Robert Minhinnick

Robert Minhinnick (born 1952) is a Welsh poet, essayist, novelist and translator.

Life
Minhinnick was born in Neath, and now lives in Porthcawl. He studied at University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and University of Wales, Cardiff. An environmental campaigner, he co-founded the charities Friends of the Earth (Cymru) and Sustainable Wales. His work deals with both Welsh and international themes.

He has published seven poetry collections and several volumes of essays. He edited the magazine, Poetry Wales from 1997 until 2008. He has also translated poems from contemporary Welsh poets for an anthology, The Adulterer's Tongue. His first novel, Sea Holly, was published in autumn 2007.

Recognition
Minhinnick won the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem in 1999 for 'Twenty-five Laments for Iraq', and again in 2003 for 'The Fox in the National Museum of Wales'. His poem ‘The Castaway’ was also shortlisted in 2004. He has also won an Eric Gregory Award (1980) and a Cholmondeley Award (1998), both awarded by the Society of Authors to British poets.

In 2006, Minhinnick's book To Babel and Back, describing a journey in the Middle East, won the English-language Wales Book of the Year Award, which he had previously won in 1993 for Watching the Fire Eater.

Poetry

 * The Yellow Palm
 * A Thread in the Maze (1978) C. Davies
 * Native Ground (1979) Triskele
 * Life Sentences (1983) Poetry Wales
 * The Dinosaur Park (1985) Poetry Wales
 * The Looters (1989) Seren Press
 * Hey Fatman (1994) Seren Press
 * Selected Poems (1999)
 * After the Hurricane (2002)
 * King Driftwood (2008)

Novels

 * Sea Holly (2007) Seren Press

Essays

 * Watching the Fire Eater (1992) Seren Press
 * The Green Agenda: Essays on The Environment of Wales (ed.) (1994) Seren Press
 * Badlands (1996) Seren Press
 * To Babel and Back (2005) Seren Press

Translation

 * The Adulterer's Tongue: Six Welsh Poets: A Facing-Text Anthology (ed., transl.) (2003)