Why national writing programmes are important.
As Literature Wales's inaugural Representing Wales programme winds up, I ask if these things are worth it.
[Sorry to start this letter off with one of those deathless corporate slates (above) organisations like Literature Wales pump out, but that’s the image I have chosen to go with, for better or for worse. I feel weighted down in the writing just for having it there].
Literature Wales have always come in for a lot of stick - the most common criticism I hear is what exactly do they do? - and far be it from me to jump to their defence here, but I just wanted to draw attention to the “Representing Wales” programme which they run and of which the latest iteration has just wound up. It’s very easy to be cynical about things, and to question if they do more good than the Writers Bursaries it has unofficially replaced. But it’s impossible not to look at all the writers who have been mentored through the Representing Wales programme over its short existence and feel that real talent has been nurtured and validated and developed.
Just a random grab of them and you’ll come up with Hanan Issa (National Poet of Wales), Marvin Thompson (winner of a National Poetry Award), Nia Morais (writing for the Sherman), the brilliant Bridget Keenan, the brilliant Taz Rahman, the brilliant Phil Okwedy. Brilliant brilliant brilliant. If you need more evidence of worth than that, I’m not sure what to tell you.
Granted, though, his has come at the expense of what some may have termed “the same old faces” lapping up the gravy train of the writers bursary (no, I never applied for one of those, before you ask). W have lost a great deal in the evaporation of those bursaries, but we have probably gained a great deal with what has replaced it. What we have now is a diversity and “representative” programme of writerly support. No denying, if you’re white, straight, able-bodied, male etc etc etc you have to find other ways. The great resetting for past weighting toward the obvious criteria of candidates is long beyond simply being underway.
The Writers Bursary, at different points in its life, would administer grants of a few thousand pounds to writers of Wales who want to buy a bit of time to finish a book or take a research trip or whatever. Award-winning, multi-book authors had had several of them, as had many aspiring writers with promising applications who went on to publish nothing. It wasn’t much, but it was support for writers in Wales, and that sort of support doesn’t really exist any more for anyone outside a protected characteristic.
When George Floyd was murdered, and screens went dark in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement/organisation, Literature Wales, like so many, took stock, and decided to repurpose what little budget there was to create a development programme for writers from underrepresented communities in Wales (I’d argue that “writers” is an underrepresented community in Wales in an of itself). This noble venture evolved to what we have today, Representing Wales. It’s not solely focussed on ethnic diversity like the initial versions of the programme may have been, but it does seem now intent on ensuring the future of Welsh writing is one with a diversity of voices. That is a good thing.
You can see the full cohort of 2023-24 here, but a cursory glance brings up names I know will feature prominently in the future cultural development of Wales. Bethany Handley has been on my radio show, where she read an excerpt of her brilliant, already award-winning essay “The National Trust’s Bomb Disposal Squad.” Megan Angharad Hunter has already won a Welsh language Wales Book of the Year award for her novel tu ôl i’r awyr. Hammad Rind’s debut novel Four Dervishes garnered great reviews when it was published by Seren in 2021. And thems just the writers I know. Three very serious, very exciting literary figures picked from a serious, exciting bunch.
National writing programmes are very tricky things to get right. And it’s even trickier to get the writing community (such as there is one) on side with it. Writers of Wales are very poorly supported, poorly thought of (in the English language anyway). But all we can strive for is that rich stories are given air to breathe and live and develop, and programmes like Representing Wales will do that.
Gary Raymond is a novelist, author, playwright, critic, and broadcaster. In 2012, he co-founded Wales Arts Review, was its editor for ten years. His latest book, Abandon All Hope: A Personal Journey Through the History of Welsh Literature is available for pre-order and is out in May 2024 with Calon Books.