I am in love with Sweden. It’s so similar in wet weather to Wales, & as green & glorious. Stockholm is an amazing city & I love hearing the wealth of languages as we travel Europe, although I’m now acutely aware of how little I understand the languages in these Northern European countries.
I’ve had a difficult relationship with language & place identity. Because of a chaotic, transient upbringing nothing gives me anxiety more than the question, ‘where are you from?’
Knowing ‘who I am’ had to come before I could even begin to answer ‘where I’m from’, & still it’s taken a long time for me to answer.
My (great) grandparents were economic migrants from across the British Isles to north Wales & just across the border in England. We’re English-speaking Welsh borderlands people.
Truly understanding the country of my birth meant educating myself on the deliberate dismantling of Welsh language & culture by English oppressors, & so I learned Welsh, embraced the beautiful minority culture that I shared a landmass with.
Did I then go too far?
English, my first language, is that of oppressors, colonisers, & slave owners, but perhaps I began to take too much responsibility for that; maybe my connection to the very language in which I write & think & dream, that is the language of my ancestors & grandchildren, became disjointed as this schism deepened.
I turned to creating literature as a way to explore this dichotomous life, employing narrative arcs in The MthR Trilogy to navigate through themes of language & place.
I emerge from that piece of writing a different woman, someone who has made peace with herself, & her mother tongue; someone who can acknowledge the difficult history of the English language while still embracing this gorgeous international linguistic kaleidoscopic form of communication spoken by so many.

#amwriting #languages #ddwyieithog #themthrtrilogy #poetlife #writing #books #indiepublishing #bookthoughts

As a writer & performer who is also my own publisher & booking agent, I no longer apologise for self-promotion.
The next two The MthR Trilogy book tour events are at Stockholm Fringe Festival 30th & 31st Aug.
Click here for more details:
https://stoff.ssboxoffice.com/events/the-mthr-trilogy/
Please share with any Stockholm-based friends or just gimme a friendly boost ☺️
#scifi #themthrtrilogy #books #performance #soundart #writer #writerontour #stockholm #sweden #loveeurope #Literature #spokenword @bookstadon

Link in bio for more details on the final Swedish tour dates for The MthR Trilogy. Leaving for the continent next week ☺️ #poetlife #performance #spokenword #themthrtrilogy

Had a great day in Manchester’s School of Digital Arts for their fascinating & inspiring Storytelling & Machines symposium. What are narratives in the age of AI? Are machines now participating with humans in the culture of meaning? Some of the speakers blew my mind, challenging the notion of the author through communal storytelling. Much to think about. On the train back to Wales with a head full of possibilities.
#SODAAI #themthrtrilogy #SciFiWriter #ai #storytelling