New book from Welsh poet Menna Elfyn

Menna Elfyn will be launching her new bilingual Welsh-English collection Murmur with a number of events this autumn.

As well as several launches in Wales, she will also be giving two readings in London.

The book is published by Bloodaxe on 27 September.
Murmur includes a sequence of poems about the last princess of Wales, Catrin Glyndwr, daughter of Owain Glyndwr, who was incarcerated with her children in the Tower of London for over two years until their mysterious death.

Fittingly enough, mur-mur in Welsh also means wall-wall, so the book’s leitmotif is one that stresses the distance between words and worlds.

Murmur is a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation.

 “Her voice is gentle, even tender, but she is far from confining herself to the valleys and mines of her grandparents’ landscape… her points of reference lie far outside the Welsh tradition – to Emily Dickinson and Kurt Vonnegut… and her own travels extend to Cairo and Bucharest.” 

 - PBS judges on Menna Elfyn’s Murmur 

Menna Elfyn is one of the foremost Welsh-language writers.

As well as being an award-winning poet, she has published plays, libretti and children’s novels, and co-edited The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry (2003) with John Rowlands.
 Her books include two bilingual selections, Eucalyptus: Detholiad o Gerddi / Selected Poems 1978-1994 (Gomer Press, 1995), and Perfect Blemish: New & Selected Poems / Perffaith Nam: Dau Ddetholiad & Cherddi Newydd 1995-2007 (Bloodaxe Books, 2007).

When not travelling the world for readings and residencies, Menna Elfyn lives in Llandysul.

She was Wales’s National Children’s Laureate in 2002, and is Creative Director in the School of Cultural Studies at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David.

Murmur, by Menna Elfyn, is published by Bloodaxe Books
on Thursday 27 September 2012, price £9.95 (paper).
Bilingual edition, with English translations by leading Welsh poets: Elin ap Hywel, Joseph P. Clancy, Gillian Clarke, Damian Walford Davies and Paul Henry.
For full author biography, book information & video clip of Menna Elfyn reading,
visit the title page at: www.bloodaxebooks.com.
For further details on Menna Elfyn’s visits: www.mennaelfyn.co.uk

Autumn events for Murmur:
· 28 September: Launch 6pm for 6.30pm, Penrallt Bookshop, Machynlleth as part of ‘Culture Night’ (RSVP: penralltbooks@gmail.com or telephone 01654 700559)
· 20 October: Bloomsbury Festival Launch, London, London Welsh Centre
(early evening event)
· 23 October: 7.45 Launch at University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter
· 1 November: 7pm, Dylan Thomas Festival, Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea
· 8 November: 6.30pm, Poet-in-the City: Waterstones, Covent Garden, London (www.poetinthecity.co.uk/poetry-events)
· 26 November: 7.30pm, Guest reader/Launch ‘Murmur’ Poems & Pints’, Queen’s Hotel, Carmarthen
· 13 December: 1pm, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff