Tony Bianchi in conversation at Hay 2010

Tony Bianchi was in conversation about his first novel in English, Bumping, with Alcemi editor Gwen Davies at the Hay Festival Culture Cymru stand on Saturday 29 May. Tony talked about how Bumping's apparently most fantastical scenes, such as those on ladybird mining, are in fact totally grounded in reality. He spoke about why, although it is his home patch, Tyneside's role in his work is as a source of themes on displacement and globalisation. Turning to discussion on writing in a language other than your mother tongue, Tony explained that for him a learnt language can provide a creative mask which makes that crucial first leap into a persona other than yourself. Finishing the discussion by talking about translation, Tony explained that it can be harder in English to record dialect in a readable way, while in Welsh the border between formal and informal registers is much more porous. Tony is currently working concurrently on several writing projects including adapting his prize-winning Welsh novel Pryfeta into Welsh (Seren: Bugging), writing Welsh short stories set on Tyneside (Gomer: 2010) and a new English novel about an eighty year-old football referee.

Gwen and Tony worked together in the Literature Department of the Arts Council of Wales in the early Nineties, and both are literary translators from Welsh to English.

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