(14) Gwestai Chris Harris fydd Menna Elfyn a Mererid Hopwood:
Ceisio’r Neuadd Fawr (Seeking the Large Hall)
Saturday 17th April | 4-4:45pm | Free
Ceisio’r Neuadd Fawr
Yn ystod y sesiwn hon bydd Menna a Mererid yn gobeithio ymestyn ychydig ar gyfyng furiau’r Clo drwy gyfrwng cerddi. A’r ddwy yn eu stafelloedd eu hunain naill ochr i Afon Tywi mae’r Wyl yn eich gwahodd yn gynnes i chi ymuno â nhw i deithio i’r môr ac i ben y mynydd. Bydd y sesiwn yn Gymraeg gyda geiriau’r cerddi’n ymddangos ar y sgrîn yn gymorth i ddysgwyr yr iaith.
Seeking the Large Hall
During this session Menna and Mererid will try to expand the narrow walls of Lockdown through poetry. As they both sit in their own rooms on either side of the river Tywi, the Festival extends a warm welcome to you to join them on a journey to the edge of seas and the summit of mountains. The session will be in Welsh with the words of the poems appearing on the screen as an aid for learners of the language.
Simultaneous translation will be available at this event.
If you’ve already registered under another event there is no need to sign up again. One link will allow you access to any free event across the weekend so that you can drop in and out of the ones you’re most interested in.
The Festival is organising the bookselling in partnership with bookshop.org. There’s an expanded range of Festival titles for each event available from our bookshop.org affiliate shop. Take a look at them here. If you buy from our shop, you are supporting the Festival, the writers, the publishers, and, thanks to the way bookshop.org operates, independent booksellers generally.

Mererid Hopwood
Enillodd Mererid Gadair, Coron a Medal Ryddiaith yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol. Enillodd ei chasgliad o gerddi, Nes Draw, wobr barddoniaeth Llyfr y Flwyddyn (2016). Bu’n fardd plant Cymru ac enillodd wobr Tir na n’Og am ysgrifennu i blant yn 2018. Mae Mererid wedi cyfansoddi geiriau ar gyfer cerddorion, artistiaid gweledol a dawnswyr, ac wedi cymryd rhan mewn gwyliau llenyddol yn Ewrop, Asia a De America. Mae’n Gymrawd y Gymdeithas Ddysgedig, yn ysgrifennydd Academi Heddwch Cymru ac yn llywydd anrhydeddus Cymdeithas Waldo Williams. Hi yw Cymrawd Rhyngwladol Gŵyl y Gelli eleni.
Mererid has won the Chair and Crown for poetry at the National Eisteddfod and the national Prose Medal. Her collection of poems, Nes Draw, won the Welsh language Book of the Year award for poetry in 2016. She has been Children Laureate for Wales and is winner of the Tir na n’Og prize for children’s writing, 2018. Mererid has written for collaborations with musicians, visual artists and dancers and has taken part in literature festivals in Europe, Asia and South America. She is a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, secretary of Academi Heddwch Cymru and honorary president of the Waldo Williams Society. She is this year’s Hay Festival International Fellow.

Mererid Hopwood – Nes Draw
£9.99
Gomer
ISBN: 9781785620843

Menna Elfyn
Menna Elfyn – mae’n fardd arobryn sydd wedi cyhoeddi
pedair ar ddeg cyfrol o farddoniaeth gyda Gwasg Gomer a Bloodaxe Books. Cyfieithwyd ei gwaith i ddeunaw iaith ac yn 2021, bydd Bondo (Bloodaxe Books, 2017) yn ymddangos
yn Sbaeneg ac Eidaleg. Dewiswyd Murmur (Bloodaxe Books, 2012) fel y cyfieithiad a gymeradwyodd y Poetry Book Society a’r cyntaf yn Gymraeg a Saesneg i gael ei ddewis. Ysgrifennodd libretti ar gyfer cyfansoddwyr yng ngwledydd Prydain ac yn yr Unol Daleithiau, a pherfformiwyd Garden of Light, symffoni gorawl gan Gerddorfa Ffilharmonig Efrog Newydd yn 1999 fel rhan o ddathliadau y Mileniwm a gomisiynwyd gan Gorfforaeth Disney. Cyhoeddodd Cennad (Barddas, 2017) gan olrhain ei siwrne llenyddol i Wyliau a
phreswylfeydd ar draws y byd. Ysgrifennodd nifer o
ddramâu llwyfan, radio a theledu yn ogystal â rhai dogfennol.
Mae’n Athro Emerita ym Mhrifysgol Cymru, y Drindod
Dewi Sant; yn Gymrawd y Gymdeithas Lenyddol Frenhinol; Y Gronfa Lenyddol Frenhinol, a’r Gymdeithas Ddysgedig yng Nghymru. Bu’n Fardd Plant Cymru, ac mae’n Llywydd Wales PEN Cymru. Mae’n golofnydd gyda’r Western Mail ers
1995.
Menna Elfyn is an award winning poet and has published fourteen collections of poetry with Gomer Press and Bloodaxe Books. Her work has been translated into eighteen languages and in 2021, Bondo (Bloodaxe Books, 2017) will appear in Spanish and Italian. Murmur (Bloodaxe
Books, 2012) was selected as Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation, the first book in Welsh/ English to be chosen. She has written libretti for UK and US composers, and a Choral Symphony, Garden of Light was performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the Millennium celebrations in 1999 commissioned by Disney Corporation. Her literary memoir Cennad (Barddas, 2017)
traces her literary journey to festivals and residences across the globe. She has also written numerous plays for stage, radio and television as well as documentaries.
She is Professor Emeritus at University of Wales, Trinity Saint David; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; Royal Literary Fund Fellow and Learned Society of Wales Fellow. A former Children Laureate for Wales, she is Honorary
President of Wales PEN Cymru and columnist with the Western Mail since 1995.

Menna Elfyn – Cwsg
£9.99
Gomer
ISBN: 9781785622984

Menna Elfyn – Cenna
£12.95
Barddas
ISBN: 9781911584063

Menna Elfyn – Bondo
£12
Bloodaxe
ISBN: 9781780373881

Christopher Harris
Gwneuthurwr theatr o ardal Cwmbrân yn ne Cymru yw Chris Harris. Mae’n gweithio trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg a’r Saesneg ac mae wedi gweithio gyda’r cwmnïau canlynol yn y gorffennol: Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, Dutch National Opera, Ensemble Modern, Theatr y Sherman, National Theatre Wales, Cwmni Theatr Arad Goch, Opera’r Ddraig ac Canolfan y Celfyddydau Aberystwyth. Ar hyn o bryd, mae’n gweithio ar nifer o brosiectau annibynnol ar ledled Cymru, gyda’r obaith mae coesau ganddyn nh.
Chris is a Welsh theatre-maker and has worked with Theatr
Genedlaethol Cymru, Theatrau Sir Gar, Cwmni Theatr Arad
Goch, Dutch National Opera, Ensemble Modern, Sherman Theatre, National Theatre Wales, Opera’r Ddraig and Aberystwyth Arts Centre. He is currently working on many new ideas with artists and companies across Wales in the hope they have some legs.

Lynwen Davies (Simultaneous interpreter)
Mae gan Lynwen ugain mlynedd a mwy o brofiad yn cyfieithu ar y pryd, a hynny mewn amrywiaeth o feysydd yn cynnwys addysg, amaeth, llywodraeth leol, y celfyddydau a’r gwasanaeth llysoedd, i enwi rai. Mae hefyd yn Ddarlithydd Cysylltiol gyda Phrifysgol Cymru y Drindod Dewi Sant ac yn cyfrannu i’w Cwrs Ôl-radd mewn Cyfieithu ar y pryd, a hefyd yn ddiweddar bu’n gyfrifol am greu Llwyfan Cyfieithu ar y pryd i’r proffesiwn trwy nawdd Llywodraeth Cymru.
Mae’n byw ar fferm yn Sir Gâr, gyda’i gŵr a dau o blant Cai a Miri.
Lynwen has more than twenty years experience of simultaneous interpretation, in a variety of areas including education, agriculture, local government, the arts and courts service, to name a few. She is also Associate Lecturer with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David teaching on their Postgraduate Course in Simultaneous Interpretation, and also more recently was responsible for creating a training Platform for Interpreters funded by Welsh Government. She lives on a farm in Carmarthenshire, with her husband and children Cai and Miri.