Gods with Stainless Ears: Lynette Roberts Conference, Dylan Thomas Festival, Swansea, Saturday 31 October 10am - 5pm

October 31, 2009

2009 is the centenary of the birth of Lynette Roberts,(1909-1995), the modernist war poet who produced her most important work in West Wales.Organised in association with the University of Oxford, CREW (Swansea University), the Dylan Thomas Festival and Carcanet Press, the conference will open on Friday 30th with a showing of the recent BBC4 film about Roberts (see separate posting on this WPA website), in the company of writer and presenter Owen Sheers, and end on Saturday 31st with a poetry reading by poets from Wales and beyond. Conference speakers will include Deryn Rees-Jones, Patrick McGuinness, Stella Halkyard, John Goodby, Charles Mundye, Zoe Skoulding. The poets will be Deryn Rees-Jones, Menna Elfyn and Nigel Jenkins. Angharad Rhys, Lynette's daughter, will talk about her mother's life, and there will be an exhibition of photographs, books and papers from the Lynette Roberts family archive. More information and a full conference programme are available from Professor Patrick McGuinness, St Anne's College, University of Oxford, OX26HS, E-mail: patrick.mcguinness@st-annes.ox.ac.uk Registration should be made with the Dylan Thomas Centre, tel: 01792 463980. Cost for attendance at the Saturday conference, including reception, poetry reading, and tea and coffee is £40.00. Concessions: £30.00. An open reading of some of the works of this extraordinary Welsh modernist poet, by fellow poets and admirers of her work, including Nigel Jenkins, Menna Elfyn, Deryn Rees-Jones and Margot Morgan. Further details from the Dylan Thomas Festival website.