Cell Angel by Menna Elfyn
When Menna Elfyn published her bilingual selected poems Eucalyptus in 1995, Tony Conran called her ‘the first Welsh poet in fifteen hundred years to make a serious attempt to have her work known outside Wales’. This new collection, which explores many areas of contemporary experience, will take her work further afield. The book’s title is double-edged: her cell is not just prison but also a place for contemplation, while her angel is both Eastern and Christian. Drawing on Tibetan Tulku thought as well as Indian Boddhisattva, these powerful poems embody Menna Elfyn’s restless search for the spiritual within the earthly. Facing the Welsh originals are translations by Joseph Clancy, Gillian Clarke, Tony Conran and Elin ap Hywel.
Menna Elfyn is one of the foremost Welsh-language writers. As well as being an award-winning poet, she has published plays, libretti and children’s novels, and co-edited The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry (2003) with John Rowlands. Her books include two bilingual selections, Eucalyptus: Detholiad o Gerddi / Selected Poems 1978-1994 (Gomer Press, 1995), and Perfect Blemish: New & Selected Poems / Perffaith Nam: Dau Ddetholiad & Cherddi Newydd 1995-2007 (Bloodaxe Books, 2007), a Welsh-only selection Merch Perygl: Cerddi 1976-2011 (Gomer Press, 2011), and two later bilingual collections from Bloodaxe, Murmur (2012), a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation, and Bondo (October 2017). Optimist Absoliwt: Cofiant Eluned Phillips, her biography of the poet Eluned Phillips, was published (in Welsh) by Gomer Press in 2016. When not travelling the world for readings and residencies, she lives in Carmarthen. She was Wales’s National Children’s Laureate in 2002, and was made President of Wales PEN Cymru in 2014. She was, until 2016, Creative Director in the School of Cultural Studies at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David; she is also Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781852243845 |
| ISBN 10 | 1852243848 |
| Title | Cell Angel |
| Author | Menna Elfyn |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Bloodaxe Books Ltd |
| Year published | 1996-11-21 |
| Number of pages | 112 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |