare area in Glamorgan, and he and my great-great grandma came to America in the 1870’s I believe, and ended up in What Cheer, Iowa, which was a coal mining town with a substantial Welsh immigrant population.

Being Welsh was always something my mom’s side of the family was quite proud of. My mom gave me a Welsh first name and always told me how much she loved the Welsh culture of music. She was a piano teacher, and I play piano and sing, so I guess I got a good dose of Welsh genes! She also said that the few times she had heard spoken Welsh, she loved it and thought it was so beautiful. So I always wanted to learn it, from the time I was little. It seems the language died out in our family pretty quick after arriving in America, though, so now that I’m a Dysgwr Cymraeg, it’s the first Welsh being spoken in our family in maybe a century!

AmeriCymru: You wrote an article for Nation Cymru in response to a recent editorial which appeared on the site. It seems almost redundant to ask, but, why do you think that it is important for the global Welsh to see Wales celebrate its history and heritage?

Meredith: Well, in terms of the opinion article I was replying to, Welsh history should be important for the global Welsh because that’s the point of divergence for many of us. I’m here, I exist here, in America, because of events that happened in Welsh history. So when people like the man who wrote the opinion I replied to says that celebrating and studying Welsh history is looking backwards and is unproductive, it’s a kind of erasure of all of us who are here because of that history.

And beyond that, something I didn’t really bring up in that article is the fact that at least here in America, white people tend to think that being white IS being American. Everybody else gets a hyphenated heritage. Chinese-American. Mexican-American, African-American, etc. So non-white people get categorized twice—first by their skin color, and then by their cultural heritage. A 5th generation Asian person is still considered Asian-American, while a 5th generation white person like me is just “American.”

Some scholars think that some of this racial bias could be challenged by getting white Americans to become more aware of their own cultural heritage and how different the various regions in Europe are. Instead of us finding our ethnic identity in the color of our skin, which can contribute to racism and ultimately even white supremacy, the idea is that we rediscover the mix of diverse cultures that both bring us together and set us apart as distinct.

I’m German, English, Walloon Belgian, and Welsh, and probably a smattering of other cultures I haven’t traced back yet. Some of my ancestors rode in on the Mayflower and signed the Mayflower Compact. Others didn’t arrive here until the early 20th century. How did that mix of cultures shape my family and its history? What impact has it had on who I am?

What does it mean to have both English and Welsh heritage, given the often-contentious history between the two countries? How do I feel about my German heritage in light of two world wars? And why is it that I feel so much more connection to my Welsh great-grandma, but not as much to my Walloon great-grandpa who married her? Is it because of my mother’s pride in our Welsh heritage combined with not really knowing as much about what it meant to be a Walloon? My great-grandpa was killed as a young father in an accident. Perhaps if he had lived, he could have passed down more about Belgian culture to my grandma and my mother. What does all this say about how cultural identity is formed—or lost?

And how does all of this affect who I am as an American? I’m not saying that pondering these kind of questions will fix racism in America. If only it were that easy. But I do think that when we start exploring the mix of cultures in our backgrounds, it may be able to help us stop thinking in terms of a skin tone equating “American.”

To bring that back around to Welsh heritage in particular, there are a lot of people with Welsh heritage who either don’t even know it or have no idea what it means. So to move away from a skin-tone based identity, we need to know and understand how diverse these European cultures that we come from really are. That’s not so hard with a dominant culture such as German or English. But it’s easy to overlook lesser-known cultures such as Welsh or Walloon. Global Welsh need to be able to connect with Welsh culture and history in order to better understand how they have impacted our own unique families and personal identity.

AmeriCymru: It seems to me, after reading the editorial that the author makes some valid points but his distinction between 'forward' and 'backward' looking nationalisms is tenuous to say the least. Is it possible to celebrate your nation's heritage without reference to its culture or its past?

Meredith: I think the answer to that is in the word “heritage” itself: Something that is handed down-- from the past. How can you celebrate something that was handed down to you from the past without referencing that past? It’s nonsensical.

Honestly, I think we see the problems of that with American culture and history. There’s a lot that we celebrate as Americans without really understanding where it came from, or we celebrate it with a warped understanding of how it came to be. I’m thinking about things like how we’ve mythologized Thanksgiving (and a bunch of other holidays), or how we say we value “boot strap independence” without understanding the vital role community life played (and still plays) in our very survival as a nation. Losing our understanding of our past makes us less empathetic and honestly less efficient, less just, less healthy as a society.

One of my high school history teachers had that quote across the top of the chalkboard all year: “Those who don’t learn from the past are destined to repeat it.” That’s always resonated with me. I think we have to look backwards, not just to avoid repeating mistakes, but also to gain perspective, context, and a bit of wisdom. Otherwise, I don’t know how we move forward in a way that is just and productive for as many of our fellow humans as possible.

AmeriCymru: Nationalist movements which exist solely to celebrate their history and heritage are easily distinguishable from others whose main goal is to foment hatred of 'foreign' cultures. Would you agree?

Meredith: Definitely. However, I think that healthy nationalist movements can go deeper than just “celebration” which implies happy, positive emotions. Shouldn’t the goal really be to have as full an understanding of that culture as possible?

A focus solely on celebration forces us to gloss over or ignore the darker moments and the failures and downfalls of that culture—things we should mourn and wrestle with, instead of celebrate. If we forget those dark moments, we risk creating a culture of pride and a belief in our own superiority and infallibility. And that will lead to harmful nationalism or ethnocentrism.

And going in the other direction, there are points in a culture’s past where great harm was done to us. Or maybe the damage is currently being done. Oppression, injustice, inequality—these leave impacts on a culture for centuries. And they create emotions that we have to wrestle with, emotions that are often not socially acceptable. How do you express anger about the pain caused by systemic injustice or exploitation in a way that won’t be taken as hatred toward the oppressor? How do you make sure you don’t allow your justifiable anger to morph into something destructive?

When we only allow celebration of culture, we force people to ignore those darker emotions and not deal with them constructively. Wounds will only fester and rot that way.

So I would suggest that a truly nationalist movement needs to be as honest a movement as possible—allowing for celebration as well as mourning, pride as well as humility, joy as well as anger. It needs to be firmly committed to exploring the complexity of that national experience in a way that promotes healing and greater justice instead of hatred or a sense of superiority.

The only way to do that is as full and honest an understanding and appreciation for that culture’s history as possible.

AmeriCymru: You are currently learning Welsh. How are things progressing? What can you tell us about your experience so far?

Meredith: I’m studying Welsh through the Americymraeg course here that John Good teaches. I started with the very first term back in May of 2013, just 3 months after my mother died. The timing on that was total coincidence, but I definitely feel like my language study is a tribute to her.

I’m in the Intermediate level, and I love my classmates and my teacher so much. A lot of times, I feel like I’m not progressing as fast as I wish I was. Most of that is due to me not studying as much as I need to. I think a lot of adult learners—of anything—struggle with that because of the demands on our time and the fact that our brains are not going to absorb language with the ease of a young child.

But then there’s little things that remind me of how much I really have learned and how far I’ve come. Like when I can understand most of a tweet in Welsh or respond in Welsh on a FB comment without looking any words up. Or when I’m able to hold a 30 minute conversation, no matter how halting, with my study buddy, Susan. Those moments are exhilarating!

I listen to Radio Cymru on a radio app on my phone. The speed is too fast for me to keep up with, but I can tell when they’re giving the weather report, and I know when it’s sunny in Wrexham. And sometimes there are words that I know that I know, but I can’t recall fast enough. But still—five years ago, I wouldn’t have known any words at all!

So I think for me at least, the key to learning Welsh is to be as consistent as possible and take opportunities to practice and push myself, but also be kind to myself and focus more on how far I’ve come instead of how much I should be doing.

I really want to do a long language intensive in Wales. I think an immersion experience would be amazing. But I am incredibly, profoundly grateful for our Welsh course—it’s helping me fulfill a lifelong dream, and I love every minute of it.

AmeriCymru: You are also a writer. Care to tell us a little about your 'Empire Alchemy' (link) series?

Meredith: Gladly! I’ve been a published novelist since 2005, and I write mostly fantasy these days—both for adults and young adults. Currently, I’m working on book 4 of a steampunk fantasy series set in an alternate Victorian world where everyone is obsessed with the theater. My characters are young theater apprentices who end up using their art to confront an increasingly unjust empire and fan the flames of a revolution. I was inspired by the “Velvet Revolution” of the Czech Republic where theaters were instrumental to that non-violent change of power, and the series explores the tension between a desire for justice and a commitment to non-violence.

My protagonist’s love interest is Welsh and speaks Welsh (I call it Cymric in this world). It’s not the focus of this story, but where I can, I enjoy working tributes to Wales in any of my books.

I’m also working on a non-fantasy pastiche of a very well-known series, and I’ve made my version of the narrator Welsh. I’m being a bit coy about this because I’m not ready to announce it yet, but I’m having an absolute blast and can’t wait to go public with it.

Link: My amazon author page: amazon.com/author/ meredithrose

AmeriCymru: Together with Susan Floyd you have founded the Texas Welsh Society .  I know your first meetup was on the 11th. How did it go? What are the society's goals or mission?

Meredith: I met Susan a little over a year ago when I discovered she is also an Americymraeg student and lives in Austin. We’ve become great friends, and we try to get together once a week to practice speaking Welsh and just encourage each other with our studies.

We noticed that there didn’t seem to be a lot for active Welsh culture groups in Texas, so this year we decided to form a Welsh society.

We want the Texas Welsh Society to be an advocate for Welsh culture and serve as a point of connection for people with an interest in Wales. TWS is non-political and focused on building connections and friendships as well as providing resources and learning opportunities. We like the idea of reaching out beyond Texas as well to find ways to support and be allies for the people of Wales.

We just had our first meetup on the 11th, and we plan to hold monthly meetups the 2nd Sunday of each month. Once we build some consistency there, we hope to expand to other events and projects. We have a ton of ideas, and we hope that as our group grows, we’ll have lots going on.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

Meredith: Just that I’m so very grateful to be a part of the the global Welsh community, and I think it’s a pretty special group of people. Cymru am byth!

A decade after the death of one of the world’s best journalist photographers, the Welshman Philip Jones Griffiths, the first ever biography detailing his life and work has been published in Welsh. The volume Philip Jones Griffiths – Ei Fywyd a’i Luniau (His Life and Photography) by Ioan Roberts, is published this week by Y Lolfa and contains fifty impressive photographs by Philip himself, from Wales to Vietnam and many other countries.

Philip Jones Griffiths is remembered mainly for his photographs of the Vietnam war – photographs that contributed to changing the attitude of the American people towards the war. During his career he visited 140 countries, many of them that were at the heart of the horrors of war and suffering. But Philip would refuse to be labeled as a war photographer. It was not war in itself that spurred his interest, but to find the root of why that war was taking place, and the effect it had on the lives of innocent people.

In Vietnam he believed that the US forces tried to push their own values ​​on the old local civilization, which reminded him of the cultural and linguistic conflicts he had experienced during his childhood near the Rhuddlan border. The reason for him to be so successful in his work in Vietnam was that his apprenticeship for that country had begun during his childhood in Wales, he said. This volume also tells new and humourous stories about that childhood.

His objective through his work, he said, was ‘to spread light on the dark shadows of the world’.

‘I had decided that I would be the one to find out what the truth was,’ he said, ‘Taking real-life photographs of real people, that's my ambition.’

After leaving St Asaph Grammar School, Philip studied at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Liverpool before working as a pharmacist with the Boots company in London. He began to take photographs in his spare time for papers like the Observer and the Sunday Times, before becoming a full-time photographer. He went to live in New York after becoming president of the famous Magnum photography agency, a post he held for five years, longer than anyone else.

In his tribute, another Magnum photographer, Stuart Franklin, said ‘He gave to photojournalism its moral soul’.

The hardback volume contains fifty of Philip’s photographs, some portraying the horrors from the battlefield, others portraying an industrial Wales that has long since gone. Philip Jones Griffiths’s photos, like Philip himself, are a mixture if the sorrowful and the light-hearted.

The author and journalist Ioan Roberts from Pwllheli first came to know Philip Jones Griffiths in 1996 through his work in the world of television, and both were in occasional contact until Philip’s death in 2008.

‘Crucial to his work was his humility, his love for people and his intuitive sympathy with the weak. That came from his Welshness and his Welsh upbringing,’ said Ioan, ‘Through shining a new light on his backstory, I hope this volume will make the shining career of Philip Jones Griffiths easier to understand’.

‘Philip had strong convictions, he was a giant of a man physically and in terms of his presence, but yet friendly and witty.’

His work has attracted praise from some famous figures in world of photo-journalism including one of the founders of Magnum, Henri Cartier-Bresson, who said, ‘no-one since Goya has portrayed war as Philip Jones Griffiths did.’

And Australian photographer, journalist and director John Pilger said,

‘He was the greatest photographer and one of the finest journalists of my lifetime, and a humanitarian to match. His photographs of ordinary people, from his beloved Wales to Vietnam and the shadows of Cambodia, make you realise who the true heroes are. He was one of them.’

In the words of Marian Delyth, who contributed to the foreword of the volume,

‘It would be a matter of pride for Philip to see that it is in the Welsh language that his first biography is being published. Its now been ten years since we lost him. One part of Philip’s wishes were fulfilled – that his work was kept in Wales.’

‘It is now our responsibility to ensure that those images can continue to influence contemporary opinion in every period as they did with the Vietnam war’ she added.

An evening to launch the volume will take place at Rhuddlan Library in Denbighshire at 7pm on Monday, March 19 in the company of the Rev. Elfed ap Nefydd Roberts, author Ioan Roberts and Dai Thomas of the Rhuddlan Local History Society. The evening is organised by Denbighshire Libraries and sponsored by Rhuddlan Town Council.

Philip Jones Griffiths – Ei Fywyd a’i Luniau by Ioan Roberts (£19.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.