The Writers of Wales Database

JENKINS, MARILYN

A Member of the Academy, Marilyn Jenkins is a poet and fiction writer who now lives in Llantwit Fardre. She was born in Aberdare and educated at Aberdare Girls’ Grammar, Aberystwyth, London and Cardiff Universities. She has worked as a teacher and lecturer and as English Officer in The National Language Unit, where in 1981 she produced a retelling of The Four Branches of the Mabinogi for schools. She returned to Wales in 2000 after periods in England and abroad including Canada and Australia

Her work has been published in magazines such as The Anglo Welsh Review; The New Welsh Review; Paris Atlantic; Envoi and prize-winners anthologies. Her first poetry collection: Close Distances (supported by The Welsh Books Council) was published by Cinnamon Press in 2007. A selection of her poems appears in Cinnamon Press’s forthcoming collection: In the Telling.
                                                                                                                                                                                                  
Her first novel: The Legacy of Alice Waters was published by YWO/Legend Press (supported by The Arts Council) in May 2009. Marilyn is currently working on her latest novel: Some Time Ago in The Black Mountains. Her poem 'Taking Delivery' was awarded third prize in Academi's 2010 Cardiff International Poetry Competition.

Selected Publications:
Poetry
Close Distances (Cinnamon Press, 2007)

Fiction
The Legacy of Alice Waters (YWO/Legend Press, 2009)
Some Time Ago in The Black Mountains (forthcoming)

Contributed to:
In the Telling (contributor) (Cinnamon Press, forthcoming)




Close Distances (Cinnamon Press, 2007)

"…This thoughtful and intriguing collection raises questions of what it means to remember and to belong. The answers are oblique and subtle; there is no didacticism here, only precise details in controlled and lucid work that is both accessible and deep.

Vivid, lucid and delicate meditations … the poems in Close Distances are never monotonous. Like prisms, many cast light on other subjects. The details convince because they are carefully distilled. There are very few wasted words in this crafted collection…"
Chris Kinsey

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The Legacy of Alice Waters (YWO/Legend Press, 2009)

In 1947, Alice Waters was hanged for the murder of her lover’s wife and child.

In 1999, Madeleine Chapman, the daughter Alice left to face an unknown future, travels to Wales with her own daughter to uncover the secret of her past and her true identity.

Will her mother’s dying friend Emily Bryant and Alice’s own journals shed a light on the tragedy and enable Madeleine to understand and forgive her mother?

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