Fonds GB 0210 NJPERS - Nigel Jenkins Papers

Nigel Leighton Rowland Jenkins, Anglo-Welsh poet, writer and lecturer, was born in Gorseinon, Swansea in 1949 and brought up on his parents' farm on the Gower Peninsula. He was educated at the University of Essex, where he studied comparative literature and film. Jenkins worked for a period as a journalist and also travelled widely in Europe, Africa and the United States. He came to prominence as a poet with the publication in 1974 of Three Young Poets, an anthology of works by Jenkins, Tony Curtis and Duncan Bush, by which time Jenkins had already been awarded the Welsh Arts Council's Young Poets Prize. He went on to publish numerous works of poetry and prose, many of which were inspired by his native Swansea and Gower as well as more far-flung locations such as those which produced his accomplished travel writing volumes Gwalia in Khasia (1995), which won the 1996 Wales Book of the Year award, and Footsore on the Frontier (2001). Innovative and often outspoken and controversial, Jenkins' poetry was meant to both inspire and condemn. He brought poetry into the heart of Swansea with his municipal poetic project Remember Tomorrow (1997) and his charismatic presence and heartfelt approach made him a popular figure at poetry workshops and talks; he was also a much-admired lecturer on Swansea University's Creative & Media Writing programme. An avid and lifelong political and social campaigner, Jenkins was active in the peace movement - in [date] he was to serve time in HM Prison Swansea for non-payment of a fine he incurred whilst protesting against the American air base at Brawdy in Pembrokeshire - and in literary grass-roots organisations such as the Swansea Writers and Artists Group (which he established) and the Welsh Union of Writers. His love of folk and blues saw him perform poetry to musical accompaniment with the Salubrious Rhythm Company. He studied the Japanese verse form of haiku and was responsible for the first collection of haiku poetry to be published in Wales. Jenkins died of pancreatic cancer in January 2014 and was buried in St Mary's Church, Pennard, Gower, the same resting place as his fellow poets Vernon Watkins and Harri Webb. Jenkins is survived by two daughters, Angharad and Branwen.