Eigra Lewis Roberts


Eigra Lewis Roberts is a Welsh-language author who has written about 30 plays, short stories, children's books and novels. She has won numerous awards at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

Personal life

Roberts was born in Blaenau Ffestiniog. She attended Ffestiniog County School, at the same time as fellow author John Rowlands and poet Gwyn Thomas, and later graduated from University College of North Wales in Bangor. She then taught in Holyhead and Llanrwst, and now lives in Dolwyddelan. Roberts has an honorary MA from the University of Wales.

Career

Aged 20, Roberts won the open novel prize at the 1959 Caernarfon National Eisteddfod of Wales. During the 1960s and 1970s, she was known for writing about contemporary life and the dissatisfaction of Welsh women in Post-war Britain, a topic not covered much by Welsh authors at the time. In the 1980s, she screenwrote and adaptated her novel to create the Welsh television programme Minafon.
In 2006, Roberts wrote her first English-language novel, Return Ticket. The novel was semi-autobiographical. In the same year, she won the Crown in the Swansea National Eisteddfod for a collection of poems about Sylvia Plath. In 2013, her book Parlwr Bach was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award.

Selected works