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The
Welsh Academy Academi
is the operating name of Yr Academi Gymreig / The Welsh Academy, the
national society which exists to promote the writers and the literatures
of Wales. Yr
Academi Gymreig, the national society of writers in Wales, was founded
in 1959 on the basis of conversations between Bobi Jones and Waldo
Williams, writers in Welsh who chose the adjective Cymreig (lit: of
Wales) rather than Cymraeg (lit: Welsh-medium) to allow the subsequent
inclusion of writers in English, and other artists. The creation of
an English-language section in 1968 was the result of an initiative
by Meic Stephens, in his then capacity as Literature Director of the
Welsh Arts Council (now The Arts Council of Wales), in association
with members of the Guild of Welsh Writers, a group based mainly in
London.The society exists to promote literature in Wales and to assist
in maintaining its standards by providing a forum for writers. With
funds mostly provided from public sources, it has been constitutionally
independent since 1978 and has its own offices in Cardiff. In 1998
the Society took on a much enlarged role when it won the Arts Council
of Wales's franchise to provide a Welsh National Literature Promotion
Agency. |
Yr Academi
Gymreig