Cyhoeddi enillwyr Gwobr Emyr Humphreys / Emyr Humphreys Award Winners Announced

Mae’n bleser gan Wales PEN Cymru gyhoeddi mai enillwyr cyntaf Gwobr Emyr Humphreys yw Mererid Hopwood a Mark S Redfern. 

Daw’r cyhoeddiad ar ddiwrnod pen-blwydd yr awdur yn 101 mlwydd oed.  

Cystadleuaeth yw hon sy’n gwobrwyo’r ysgrif neu’r erthygl fwyaf beiddgar ac arloesol am Gymru, yn Gymraeg ac yn Saesneg, a gyhoeddwyd yn ystod 2019, sef canmlwyddiant Emyr Humphreys. 

Dywedodd Menna Elfyn, Llywydd PEN Cymru: 

“Mae’n anodd meddwl am awdur arall yng Nghymru sydd wedi gwneud mwy o gyfraniad dros y ddwy iaith nag Emyr Humphreys; yn gyntaf wrth gwrs, gyda’r gweithiau Saesneg: ei nofelau, ei ddramâu, ei gerddi a’i sgriptiau. Pa ffordd well i gydnabod ei gyfraniad, a dathlu ei ben-blwydd yn 100, na thrwy sefydlu gwobr arbennig yn enw PEN Cymru, sefydliad sydd fel Emyr ei hun wedi gweithio’n ddygn dros ryddid mynegiant yn ogystal â hyrwyddo llenyddiaeth ymhob gwlad.” 

Enwebwyd y darnau gan aelodau PEN Cymru, a dewiswyd yr enillwyr o blith y rhestr hir gan y beirniaid Siân Northey, Eluned Gramich a’r Athro Daniel Williams.   

Gwobrwyir Mererid Hopwood am ei herthygl ‘Doethineb Iaith’, a gyhoeddwyd yn O’r Pedwar Gwynt fis Awst 2019.  

Dywed Siân Northey yn ei beirniadaeth: 

“Roedd rhesymeg glir Mererid Hopwood a’i defnydd hyblyg o iaith naturiol i gyfleu’r rhesymeg honno yn llwyddo i greu darn a fydd o ddiddordeb i bawb, yng Nghymru a thu hwnt, sydd â diddordeb yn y berthynas rhwng iaith a hunaniaeth.” 

Mae Mererid Hopwood wedi bod yn dysgu am ran helaeth o’r ddeng mlynedd ar hugain diwethaf ym maes iaith a llenyddiaeth, a bellach mae hi’n Athro Ieithoedd a’r Cwricwlwm Cymreig ym Mhrifysgol Cymru y Drindod Dewi Sant. 

Gwobrwyir Mark S Redfern am ei ysgrif ‘When Vice came to Swansea’, a gyhoeddwyd yn Planet, Gaeaf 2019. Mae’r ysgrif yn disgrifio ac yn beirniadu fideo ddogfen a wnaethpwyd gan Vice ac a ddaeth yn boblogaeth ar YouTube.  

Dywed Siân Northey yn ei beirniadaeth: 

“Esbonia’n glir fod Cymru angen cyfryngau sydd yn gallu adrodd yn gyfrifol am y defnydd o gyffuriau. Yr ensyniad rhesymegol o hynny, er nad yw Redfern yn ei ddweud, yw fod Cymru angen cyfryngau sydd yn gallu adrodd yn gyfrifol am bopeth yn ein gwlad.” 

Ganwyd Mark S Redfern, newyddiadurwr ymchwiliol addawol, yn Swindon a’i fagu yn Llandrindod, lle y mae’n byw ar hyn o bryd. Mae ganddo hanner radd newyddiaduraeth o Brifysgol Goldsmiths, a bu’n gweithio mewn sawl swydd dros dro. Enillodd hefyd Gystadleuaeth Traethawd Awduron Ifanc 2019 cylchgrawn Planet gyda’r ysgrif hon. Mae’n ysgrifennu i wefan newyddion Cymreig lawr gwlad, voice.wales.  

Cyflwynir gwobr o £500 yr un i’r ddau enillydd a chynhelir digwyddiad ar-lein ddiwedd y mis, yng nghwmni’r enillwyr a’r beirniaid, lle bydd cyfle i glywed darlleniad o’r darnau buddugol.

Trefnwyd y gystadleuaeth gan Wales PEN Cymru, drwy nawdd y Gymdeithas Ddysgedig yng Nghymru, Cronfa Goffa Saunders Lewis, HMM Foundation, a nifer o gyfranwyr unigol.

Wales PEN Cymru are pleased to announce that the inaugural prize winners of the Emyr Humphreys Award are Mererid Hopwood and Mark S Redfern. 

The announcement comes on the author’s 101st birthday.  

The award is given to the most daring and innovative writing about Wales, in Welsh and in English, published during 2019 – Emyr Humphrey’s centenary. 

Menna Elfyn, Wales PEN Cymru President, said: 

“It is difficult to think of another literary figure who has contributed more to the two literatures of Wales than Emyr Humphreys. He has published some two dozen works of fiction, plays and scripts for television, poetry collections, seminal essays as well as a visionary cultural history of Wales. This achievement is indeed remarkable, to have sustained a remarkable career spanning over seventy years as a writer. What better way to note his achievement, and celebrate his 100th birthday, than establishing an award in Wales PEN Cymru’s name, an institution that, like Emyr himself, advocates freedom of speech and promotes literature in every country.”

The pieces were nominated by PEN Cymru members, and the winners was selected from the long list by the adjudicators Siân Northey, Eluned Gramich and Professor Daniel Williams.

Mererid Hopwood is awarded for her essayDoethineb Iaith (‘Wisdom of Language’), published in the Summer 2019 issue of O’r Pedwar Gwynt.  

Siân Northey says in her adjudication: 

“Mererid Hopwood’s clear rationale and her linguistic agility to naturally convey that rationale succeeds in creating a piece that will be of interest to everyone in Wales and beyond who is interested in the relationship between language and identity.”

Mererid Hopwood has been teaching for most of the last thirty years in the field of language and literature. She is now Professor of Languages and Welsh Curriculum at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.  

Mark S Redfern is awarded for his essay When Vice came to Swansea’, published in Planet, Winter 2019. The essay describes, and criticises, a documentary video made by Vice which became a population on YouTube.  

In her adjudication, Siân Northey says: 

“It explains clearly that Wales needs media that can responsibly report on drug use. The rational implication of that, although Redfern does not say it, is that Wales needs media that can report responsibly on everything in our country.”   

Mark S Redfern, a rising talent as an investigative journalist, was born in Swindon and raised in Llandrindod Wells, which is where he currently resides. He has one-half of a journalism BA from Goldsmiths University, and has worked several transient jobs. He also won Planet magazine’s 2019 Young Writers’ Essay Competition with this essay. He writes for the grassroots Welsh news website voice.wales. 

Both winners are awarded £500 each, and an online event will be held at the end of the month, with the winners and adjudicators, where there will be an opportunity to hear a reading of the winning pieces.

The prize is organised by Wales PEN Cymru, with support from the Learned Society of Wales, Saunders Lewis Memorial Fund, HMM Foundation, and a number of individuals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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