Dafydd Rowlands
David Rowlands (25 December 1931 – 26 April 2001) was a Congregational minister, lecturer, and writer. Rowlands won the crown at the National Eisteddfod in 1969 and 1972, and was made archdruid in 1996.
Life history
Rowlands was born in Pontardawe in 1931 and was educated at Swansea and later the Presbyterian College in Carmarthen.[1] After leaving education he became a Congregational minister. Leaving the ministry he went to teach at Garw Grammar School in 1968 and was appointed to the staff of Trinity College Carmarthen, in the Welsh Department, and later wrote scripts for television, including the popular Welsh language programme Licrys Olsorts. He has three sons.
In 1969 Rowlands was awarded the crown at the National Eisteddfod in 1969 held at Flint for his sequence of poems I Gwestiynau fy Mab. He was again awarded the crown in 1972, this time in Pembrokeshire with his work 'Dadeni'.[2] and that same year he won the Prose Medal for his volume of essays Ysgrifau yr Hanner Bardd. This was followed by three collections of poetry, Meini (1972), Yr Wythfed (1975) and Sobers a Fi (1995) and in 1980 he produced a pamphlet of prose poetry Paragraffau o Serbia.[2] In 1977 Rowlands wrote the experimental Mae Theomemphus yn Hen, a prose novel in the Welsh language. In the novel he explored his relationship with his father in an uncompromisig self-examination, rarely seen in Modern Welsh literature.[2] He was archdruid (David Rowland) from 1996 to 1999.
References
- ↑ Davies, John; Jenkins, Nigel; Menna, Baines; Lynch, Peredur I., eds. (2008). The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 778. ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6.
- 1 2 3 Stephens, Meic, ed. (1998). The New Companion to the Literature of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. pp. 656–657. ISBN 0-7083-1383-3.