Welsh (Plural): Essays on the Future of Wales is a 2022 Welsh non-fiction book. Edited by Darren Chetty, Hanan Issa, Grug Muse, and Iestyn Tyne, the book gathers an anthology of essays about Welsh identity and its future.

Summary

The book contains 19 essays from various Welsh writers, including Hanan Issa, Joe Dunthorne, Mike Parker,

Niall Griffiths Niall Griffiths (born 1966) is an English author of novels and short stories, set predominantly in Wales. His works include the novels ''Grits'' and ''Sheepshagger'', travel guides to Aberystwyth and Liverpool, and a book of poetry. He has won t ...

, Marvin Thompson, Morgan Owen, Iestyn Tyne and

Cerys Hafana Cerys Hafana is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from Machynlleth, Wales. They are a member of AVANC ( (English: The Youth Folk Ensemble of Wales)). In 2022, they released the album ''Edyf'', based on songs found in the National Library of W ...

. In an interview with the BBC, Issa stated that book originated in part from "frustrations of how narrow the perception of Welshness is" while Chetty stated in an interview with The Bookseller that "the three Cs of castles, coal and choirs are all important to thinking about present-day Welshness, but they are far from the whole story."

Reception

Jude Rogers of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' wrote that the essays in the book "stress that Wales is no utopia" and that "reading these voices under the label of Welshness is an energising experience, nevertheless, reminding us of how far the country has come and, also, how far it has to go." Emma Schofield of the Wales Arts Review wrote that the essays "are thoughtful and reflective, but made personal by the honesty of the stories told by the contributors" and that the book "does not dismiss the decades of discussion about Welsh identity which preceded it, but throws down a challenge to anyone still clinging to the idea that outdated notions of identity can still applied to contemporary Wales." Jon Gower of

Nation.Cymru Nation.Cymru is a Wales, Welsh news service established in 2017 with the aim of creating a national English-language news service for Wales (). It receives £20,000 a year from the Books Council of Wales and the rest of its financial support com ...

described the anthology as "eminently readable and energetic" with "some exceedingly powerful pieces of writing." Kirill Kobrin of

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the Tribune of the Plebs, tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs ac ...

said that the essays "bear witness about Welsh identity of their authors, about their involvement in this identity, about their attitude to it and—of course!—about how they struggle to construct it" and that "these evidences of the experience of belonging to the entity called Wales are priceless."

References

{{reflist Books about Wales Culture of Wales