Tegwen Bruce-Deans wins Eisteddfod yr Urdd Maldwyn 2024 Main Literary Award

Tegwen Bruce-Deans from Llandrindod Wells was announced as the festival’s Main Prose Writer at Eisteddfod yr Urdd Maldwyn 2024.

Mirain Iwerydd from Crymych, Pembrokeshire came second with Heledd Evans from Cardiff taking third place.

Tegwen won the Chair at the Carmarthenshire Urdd Eisteddfod last year, which makes her the second ever to accomplish the “double win”. This was achieved by Iestyn Tyne in 2019.

Requirements

The requirements of this year’s Crown competition were to compose a piece or pieces of prose over 2,500 words on the theme ‘Terfynau’ (limits / boundaries). 19 entries were received and the adjudicators, Elin Llwyd Morgan and Caryl Lewis, “enjoyed the process of selecting and discussing the pieces.”

Caryl Lewis was full of praise for the winning entry: “This is a simple but powerful story about a girl who is waiting for her lover at a train station with a message that is unlikely to please him. The style is poetic at times but not embarrassing, and the very last sentence speaks volumes.

“Without question, this is the most polished and sophisticated piece in the competition and the reader can sense that there is an experienced hand at the helm guiding us through the emotional journey.

“The author has a gritty voice and a natural talent for sensing the rhythm of a story. While reading, we were both completely immersed in the situation and forgot that we were judging.

“That is the talent of a writer – to create an illusion that we can believe, taking our thoughts to new places.”

Talent

In 2022 Tegwen graduated in Welsh from Bangor University. She now lives in Bangor and works for BBC Radio Cymru.

She published her first volume of poetry, ‘Gwawrio’ (dawn), as part of the series ‘Tonfedd Heddiw’ Cyhoeddiadau Barddas. Since then, she has joined the Talwrn Twtil team, and is one of five poets who are part of the Pencerdd project with Literature Wales and Barddas. Her poetic work has appeared in several publications – but this is the first time that her prose work will appear in print.

Jeweller and silversmith Mari Eluned from Mallwyd created this year’s Crown. “My intention was to create a crown with a contemporary feel which conveys the Urdd’s valuable contribution and agricultural communities, such as Maldwyn, and their importance to the future of our culture and language,” Mari explains.

The crown is given by the Montgomeryshire Branch of the Farmers’ Union of Wales.

The top three will be invited to take part in a course at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre, Literature Wales in memory of Olwen Dafydd. This is made possible through the Olwen Griffith Trust.