The Books Council of Wales and Literature Wales are proud to announce the names of the successful writers chosen to take part in our debut Welsh-language Writing for Young Adults course, tutored by Bethan Gwanas and Manon Steffan Ros in February 2020.

The Books Council of Wales and Literature Wales are proud to announce the names of the successful writers chosen to take part in our debut Welsh-language Writing for Young Adults course, tutored by Bethan Gwanas and Manon Steffan Ros in February 2020.

This course will offer guidance in the craft of writing for young adults and will hopefully encourage more writers to venture into this area, leading to the creation of brand new, original Welsh-language books in the future. This week will include practical workshops, a study of the field of writing for young adults in Wales and internationally, and readings from visiting writers.

27 strong applications were submitted, and choosing the final participants wasn’t easy for the panel. The group is a mix of emerging writers looking to write for young adults for the first time, and some who already has some experience.

The writers are, Llio Maddocks, Megan Angharad Hunter, Mared Llywelyn, Ceinwen Jones, Helen Llewelyn, Rhys Thomas, Lowri Taylor, Lleucu Non, Morgan Dafydd, Catrin Lliar Jones and Gareth Evans-Jones.

Writers’ Development in Wales is one of the three Activity Pillar in Literature Wales’ work. The course is a part of their main priorities of Developing Emerging Writers, as stated in their Strategic Plan for 2019–2022.

In the same way, filling the gap in provision for young adults and developing the field is one of the Books Council of Wales’ Welsh priorities following a review of the field by Dr Siwan Rosser of Cardiff University. This course, which is held at Tŷ Newydd with the financial backing of the Books Council, is therefore extremely timely.