Damian Walford Davies

Damian Walford Davies studied at Ysgol Gyfun Gymunedol Penweddig and St John's College. The recorded working language is English and Welsh. The field of work recorded is poetry, Romantic literature and Welsh literature in English. Distinctions recorded are Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.

• Honorific Suffix — FLSW

• Born — 1971 01 16

• Occupation — * Lecturer

• university administrator

• poet

• Parents — Hazel Walford Davies (mother)

• Relatives — Jason Walford Davies (brother)

• Education — Ysgol Gyfun Gymunedol Penweddig

• Alma Mater — University of Oxford

• Doctoral Advisor — Jonathan Wordsworth

• Discipline — English literature

• Sub Discipline — Creative writing

• Workplaces — * Aberystwyth University

• Cardiff University

• Main Interests — Welsh literature in English, Romanticism

• Spouse — Francesca Rhydderch

Professor Damian Walford Davies (born 16 January 1971 in Aberystwyth) is a Welsh writer and English literature academic. He has been the Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University since 2021. His specialist areas are Romanticism and English language works by Welsh writers.

Davies was born on 16 January 1971 in Aberystwyth. His mother was the academic and author Hazel Walford Davies (1940–2025). He has a twin brother Jason, who is also an academic and writer. The brothers moved with their family to Oxford before returning to Wales in 1976.

Davies completed his undergraduate studies at St John's College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He undertook his doctoral studies at Balliol College under the supervision Jonathan Wordsworth, a great-great-great-nephew of William Wordsworth.

Davies lectured at the Department of English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University from 1997 to 2013. He later became head of department and Rendel Chair of English at Aberystwyth.

During his time at Aberystwyth, Davies had many collaborations with his colleague Richard Marggraf Turley, notably resulting in the poetry collections Whiteout and the critical studies volume entitled, The Monstrous Debt: Modalities of Romantic Influence in Twentieth-Century Literature (both published in 2006).

Davies joined the School of English, Communication & Philosophy at Cardiff University in 2013, becoming head of school a year later. He was appointed as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in 2018. In 2021, he succeeded Karen Holford as Cardiff's Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

In 2025, Cardiff University's senior management was criticised for its controversial proposal to slash 400 jobs and close down several of its departments. Opposing the proposal, the University and College Union, which represent university staff, called for the Learned Society of Wales to suspend Davies's fellowship status, as well as that of Professor Wendy Larner, the university's vice-chancellor. Davies was reportedly chairman of the redundancy committee during this time.

Davies is a fluent Welsh speaker and writes in Welsh as well as in English. He has published 6 poetry collections between 2009 and 2023. He has also had a short story and a libretto published.

Davies has cited R. S. Thomas, H.D., Thomas De Quincey, M. R. James, Sherwood Anderson, and Edgar Lee Masters as authors whose works have influenced him.

Davies served as the chair of Literature Wales between 2012 and 2018. During his tenure, in 2017, the organisation was criticised in a Welsh Government's report for poor governance and for "lacking the skills and experience" to handle public funds. Davies refuted "in the strongest term" the accuracy of the report as well as its lack of objectivity.

In 2018, Davies acted as an adjudicator for the Crown competition at the National Eisteddfod, alongside Christine James and Ifor ap Glyn. In 2024, he was announced as a mentor on "Representing Wales", a writer development programme organised by Literature Wales.

In 2011, Davies co-presented the programme Llwybr yr Arfordir (The Coast Path) on S4C with Jon Gower and Elinor Gwynn, which explored the archaeology, nature, and history of the Pembrokeshire coast. In 2014, he appeared alongside his twin brother Jason on S4C's arts programme Pethe in a special episode about poets Dylan Thomas and R. S. Thomas.

Davies was married to the novelist and academic Francesca Rhydderch. A recreational runner, he took part in the 2022 Cardiff Half Marathon to fundraise for Cardiff University. Since writing Viva Bartali! (published in 2023), a biography-in-verse of the cyclist Gino Bartali, he has picked up cycling and become a "mad fan of the sport".

Davies was baptised into the Church in Wales in his early 20s.

• With Richard Marggraf Turley - Whiteout (Parthian, 2006)

• Published by Seren Books:

• Suit of Lights (2009)

• Witch (2012)

• Judas (2015)

• Docklands: A Ghost Story (2019)

• Viva Bartali! (2023)

• Published by Rack Press Poetry:

• Alabaster Girls (2017)

• William Wordsworth: Selected poems (J. M. Dent's Everyman Classics, 1994)

• Waldo Williams: Rhyddiaith [Prose] (University of Wales Press, 2001)

• Co-edited with Kevin Mills - Free Verse: Poems for Richard Price (Seren, 2023)

• Presences that Disturb: Models of Romantic Identity in the Literature and Culture of the 1790s (University of Wales Press, 2002)

• Cartographies of Culture: New Geographies of Welsh Writing in English (University of Wales Press, 2011)

• Megalith: Eleven Journeys in Search of Stones (Gomer Press, 2006)

• With Jason Walford Davies - Cof ac Arwydd: Ysgrifau Newydd ar Waldo Williams [Memory and Sign - Essays on Waldo Williams] (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas, 2006)

• With Richard Marggraf Turley - The Monstrous Debt: Modalities of Romantic Influence in Twentieth-Century Literature (Wayne State University Press, 2006)

• With Lynda Pratt - Wales and the Romantic Imagination (University of Wales Press, 2007)

• Romanticism, history, historicism: Essays on an orthodoxy (Routledge, 2009)

• Echoes to the Amen: Essays after R.S. Thomas (University of Wales Press, 2003)

• Roald Dahl: Wales of the unexpected (University of Wales Press, 2016)

• Counterfactual Romanticism (Manchester University Press, 2019)

• With Sally Bushell and Julia S. Carlson - Romantic cartographies: Mapping, literature, culture, 1789–183 (Cambridge University Press, 2020)

• Y Ffisegwyr - a Welsh translation of The Physicists by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Canolfan Astudiaethau Addysg Aberystwyth, 1991)

• With Anne Eastham - Saints and Stones: Guide to the Pilgrim Ways of Pembrokeshire (Gomer Press, 2002)

• Y Tro Olaf [The Last Time], in 20 Stori Fer - Cyfrol 2 [20 Short Stories - Volume 2] (Y Lolfa, 2009)

• With Siân Melangell Dafydd and Paul White (photographer) - Ancestral House: The Lost Mansions of Wales / Tai Mawr a Mieri: Plastai Coll Cymru (Gomer Press, 2012)

• With Mererid Hopwood and Paul White (photographer) - Poets Graves / Beddau'r Beirdd (Gomer Press, 2014)

• The mare's tale: A libretto - set to music by Mark Bowden (Grey Mare Press, 2019)

Davies won the Chair at the Urdd National Eisteddfod in 1993 for a poem about faces. He was the first man to have won one of the main prizes at the Urdd Eisteddfod. In 2009, he won the translation challenge at the National Eisteddfod for his translation of Gillian Clarke's poem Slate, Oak, Glass. Of his poetry collections, Docklands: A Ghost Story was named Poetry Book of the Month in February 2019 by The Telegraph.

Davies was elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2017.

Source:

Key

• Denotes that the publication is in Welsh.

• Denotes that the publication is bilingual (in English and Welsh).