Literature Wales Chair hits back against damning report

The Chairman of Literature Wales has hit back against criticism of the body published in a government report.

The report, commissioned by the Welsh Government, recommended that Literature Wales have its funding and responsibilities cut.

But the Chair of Literature Wales, Professor Damian Walford Davies, has condemned the report as “inaccurate and ill-informed”.

“Its unaccountably hostile analysis of Literature Wales lacks an evidential base,” he said.

He said that there were “many areas of the Report that are sub-standard, erroneous, under-researched and troublingly subjective”.

“As Chair, I refute in the strongest possible terms the Panel’s misinformed depiction of Literature Wales – something that should be of acute concern to the sector as a whole.

“These misrepresentations are unacceptable in a public document; the sector, and the Welsh Government, deserve better.”

Literature Wales was criticised in the report for a lack of strong governance and lacking the right composition of skills and experience to run a body spending public money.

Criticism of the report has mounted throughout the week. On Monday, the writer Jasmine Donahaye wrote a scathing analysis of the report for Nation.Cymru.

The editor of Wales Arts Review, Gary Raymond, subsequently condemned the report as “peppered with unprofessional language, unsubstantiated opinions, nonsensical arguments, [and] poorly-researched concepts”.

The report can be read here.