Manon Steffan Ros: Time and space to develop
Manon Steffan Ros made history in this year’s Yoto Carnegies as her The Blue Book of Nebo became the first book in translation to win the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing.
ORIGINALLY published in Welsh in 2018 as Llyfr Glas Nebo, Manon took on translating duties herself for the English version, which came out in 2022.
The book has proved popular in both languages, and the Carnegie Medal is just the latest in a long string of awards – As Llyfr Glas Nebo it was also named 2018 National Eisteddfod Prose Medal and the 2019 Wales Book of the Year.
Manon says the recognition for the book in both Welsh and English has been especially pleasing – not just its critical success, but also the resonance it has with readers. The book and its translation are a reflection of Manon’s own experience as a Welsh and English speaker, something that has allowed her to experiment as a writer. She says: “It’s a massive – and I do mean massive – privilege for me to have been given two languages from the very beginning, and speaking both Welsh and English has been so beneficial to me as a writer, not just because I can write in two languages, but I think you become more playful with languages when you have more than one. There are many references to Welsh language books in The Blue Book of Nebo, and I wasn’t sure if they would work in translation, or if they would feel exclusionary. That was my mistake, I’ve learned a lot about how to celebrate language through this process.”
The story that Manon tells is one of isolation, Autumn-Winter 2023
adversity and growth, as it explores the relationship between Dylan and his mother living in seclusion following a global catastrophe. Known as “The Event” the catastrophe is not fully revealed to the reader, but its effect is that people are now living in a world without electricity. Set years after “the event” the pair are coming to terms with their own experiences and changing relationship – particularly as Dylan starts to move into adolescence (he is six when “the event” first happens, but The Blue Book of Nebo is set when he is aged 14). Manon explains that the book plays on her own fears growing up, saying: “I’d always been horribly afraid of nuclear disaster, and have always been aware of the delicate linguistic and cultural ecosystem that keeps my first language, Welsh, alive. There’s also the very natural and miraculous and tragic theme of parenting, and of being someone’s child - the fact that as parents, our job is to make those that we love most independent of us. It’s a theme that tends to pop up somewhere in most of my books! With The Blue Book of Nebo, I wanted to write out my worst nightmare, and to give it to other characters and explore it from there. I feel I’ve been cooking up this book since I was a child! I wrote it very quickly, but I’d been thinking about it for decades.”
The “blue book” of the title the is a journal where Dylan and his mother share their innermost
PEN&INC. 5
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
