Francesca Rhydderch (born 10 February 1969) is a Welsh novelist and academic. In 2013, her debut novel, ''The Rice Paper Diaries'', was longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and won the

Wales Book of the Year Award The Wales Book of the Year is a Welsh literary award given annually to the best Welsh language, Welsh and English language works in the fields of fiction and literary criticism by Welsh or Welsh interest authors. Established in 1992, the awards ...

2014 for Fiction. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and magazines and broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

and Radio Wales.

Biography

Rhydderch was born in

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth (; ) is a University town, university and seaside town and a community (Wales), community in Ceredigion, Wales. It is the largest town in Ceredigion and from Aberaeron, the county's other administrative centre. In 2021, the popula ...

. She obtained a BA in Modern Languages from

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

, Cambridge, and a PhD in English from

Aberystwyth University Aberystwyth University () is a Public university, public Research university, research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 stude ...

. Rhydderch worked as the Editorial Assistant at ''Planet: The Welsh Internationalist'', and became Associate Editor of the magazine in 1999. As the recipient of a BBC/ Tŷ Newydd bursary in 2010, she attended the creative writing course led by BBC Executive Producer Kate McAll and novelist Patricia Duncker. She was appointed Editor of ''New Welsh Review'' in 2002. In 2015, she and Penny Thomas edited the ''New Welsh Short Stories.'' Rhydderch has been a Creative Writing Associate Professor at

Swansea University Swansea University () is a public university, public research university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. It was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it chang ...

since 2015.

Awards

* ''The Rice Paper Diaries'' was longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and won the Wales Book of the Year Award 2014 for Fiction. * ''The Taxidermist’s Daughter'' was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award in 2014. * The Welsh play, ''Cyfaill'', was shortlisted for the Theatre Critics Wales Best Playwright Award 2014. * In July 2015, Professor Matthew Francis from the Department of English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University presented Dr Rhydderch as Fellow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhydderch, Fran 1969 births Living people 20th-century Welsh people 21st-century Welsh educators 21st-century Welsh novelists 21st-century Welsh women writers 21st-century Welsh writers Writers from Aberystwyth Alumni of Aberystwyth University Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Academics of Swansea University Welsh scholars and academics Welsh women novelists 20th-century Welsh women educators 20th-century Welsh educators 21st-century Welsh women educators