Dafydd has written for stage, screen and radio, and her wide repertoire includes short fiction, journalism, lecturing, songwriting, screenwriting, poetry, novels, plays and films. She was nominated for a D.M. Davies award at the Cardiff International Film Festival for her short film "Bathtime" (2002). In 2005 her first novel
Lliwiau Liw Nos (
Colours by Night) was published and shortlisted for the Prose Medal. It was followed in 2006 by her second novel
Atyniad (
Attraction), which won the Prose Medal at the
National Eisteddfod in
Swansea. In 2005 she was selected for the
Scritture Giovani project for emerging European writers. She has also undertaken literary residencies in Helsinki (2006) and on
Bardsey Island (2002). In 2008 she published her first English-language novel,
Twenty Thousand Saints, inspired by six weeks as a writer-in-residence on Bardsey in 2002. On her choice of language, she said, "It started out as a translation of a Welsh-language novel, and after about a year or so, I decided that it really wasn't working – so I decided to start from scratch with a completely different story." This work won for her the Oxfam Hay Award. In 2009 she won the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize for her novel
Y Llyfrgell (The Library). In the same year, she took part in the
International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. The novel was adapted by Dafydd herself into a 2016 film, directed by
Euros Lyn. She publishes regularly in publications that include
New Welsh Review,
Welsh Writing in English Yearbook,
Barn,
Golwg and
Planet. For some years Dafydd has edited the periodical
Tu Chwith. Dafydd was also a television columnist for the
Western Mail. She taught film theory and scriptwriting at the
University of Aberystwyth and
Trinity College, Carmarthen. Her scriptwriting has included work on the popular S4C
soap opera Pobol y Cwm.
Bibliography Fiction • "The White Trail" (Seren, 2011) • "Awr y Locustiaid" ("The Hour of the Locusts") (Y Lolfa, 2010) • "Twenty Thousands Saints" (Alcemi, 2008) • "Atyniad" (
Attraction) (Y Lolfa, 2006) • "Lliwiau Liw Nos" (
Evening Colours) (Y Lolfa, 2005) • "Elsewhere" (Scritture Giovani, 2005) • "Ffordd o Fyw" (
A Way of Living) not yet published • "Heb Glustiau" (
Without Ears) not yet published
Scripts •
Parch (
Rev) (2015-2018), TV drama series on S4C •
Y Llyfrgell (
The Library Murders) (2016), feature film •
Diwrnod Dwynwen (''Dwynwen's Day'') (2003), written with others •
Helfa Drysor (
Treasure Hunt), (2006) •
Brewys (unpublished play, performed at Chapter Arts, 2005) •
Hugo (Sgript Cymru, 2003)
Poetry • "Fruit" (New Welsh Review, 2004) • "Enlli" (Tu Chwith, 2003)
Short Films & Animation • "Women of Mumbles Head" (Screen Gems, 2005) • "Martha Melys Gacwn a Capten Pigfain" (Cwmni Da, S4C, 2004) • "Clic" (Opus, S4C, 2003) • "Bathtime" (Cyfle & Sgrin 2002)
Articles • "Welsh Icons" (2007) • "This is I; there is nothing else": a comparative study of R.S. Thomas and Hugh MacDiarmid, Welsh Writing in English Yearbook (2006) ==Musician==