Absolute Optimist

Eluned Phillips was a passionate woman who ignited equally passionate responses in others. The second woman ever to wear the National Eisteddfod crown - Wales' most prestigious Welsh language literary prize - she is the only woman to have won it twice. Unfortunately, her writing life was blemished by rumours over her work's authorship. Unusual among Welsh women of her generation, Eluned embraced an unconventional lifestyle which took her to pre-war London and Paris, where she met artists Augustus John, Edith Piaf, and Pablo Picasso, as well as the writer Dewi Emrys, the dissolute ex-preacher and poet whose biography she published in 1971. In France she also fell in with a group of idealistic Bretons who introduced her to romantic love and nationalist politics. This is an affectionate and yet critical biography of an unsung heroine of Welsh literature during a time of great change - taking her from rural Carmarthenshire to bohemian Paris and urban Los Angeles. She was often frowned upon, but never less than true to herself. Award-winning poet Menna Elfyn examines Phillips' life and work and argues convincingly that Eluned's poetry is undoubtedly hers and more than worthy of two Crowns. Absolute Optimist was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year on publication in Welsh. It has been translated for Honno by Elinor Wyn Reynolds.

Menna Elfyn is an award winning poet and playwright. She has published fourteen collections of poetry, children's novels, libretti for UK and US composers, and plays for radio and television. Merch Perygl (Danger's Daughter) was published by Gomer Press in 2011, and her 2012 bilingual volume Murmur, Bloodaxe Books, was selected as Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation. Optimist Absoliwt was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year (Welsh language) in 2016. In October 2017, she published a new bilingual collection of poetry, Bondo, Bloodaxe Books, and a literary memoir in Welsh, Cennad (Messenger) published by Barddas in March 2018. Her work has been translated into eighteen languages. She is Professor of Poetry at University of Wales, Trinity Saint David and President of Wales PEN Cymru. She has been a columnist with the national newspaper of Wales since 1994.