Welsh (Plural) Essays on the Future of Wales

Some of the most exciting writers in and from Wales consider the future of Wales and the UK and their place in it.

What does it mean to imagine Wales and ‘The Welsh’ as something both distinct and inclusive? In Welsh (Plural), some of the foremost Welsh writers consider the future of Wales and their place in it.

For many people, Wales brings to mind the same old collection of images – if it’s not rugby, sheep and leeks, it’s the 3 Cs: castles, coal, and choirs. Heritage, mining and the church are indeed integral parts of Welsh culture. But what of the other stories that point us toward a Welsh future? In this anthology of essays, authors offer imaginative, radical perspectives on the future of Wales as they take us beyond the clichés and binaries that so often shape thinking about Wales and Welshness.

Includes essays from Charlotte Williams (A Tolerant Nation?), Joe Dunthorne (Submarine, The Adulterants), Niall Griffiths (Sheepshagger, Broken Ghost), Rabab Ghazoul (Gentle / Radical Turner Prize Nominee), Mike Parker (On the Red Hill), Martin Johnes (Wales Since 1939, Wales: England’s Colony?), Kandace Siobhan Walker (2019 Guardian 4th Estate Prize Winner), Gary Raymond (Golden Orphans, Wales Arts Review, BBC Wales), Darren Chetty (The Good Immigrant), Andy Welch (The Guardian), Marvin Thompson (Winner 2021 UK Poetry Prize), Durre Shahwar (Where I’m Coming From), Hanan Issa (My Body Can House Two Hearts), Dan Evans (Desolation Radio), Shaheen Sutton, Morgan Owen, Iestyn Tyne, Grug Muse and Cerys Hafana.

Darren Chetty is a writer from Swansea. He is the author of What Is Masculinity? Why does it Matter? And Other Big Questions andHow To Disagree: Negotiate Difference In A Divided World.

Grug Muse is a writer, editor and researcher from Dyffryn Nantlle. Her first poetry collection, Ar Ddisberod, was published by Barddas in 2017.

Hanan Issa is a writer, poet, and artist who lives and was raised in Cardiff. Her debut pamphlet My Body Can House Two Hearts was published by Burning Eye Books in 2019. 

Iestyn Tyne is a writer and musician based in Caernarfon. He has published three volumes of poetry and is the National Eisteddfod's poet in residence.