Robert Minhinnick (born 12 August 1952) is a Welsh poet, essayist, novelist and translator. He has won two Forward Prizes for Best Individual Poem and has received the

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

award a record three times (in 1993, 2006 and 2018).

Biography

Minhinnick was born in

Neath Neath (; ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community situated in the Neath Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a population of 19,2 ...

, and now lives in

Porthcawl Porthcawl () is a town and community in the Bridgend County Borough of Wales. It is located on the south coast, west of Cardiff and south-east of Swansea. Historically part of Glamorgan and situated on a low limestone headland on the South ...

. He studied at

University of Wales, Aberystwyth Aberystwyth University () is a public research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 students studying across three academic facul ...

, and

University of Wales, Cardiff Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

. An environmental campaigner, he co-founded the charities Friends of the Earth (Cymru) and Sustainable Wales. His work deals with both Welsh and international themes. He has published seven poetry collections and several volumes of essays. He edited the magazine, ''

Poetry Wales ''Poetry Wales'' is a triannual poetry magazine published in Bridgend, Wales. Founded by Meic Stephens and now published by Seren, it is edited by Zoë Brigley. Since its first publication in 1965, the magazine has built an international repu ...

'' from 1997 until 2008. He has also translated poems from contemporary Welsh poets for an anthology, ''The Adulterer's Tongue''. His first novel, ''Sea Holly'', was published in autumn 2007.

Awards

Minhinnick won the

Forward Prize The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...

for Best Individual Poem in 1999 for 'Twenty-five Laments for Iraq', and again in 2003 for 'The Fox in the National Museum of Wales'. His poem ‘The Castaway’ was also shortlisted in 2004. He has also won an

Eric Gregory Award The Eric Gregory Award is a literary award given annually by the Society of Authors for a collection by United Kingdom poets under the age of 30. The award was founded in 1960 by Dr. Eric Gregory to support and encourage young poets. Past winne ...

(1980) and a

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards ( ) are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...

(1998), both awarded by the

Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. Membership of the society is open to "anyon ...

to British poets. Minhinnick has won the English-language

award a record three times: in 1993 for his essay collection ''Watching the fire-eater'', in 2006 for his essay collection ''To Babel and Back'' and in 2018 for his poetry collection ''Diary of the Last Man''. His win with ''Diary of the Last Man'' in 2018 also meant that Minhinnick had received the award in each of the three decades of its existence.

Works

Poetry

*''The Yellow Palm'' (1998) *''A Thread in the Maze'' Christopher Davies, 1978 *''Native Ground'' Triskele, 1979, *''Life Sentences'' Poetry Wales Press, 1983, *''The Dinosaur Park'' Poetry Wales, 1985, *''The Looters'' Seren, 1989, *''Hey Fatman'' Seren, 1994, *''Selected Poems'' Carcanet, 1999, *''After the Hurricane'' Carcanet, 2002 *''King Driftwood'' Carcanet Press, 2008, *''After the Stealth Bomber'' *''New Selected Poems'', Carcanet, 2012, *''Diary of the Last Man'', Carcanet, 2017

Novels

*''Sea Holly'' Seren, 2007, *''Limestone Man'' Seren Books, 2015,

Short stories

*''The Keys of Babylon'' (2011) Seren Press

Essays

*''Watching the fire-eater'' Seren Books, 1992, *''The Green Agenda: Essays on The Environment of Wales'' (ed.) (1994) Seren Press *''Badlands'' (Seren, 1996, *'' To Babel and Back'' (2005)

Translation

*''The Adulterer's Tongue: Six Welsh Poets: A Facing-Text Anthology'' (ed., transl.) (2003)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Minhinnick, Robert 1952 births Living people Anglo-Welsh poets Alumni of Aberystwyth University Alumni of Cardiff University Welsh environmentalists People from Neath People educated at Ysgol Brynteg Anglo-Welsh novelists Welsh male poets 21st-century Welsh poets 21st-century British male writers 21st-century Welsh writers