Dilys Cadwaladr (19 March 1902 – January 1979) was a

Welsh-language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has als ...

poet and fiction writer. Her work also gained readers in English translation.

First female crowned bard

Dilys Cadwaladr is notable for being the first woman to win the Crown at the

National Eisteddfod of Wales The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Eur ...

. This she achieved in 1953 at

Rhyl Rhyl (; cy, Y Rhyl, ) is a seaside town and community (Wales), community in Denbighshire, Wales. The town lies within the Historic counties of Wales, historic boundaries of Flintshire (historic), Flintshire, on the north-east coast of Wales at ...

. Her story "The Foolish Maid" appears in English translation in the collection ''My Heart on My Sleeve'' (Honno Welsh Women's Press,

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth () is a university and seaside town as well as a community in Ceredigion, Wales. Located in the historic county of Cardiganshire, means "the mouth of the Ystwyth". Aberystwyth University has been a major educational location in ...

, 2013), which remained in print in 2020. Earlier, her story "The Divorce" had appeared in English in 1928 in the periodical ''The Welsh Outlook".

Personal life

Cadwaladr had a close relationship with the elderly poet

Dewi Emrys Dewi Emrys was the pen-name of the west Wales poet David Emrys James (28 May 1881 – 20 September 1952), who wrote in the Welsh language. He was born at Majorca House in New Quay, Cardiganshire. His father, Thomas Emrys James, was a minister of t ...

(1881–1952), by whom she had a daughter in 1930. Dilys Cadwaladr lived on Bardsey Island for several years in the 1940s, as a farmer and as the schoolteacher to the island's children.

References

1902 births 1979 deaths Crowned bards 20th-century Welsh poets {{Wales-writer-stub