Dylan Moore holds the 2018 Creative Wales Hay Festival International Fellowship, and launched his book Driving Home Both Ways today at Hay. He will be travelling to Hay Festivals all over the world for 12 months, writing and reading while exploring both new and previously visited places including Spain and Mexico.
Through all his travels, Moore said what he really found was a sense of home in Wales. Identity is central to his work and “shouldn’t be about drawing lines that separate us from one another,” he said today. He has been greatly inspired by fellow Welsh writer Jan Morris, and regards the Welsh language as a gift to those who speak it (he himself does not, yet).
Reflecting on his background, Moore said that as a student, “Even though Cardiff was only an hour away, it was a world away” from his home life. University helped open his eyes to cultural diversity on a local level, and his reflections on travelling across the globe in his twenties show a similar curiosity for people and stories from all walks of life. He has also loved working as a teacher, enjoying the immediacy of sharing knowledge in the classroom.
Moore talked about communicating across language barriers, using sport and particularly Ryan Giggs as a universal conversation starter. When questioned about Brexit, he said he is hoping for a second referendum, but, “We will all still be Europeans, whatever it says so on our passports or not” after 29 March 2019.
If you missed this you might enjoy event 442, Alice Roberts on The Celts on Sunday 3 June at 5.30pm. Please visit Hay Player for the world’s great writers on audio and film; https://www.hayfestival.com/hayplayer/default.aspx?