Editor of the Anglo-Welsh Review (1975-1984), member of the executive committee of the Welsh Academy (Yr Academi Gymreig) increasingly recognized as one of the better and more important poets in contemporary Wales and elsewhere, Gillian Clarke clearly merits her growing literary reputation. Her earliest poems attracted immediate critical attention; her first major collection has been twice reprinted; and her most recent volume has been widely acclaimed.

Welsh by birth and by heritage, she was born in Cardiff to Penri and Ceinwin Evans Williams in 1937. Gillian Williams was educated at St. Clare's Convent, Porthcawl, Glamorgan, before attending University College, Cardiff, the University of Wales, where she earned her B.A. in English with honors. For two years after graduation she worked in London as a news researcher for the BBC, until her marriage to Peter Clarke on 21 April 1960. Their three children, Catrin (born 30 January 1961), Owain (2 August 1963), and Dylan (6 April...