Meic Stephens

Meic Stephens studied at Aberystwyth University and University of Rennes. The recorded working language is English and Welsh. The field of work recorded is literature, poetry and Welsh literature. Places of work recorded in the authority are Wales. Employment is recorded with University of Glamorgan. Distinctions recorded are Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.

• Name — Meic Stephens • Honorific Suffix — FLSW • Born — 23 July 1938 • Birthplace — Treforest, Glamorgan, Wales • Died — 2 July 2018 • Place of death — Cardiff, Wales • Occupation — Literary editor, journalist, author, teacher, university professor • Notable Works — The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales (1986)

Meic Stephens was born on 23 July 1938 in the village of Treforest, near Pontypridd, Glamorgan. He was educated at Pontypridd Boys' Grammar School and then studied at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, graduating in 1961, at the University of Rennes, Brittany, and the University College of North Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd.

From 1962 to 1966 he taught French at Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire. In Merthyr Tydfil he established the Triskel Press and in 1965 he began the periodical, Poetry Wales. He learnt Welsh as an adult, and became a member of the Welsh Language Society (Cymdeithas yr Iaith Cymraeg) and of Plaid Cymru. After working for the Western Mail for almost a year, from 1967 to 1990 Stephens was literature director of the Welsh Arts Council. Before retiring he was professor of Welsh Writing in English at the University of Glamorgan. He was also a visiting professor in the English department of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Stephens is credited as the first person to create the Cofiwch Dryweryn graffiti near Llanrhystyd, Ceredigion. This painted slogan has come to be regarded as an unofficial "national landmark" commemorating Capel Celyn, a Welsh-speaking village near Bala, which was destroyed by the construction of the Llyn Celyn reservoir in the early 1960s.

Stephens died in Cardiff on 2 July 2018. He had four children; his son Huw Stephens is a radio and television presenter.