Guto Dafydd (born c.1990) is a Welsh poet and novelist, who writes in the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

. He has twice won the

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...

at the

National Eisteddfod of Wales The National Eisteddfod of Wales ( Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Europe. Competito ...

and is twice winner of the Daniel Owen Prize for a novel.

Background

Guto Dafydd was born in

Pwllheli Pwllheli ( ; ) is a market town and community on the Llŷn Peninsula (), in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It had a population of 4,076 in 2011, which declined slightly to 3,947 in 2021; a large proportion (81%) were Welsh language, Welsh speaking. ...

and began winning prizes for both poetry and prose in local competitions while he was still a pupil at Ysgol Uwchradd Glan y Mor. In 2013, the year before his first National Eisteddfod win, he won the Urdd National Eisteddfod Crown. Guto Dafydd has a wife named Lisa and two children, Casi Mallt and Nedw Lludd. He works for the Welsh Language Commissioner. In 2015 he was diagnosed with

fibromatosis The term fibromatosis refers to a group of soft tissue tumors which have certain characteristics in common, including absence of cytologic and clinical malignant features, a histology consistent with proliferation of well-differentiated fibroblast ...

, which resulted in his having to undergo

radiotherapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy (RT, RTx, or XRT) is a treatment using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer therapy to either kill or control the growth of malignant cells. It is normally delivered by a linear particle ...

; he used this experience in his novel, ''Ymbelydredd'', which won the Daniel Owen Prize (Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen) in the following year. When he was awarded the crown in 2014, he became one of the youngest ever winners. His second win was in 2019, when he performed a double by also winning the Daniel Owen Prize for ''Carafanio''.

Works

Source:

Poetry

*''Ni Bia’r Awyr'' (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas, 2014)

Novels

*''Jac'' (Y Lolfa, 2014) *''Stad'' (Y Lolfa, 2015) *''Ymbelydredd'' (Y Lolfa, 2016) *''Carafanio'' (Y Lolfa, 2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dafydd, Guto 1990s births Welsh-language poets Welsh-language novelists Living people People from Pwllheli