Poet who documented cancer struggle wins prestigious Eisteddfod chair
Tudur Hallam was presented with the Eisteddfod Chair after judges praised his work which documented his diagnosis in August 2024 and how he has subsequently managed life with the illness.
This is the second time that Mr Hallam - who is a retired Swansea University professor - has received the award after winning at the Blaenau Gwent and Valleys National Eisteddfod in 2010.
However despite his win, Mr Hallam said that he was initially unsure whether he would submit the poem for judgement after finding out that initial treatment to manage the cancer had been unsuccessful.
He said: "I was in two minds as to whether to present the poem because I didn't know at that time if I'd be here in August, I wasn't sure how much time I had. "I had the diagnosis in August [2024] and for some reason I wasn't able to write anything in Welsh, in my mother tongue And then in January I had the sad news that the treatment that was supposed to buy me some time had not worked at all and in that anguish I suddenly began to write, and the poem just flowed out of me."
However he says on reflection he now sees his work as a "celebration of life". He said: "I see this as a celebration of life, of what you can achieve with friends, with the love of your family."
Mr Hallam was visibility emotional during the awarding ceremony at the pavilion where he was officially named as this year's winner. "It was a wonderful experience. Of course it was very emotional especially when I rose to my feet, embraced my children, but eventually I did manage to relax and enjoy the ceremony. I really did enjoy it."
Entrants at this year's competition were required to submit a long poem or selection of poems under the umbrella theme of dinas [city] .
One adjudicator Peredur Lynch wrote of Mr Hallam's poem: 'When I first read this lively opening to the awdl [a long poem], I must admit my instinctive reaction was something like: 'Very entertaining, but it'll take more than a cheeky cywydd [couplet] like this to win the National Chair.' And then, turning to the second section, I was hit with a gut punch—the line: 'Six months? Ten months? A little more?'
'Without warning, we are transported from the football pitch to Glangwili Hospital, where the poet receives a diagnosis of bone cancer and (it appears) metastatic cancer in the liver. I said earlier I was deceived. And life is a deceiver. One day, a football pitch full of challenge and bravado; the next, a world turned upside down."
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