Cofio Nigel – A Warrior Poet of Wales: The fourth Gwobr Lenyddol / Literary Award

The Nigel Jenkins awards, named after one of the greatest Welsh poets, were recently awarded to two students whose achievements in the Swansea University Creative Writing MA programme were of the highest order.

The joint winners, CJ Wagstaff and Tiff Oben, received a unique piece of sculptural glass made by Rodney Bender, IGP Ltd, generously sponsored by Ali Anwar from the H’mm Foundation and presented by Professor David Britton, erstwhile director of Creative Writing at Swansea University.

The evening’s proceedings were compered by Jon Gower, and began with a heart-felt and illuminating overview of Nigel and his work as a ‘Warrior Poet of Wales’ by Professor M. Wynn Thomas. The evening also featured speakers, poetry readings, tributes and folk music.

Tabernacle chapel in Mumbles was the venue for the by now annual event which was well attended by students and staff from Swansea University, Nigel’s family and friends as well as members of the local community, including hosts Cover to Cover bookshop.

Vibrant community

CJ Wagstaff said: “I’m really thrilled to share the H’mm Nigel Jenkins Award 2024 with the brilliant Tiff Oben,
who is doing such exciting and important work! It was a pleasure to celebrate our efforts together alongside Lottie Williams’ book launch.

“I owe so much to the MA programme at Swansea and its vibrant community of writers who have seen, uplifted and inspired me, continuing the legacy of Nigel Jenkins.

“Leaving my job to return to university as a mature student was daunting, but receiving the award has affirmed that I chose the right path and fortified my confidence for the future.”

Tiff Oben said: “Winning the Nigel Jenkins award for my play Transitionings: A Queer Mabinogi was an honour and an exciting opportunity to work with H’mm Publishing over the coming year.

“My play, written as part of the MA Creative Writing at Swansea University was inspired by The Fourth Branch of the Mabinogion and the brothers who were forcibly gender transitioned three times and made to bear three children as three different animals.

“Once the punishment is over, the younger sibling, the catalyst for the crime they committed, disappears from the story, so my play writes her story as a trans-woman in search of her stolen children. Set in a dystopian, female-run near-future, the story returns to the past through the psychosis of the older brother and replays the horrors of The Fourth Branch.

“The award ceremony was a lovely event. A chance to reconnect with the amazing tutors from the course including David Britton and Jon Gower, to see my peers from the course, and to meet Nigel’s family.”

Book launch

The book ‘The Edge of Everything’ by Lottie Williams, winner of the Nigel Jenkins Literary Award in 2023 was also launched during the event.

The Edge of Everything introduces a new, exciting and unique voice to nature, place and memoir lyrical prose. It explores one’s place in the Universe and considers climate and ecological emergency amid meditations about
a father’s passing.

Thoughts of time and change are never far from the page which prompt Williams to revisit her own childhood, consider her children’s futures, find connections in beaches, hills and rivers, and understand how love and belonging can outlive absolutely everything.

Angharad Jenkins said: “It felt special to remember my father Nigel by celebrating the launch of Lottie Williams’s first book, and announce this year’s Nigel Jenkins Award winners, CJ Wagstaff and Tiff Oben.

“It felt even more special to hold the event at Tabernacle in Mumbles which is on the corner of Chapel Street where my father lived from 1998 to his death in 2014, on the eve of what would have been his 76th birthday.

“My father would be delighted to see the quality of new writing talent coming out of Swansea University each year, and I look forward to seeing where these writers may go next.”

She added: “As his daughter, and on behalf of Nigel Jenkins’s family, we appreciate the hard work and dedication shown by the staff of Swansea University’s Creative Writing Department and the H’mm Foundation in arranging and holding this award for the fourth time.

“The team of writers and lecturers at Swansea University are amongst the best in Wales and enjoy international recognition, so this award not only continues my father’s legacy but also carries a high level of prestige. I only hope that Swansea University and the H’mm Foundation continue this award, so we can keep celebrating the strength of Swansea’s creative writing scene in the name of one of the city’s great poets.”

Wealth of writers

Ali Anwar from the H’mm Foundation said: “We are delighted to organise this event in association with the Swansea University and Cover to Cover Bookshop. Wales is blessed with a wealth of truly inspirational writers and poets and we hope this Nigel Jenkins Award becomes another source of inspiration to the new generation. A warrior poet of Wales, and a very dear friend who inspires so many of us, Nigel, is greatly missed.”

Tim Batcup, Cover to Cover Bookshop said: “We were delighted to have the opportunity to hosting this event celebrating the life and work of this very special friend, the great poet Nigel Jenkins.”

Rodney Bender, IGP Ltd said: “The trophy is made from a block of glass that was manufactured just outside Venice in the Venetia region of Italy.

“Selected because of its exceptional optical clarity, this glass is a product of an industry that became synonymous with quality from the Fifteenth Century to the present day. The image of Nigel Jenkins is made of a Molybdenum based metal oxide imported from America and fused onto the back of the glass with a laser. The green colour on the sides of the award is an applied Nano coating that has been subsequently laser engraved.”

The event ended with a moving song in Welsh by Angharad. She sang one of her own songs ‘Pan Mae’r Haul yn Mynd i’w Wely’ and she accompanied herself on the ukulele.

It was an anti-war song in disguise as a lullaby, imagining the sun, the moon and the stars as NHS/Key Workers looking down on the mess we’ve made of this word through war, famine and greed.

Pan mae’r haul yn mynd i’w wely

Pan mae’r haul yn mynd i’w wely
Ar diwedd y dydd
Ar ôl diwrnod hir
Yn llosgi’n yr wybren
Ac edrych i lawr ar bobl y byd.

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