Voyages and Vagabondage: An exploration of travel writing and cultural identity

Authors Sophie Buchaillard (Assimilation; This is Not Who We Are) and Richard Gwyn (Ambassador of Nowhere; The Other Tiger) bring a wealth of experience and knowledge, journeying through topics of travel, voyages, belonging and identity. Discussing how memoir and fiction can aid in a better understanding of ourselves and our neighbours.

Introduced by Elaine Canning

Assimilation - Sophie Buchaillard

One family's story set against the backdrop of some of the biggest political and humanitarian events of the century. A tale of unravelling family secrets, belonging, betrayal and inherited trauma. A book that transports you in time and place through one family’s history and struggle with its colonial roots.

Marianne: a mother with a colourful past, keeping a terrible secret, tries her best to conform to French middle class expectations.

Charlotte: young and fiercely independent, desperately needs to escape dreadful trauma and a country she does not feel she belongs to. She leaves France and arrives in Wales, hoping to find peace and somewhere to rebuild her life.

This book explores the challenges of identity, belonging and womanhood, and the stories we tell in order to fit in.

Ambassador of Nowhere - Richard Gwyn

In Ambassador of Nowhere, Richard Gwyn charts his journey across Latin America in search of poems for his landmark anthology, The Other Tiger. His second volume of memoir and travelogue, following the prize-winning The Vagabond’s Breakfast, this lyrical, life-affirming account pays homage to a deeply conflicted and paradoxical continent.

Ambassador of Nowhere offers an insight into the way populations in Latin America have been subject to an erasure of their sense of identity by colonialism, exploitation of natural resources, dictatorships, military occupation, climate change. From the betrayal of revolution in Nicaragua to the victims of guerrilla war in Colombia and the threat of narco gang violence in Mexico, this generous and astute account is a meditation upon national belonging, the acts of literary and self- translation, and Latin American history, politics, and culture.

About the authors

Sophie Buchaillard is a Franco-British novelist, essayist and critic who has lived in South Wales for two decades, after travelling and living extensively abroad. Originally trained as a political scientist, she worked as a campaigner and a strategist, and co-authored Talented Women for a Successful Wales, a report on improving gender parity in Wales. Her recent PhD in Creative and Critical Writing ‘Between Cultures: Travel Writing, Identity and the Global Novel’ explores the role of the novel in redefining our relationship to travel and identity. Her debut novel This Is Not Who We Are (Seren, 2022) was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2023. She contributed essays on migration to Woman’s Wales (Parthian, 2024), edited by Emma Schofield, and to An Open Door: New Travel Writing for a Precarious Century (Parthian, 2022) edited by Steven Lovatt. She is currently writing a memoir and a poetry collection. Assimilation is her second novel.

Richard Gwyn is a Welsh writer and translator. Having started out as a poet, he has published four collections, most recently Stowaway: A Levantine Adventure (2018). He is the author of three novels, including The Colour of a Dog Running Away (2005) which was translated into many languages and brought him international recognition. He is a translator from Spanish, specialising in poetry and short fiction. For five years, he travelled widely in South America, which resulted in The Other Tiger (2016), a major anthology of contemporary Latin American poetry which he selected and translated. His other translations from Spanish include Impossible Loves by Darío Jaramillo and Invisible Dog by Fabio Morábito. For ten years he was Professor of Creative and Critical Writing at Cardiff University. He is the author of Ricardo Blanco’s Blog, which can be found at richardgwyn.me

Bydd yr awduron Sophie Buchaillard (Assimilation; This is Not Who We Are) a Richard Gwyn (Ambassador of Nowhere; The Other Tiger) yn rhannu eu profiad a'u gwybodaeth helaeth, gan archwilio pynciau teithio, teithiau, perthyn a hunaniaeth. Byddant yn trafod sut gall cofiannau a ffuglen ein helpu i ddeall ein hunain a'n cymdogion yn well.

Wedi'i gyflwyno gan Elaine Canning.

Assimilation - Sophie Buchaillard

Stori un teulu yn ystod rhai o ddigwyddiadau gwleidyddol a dyngarol mwyaf y ganrif. Stori am ddatrys dirgelion teulu, perthyn, brad a thrawma etifeddol. Llyfr sy'n mynd â chi yn ôl mewn amser a lleoliad trwy hanes aelodau un teulu wrth iddynt frwydro â'u gwreiddiau gwladychol.

Marianne: mam â gorffennol diddorol, sy'n cadw cyfrinach ofnadwy, sy’n gwneud ei gorau i gydymffurfio â disgwyliadau'r dosbarth canol yn Ffrainc.

Charlotte: yn ifanc ac yn hynod annibynnol, mae Charlotte yn awyddus i ddianc rhag trawma ofnadwy a gwlad nad yw hi'n teimlo ei bod hi'n perthyn iddi. Mae hi'n gadael Ffrainc ac yn cyrraedd Cymru, gan obeithio y daw hi o hyd i heddwch a rhywle i ailadeiladu ei bywyd.

Mae'r llyfr hwn yn archwilio heriau hunaniaeth, perthyn a bod yn fenyw a’r straeon rydym yn eu hadrodd i geisio cael ein derbyn.

Am yr awdur...
Mae Sophie Buchaillard yn nofelydd, yn draethodydd ac yn feirniad Ffrengig-Brydeinig, sydd wedi byw yn ne Cymru am ddau ddegawd, ar ôl teithio a byw'n helaeth dramor. Yn wreiddiol hyfforddodd fel gwyddonydd gwleidyddol a bu'n gweithio fel ymgyrchydd a strategydd. Gwnaeth gyd-ysgrifennu Talented Women for a Successful Wales, sef adroddiad ar wella cydraddoldeb rhwng y rhywiau yng Nghymru. Mae ei PhD diweddar mewn Ysgrifennu Creadigol a Beirniadol ‘Between Cultures: Travel Writing, Identity and the Global Novel’ yn archwilio rôl y nofel wrth ailddiffinio ein perthynas â theithio a hunaniaeth. Cyrhaeddodd ei nofel gyntaf This Is Not Who We Are (Seren, 2022) y rhestr fer ar gyfer Llyfr y Flwyddyn Cymru 2023. Cyfrannodd draethodau ar fudo i Woman’s Wales (Parthian, 2024), a olygwyd gan Emma Schofield, ac i An Open Door: New Travel Writing for a Precarious Century (Parthian, 2022) a olygwyd gan Steven Lovatt. Ar hyn o bryd mae'n ysgrifennu cofiant a chasgliad o farddoniaeth. Assimilation yw ei hail nofel.

Ambassador of Nowhere - Richard Gwyn

Yn Ambassador of Nowhere, mae Richard Gwyn yn cofnodi ei daith ar draws America Ladin yn chwilio am gerddi ar gyfer ei antholeg nodedig, The Other Tiger. Hwn yw ei ail gyfrol sy’n cynnwys cofiant a llyfr teithio, yn dilyn ei waith arobryn The Vagabond’s Breakfast. Mae'n adroddiad telynegol a chadarnhaol sy'n talu teyrnged i gyfandir paradocsaidd lle ceir cryn wrthdaro.

Mae Ambassador of Nowhere yn cynnig cipolwg ar y modd y mae poblogaethau yn America Ladin wedi colli eu hymdeimlad o hunaniaeth o ganlyniad i wladychiaeth ac wedi wynebu camfanteisio ar adnoddau naturiol, unbenaethau, meddiannaeth filwrol a newid yn yr hinsawdd. O'r brad yn ystod y chwyldro yn Nicaragua i ddioddefwyr herwryfela yng Ngholombia a bygythiad trais gangiau narco ym Mecsico, mae'r adroddiad helaeth a chraff hwn yn myfyrio ar berthyn cenedlaethol, cyfieithu llenyddol a chyfieithu eich gwaith personol eich hun, a hanes, gwleidyddiaeth a diwylliant America Ladin.

Am yr awdyr...
Mae Richard Gwyn yn awdur ac yn gyfieithydd o Gymru. Dechreuodd fel bardd, gan gyhoeddi pedwar casgliad, ac yn fwyaf diweddar Stowaway: A Levantine Adventure (2018). Mae'n awdur tair nofel gan gynnwys The Colour of a Dog Running Away (2005) a gafodd ei chyfieithu i sawl iaith ac a arweiniodd at gydnabyddiaeth genedlaethol iddo. Mae'n gyfieithydd iaith Sbaeneg, gan arbenigo mewn barddoniaeth a ffuglen fer. Am bum mlynedd, bu'n teithio'n eang yn ne America, a arweiniodd at The Other Tiger (2016), antholeg fawr o farddoniaeth gyfoes America Ladin a ddewiswyd ac a gyfieithwyd ganddo. Mae ei gyfieithiadau eraill yn cynnwys, o Sbaeneg, Impossible Loves gan Darío Jaramillo ac Invisible Dog gan Fabio Morábito. Am ddeng mlynedd bu'n Athro Ysgrifennu Creadigol a Beirniadol ym Mhrifysgol Caerdydd. Fe yw awdur Ricardo Blanco’s Blog, y gellir dod o hyd iddo yn richardgwyn.me.