Hillary Llewelyn-Williams - Poetry Upstairs at The Melville Centre for the Arts

The Little Hours poet Hilary Llewellyn-Williams is joined by Ann Gray and David Woolley as they read their poetry at the Melville Centre for Arts, Pen-Y-Pound, Abergavenny NP7 5UD.

Ann Gray has an MA in Creative writing from the University of Plymouth. Her collections include At The Gate (Headland, 2008), The Man I Was Promised (Headland, 2004), and most recently, a pamphlet, I wish I had more mothers a winner in the Smith/Doorstop pamphlet competition 2018. She was Poet in residence at Cambridge University Botanic Gardens as part of the Thresholds University Museums Project, curated by the Poet Laureate in 2013.  Winner of the Ballymaloe poetry prize in 2014, “My Blue Hen” was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for the best single poem in 2015. With David she was co-director of the Bodmin Moor Poetry festival. 

David Woolley has published one pamphlet and three full collections, the latest being Pursued by a Bear(Headland, 2010). A long poem, City of Water, celebrating his home city of Plymouth is due in autumn 2022  from Kiss & Bite Letterpress. He has also co-edited anthologies of poems in celebration of both Bob Dylan and The Beatles, both published by Seren. David was in charge of events and festivals at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea for fifteen years. He has more recently been co-director, with Ann, of the Bodmin Moor Poetry Festival in Cornwall. Together Ann and David live and work in Cornwall where Ann has run a care home for people with dementia for more than thirty years. David has worked with Ann at the home for the last ten years, and they will read from their joint collection Dear Life (Scryfa) which came off the press in February 2020, but was only launched properly in July 2022. 

Hilary Llewellyn-Williams is the author of six poetry collections from Seren, the latest of which (The Little Hours: New and Selected Poems) was published in July 2022. She had a long career as a poet and teacher of creative writing before qualifying as a psychotherapist in 2009. Her poems are rich in imagery and rooted in the natural world and in the mysteries of relationship. She has been called “a metaphysical poet for our times”.  Returning to the poetry circuit after many years’ absence she is delighted to be invited to read for Poetry Upstairs. She now lives in Abergavenny.