The news was announced on the BBC Radio Cymru’s Stiwdio programme at 9.00 pm on Monday 2 August where presenter Nia Roberts was joined by two of the judges Esyllt Sears and Guto Dafydd, and the winners themselves.
tu ôl i’r awyr is a pioneering début novel by Megan Angharad Hunter. It follows the journey of two teenage characters, Deian and Anest, and their amazing relationship set against the backdrop of the angst of their lives. This is a novel that will move you to tears and make you laugh out loud as you wonder at the author’s skill in delving deep into the minds of two characters who will remain with you for a long time.
Megan Angharad Hunter comes from Dyffryn Nantlle and is currently studying Welsh and Philosophy at Cardiff University. Her work has been published in bothY Stamp and O’r Pedwar Gwynt magazines, and in 2020 she was selected to receive a Literature Wales New Writer’s Bursary. tu ôl i’r awyr is her first novel.
Mynd is a collection of poetry for Dafydd Tudur, Marged’s brother. The volume deals with loss and grief but above all, it is a collection of poems about love.
Marged Tudur comes from Morfa Nefyn, and now lives in Caernarfon. A graduate in Welsh from Aberystwyth University, she received an MA in Creative Writing and was awarded a PhD for her study on reading lyrics from Welsh pop songs from the last fifty years as literature. She works as an editor. Megan received a 2019 Literature Wales Writer’s Bursary to work on this poetry collection.
Both Megan and Marged are also eligible to win the Golwg360 Gwobr Barn y Bobl as well as the Overall Welsh-language Wales Book of the Year Award 2021. The judges of this year’s Welsh-language books are poet and writer Guto Dafydd; writer, presenter, and former Bardd Plant Cymru, Anni Llŷn; writer, academic and lecturer, Tomos Owen; and comedian and writer, Esyllt Sears.
Esyllt Sears, on behalf of the judging panel, said: “In what has been a difficult and strange year for everyone in different ways, having something to indulge in – to pull you away from life’s daily chaos – has been invaluable. That was certainly my experience. So, as well as being a huge privilege to be part of the judging panel for the 2021 Book of the Year, being able to escape to other worlds for an hour or two a day for a perfectly valid reason was a real pleasure and I’m very excited to share our favourites with the nation.”