I was very much honoured to win the 'Lecturer of the Year' category last night at the #AberSUCelebrates awards.

That the award is entirely down to student nominations is what matters most, of course. I have no idea who nominated me - but thank you so much. If my teaching has made even a small positive difference to what you've learned during your time at Aberystwyth, I'm delighted.

I broadly remember saying three things in my (very brief!) acceptance speech. And I think they were along these lines:

1. To my students: teaching students who are intellectually engaged, who are willing to work hard, who are willing to think creatively and critically - well, it's made the whole thing a genuine pleasure. Thank you!
2. To my colleagues: this sort of award is never, really, an individual award. It almost always emerges from being part of a great team. So I'm incredibly grateful to be working alongside an array of such excellent people, and in a department that has such a good atmosphere. (To add a day-after thought here: this latter point is really important. The Department of English & Creative Writing at Aberystwyth is a hugely positive place to work - and much credit for fostering that atmosphere must go to our head of department, Dr Louise Marshall.)
3. About Aberystwyth: I hope the awards as a whole show that Aber is getting something right in terms of providing really strong teaching for our students. If we've helped deepen your intellectual life, strengthen your capacities for communication, broaden your skills to prepare you for the world beyond university...then that's wonderful. It's categorically what we're here to do. And we're committed to doing it better, year on year on year.

I think I also promised to speak for no more than thirty-five minutes...

Finally, kudos is unequivocally due to Emma Beenham, Academic Affairs Officer at Aber SU, for organising such a successful awards evening. It was all great fun!

It was entirely appropriate that the evening ended with a round of applause for John - in fact, not just applause, but a spontaneous standing ovation. It was a wonderful moment, and a very fitting tribute to one of Wales's most important English-language literary voices of recent years.

On Saturday 15th December, it was a pleasure to be present at The Institute in Llangammarch, in Breconshire, for the launch of a CD of Ruth Bidgood reading a selection of her poems. The CD is the work of Sarn Cambria, a collaboration between the photographer Liz Fleming-Williams and the sound recordist Simon Fraser (recipient of a 2012 BAFTA Cymru for his sound work on the film Patagonia). A beautifully produced piece of work, the CD can be bought online here.

The event itself saw a considerable turnout, with The Institute being pretty much full to bursting - testament to Ruth's ever-increasing popularity as a poet. Ruth herself read a few poems, and the audience was also treated to selections from the CD itself. Simon Fraser and Liz Fleming-Williams were both present at the event, too, with Ruth drawing particular attention to Simon's recent BAFTA Cymru success. Sarn Cambria have previously worked with Ruth's poetry in the DVD stillfilm Gwesyn.

Here is a fantastic opportunity to attend the launch of new books from two of Wales's most important poets, Gillian Clarke and Menna Elfyn. Get yourselves down to Lampeter on Tuesday 23rd October, to the very pleasant surroundings of the Founders Library on the University campus, for what is certain to be an extremely memorable evening.

The American website Poetry Daily has picked up my recent appreciation of Ruth Bidgood's poetry - originally published in this summer's Poetry Wales (issue 48/1) - as their Prose Feature this week. I hope this will generate even more readers for Ruth's fascinating work.

The article is featured for a week on the front page of the site, and it then goes into the Poetry Daily prose archive for a year.

You can read the full article on the Poetry Daily website here. 

And, of course, you can get hold of Poetry Wales here. If you subscribe to the magazine, you'll get four issues a year delivered directly to your door.  

My UWP book, Ruth Bidgood, in the Writers of Wales series, was launched on Friday 27 July in Aberystwyth's Arts Centre Bookshop. Ruth herself was there, as she was launching her own new poetry collection, Above the Forests (Cinnamon), at the same event. 

Having very recently celebrated her ninetieth birthday, Ruth was - entirely appropriately - the star of the show. Not just a launch, even a dual one, this was ultimately an event to celebrate Ruth's poetry and her ever-more-important place in the English-language poetic life of Wales. Suitably, the bookshop was packed, as a large crowd turned up to honour one of Wales's most distinguished poets. Ruth read from her new collection and I was interviewed about my critical study by the marvellous John Barnie. One thing that came out especially clearly from Ruth's reading was the wit of her work, with her reading drawing a number of laughs from the audience. 

This was an evening of considerable warmth and clear affection for Ruth herself. It was a particular pleasure that members of her own family were able to attend. My thanks are due both to the Arts Centre Bookshop for their hospitality and to Jan Fortune-Wood of Cinnamon Press for organising the event.

(Photograph courtesy of Daniel Jarvis.)