Dave Lewis

Dave Lewis (born 1966) is a Welsh writer, poet and photographer based in Pontypridd, Wales. He has always lived in Wales except for a short spell in Kenya in 1993-94.

He read zoology at Cardiff University and software engineering at University of South Wales, and appears amongst both these universities' alumni authors. He has been a schoolteacher and web designer but is now a full-time writer and book publisher. He has written content for many web sites, is a former web producer for the BBC Wales Scrum V website and has been published in a number of literary magazines including: Frogpond Journal, Modern Haiku, Nine Muses Poetry, Under the Basho, Hedgerow Haiku, Active Muse (Commonwealth Writers), British Haiku Journal, Wales Haiku Journal, Chapel FM Radio, Poetry Super Highway, ‘Between These Shores‘, The Dawntreader, Celtic Life International, Dream Catcher, Roundyhouse Magazine, Chrysanthemum, English Chicago Review, Prole, Poetry and Prose, Volume Magazine, Morgen Bailey Blog, The Heron’s Nest, HQ Poetry Magazine, Shamrock (Irish Haiku Society Journal), Presence, Gold Dust Magazine, BottleRockets, Red Poets, Ink, Sweat & Tears, The Journal, Ctrl+Alt+Del, Monkey Kettle, Bolts of Silk, Origami Condom, The Beat, Read This Magazine, Gloom Cupboard, Inclement magazine, The Seventh Quarry, Spark Bright, Treeblog, Square magazine, Bottom of the World and Open Mouse (Poetry Scotland).

In 2007 he founded the first ever Welsh Poetry Competition, an international poetry competition, now the biggest in Wales, aimed at encouraging and nurturing the wealth of creative writing talent that exists in Wales but often gets overlooked by the arts establishment. He has also edited two anthologies of winners work.

He has published a number of books, on a variety of subjects but is known mainly as a poet. His poetry has been praised by many established writers: Brian Patten, Catrin Collier, John Evans, Chrys Salt MBE, Mike Jenkins, Gillian Drake, Sally Spedding, Moira Andrew, Mick Evans, Ceri Shaw, Mike McNamara, Kathy Miles, Agnes Meadows, Jolen Whitworth and Eloise Williams. Post-modernist and often anti-establishment Lewis has performed at various events, including Red Poets, RCT Literature Festival, Voices on the Bridge and Swansea & District Writers Circle but now shuns the limelight and refuses to do further readings. Resolutely untrendy, he remains outside the metropolitan elite.

Lewis was runner-up in the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition 2009, judged by Niall Griffiths & Stevie Davies as well as highly commended in The New Writer – Poetry Competition 2010 judged by Helen Ivory. His poetry collection, "Going Off Grid" was a finalist in The Wishing Shelf Awards 2018.

He has also written three novels: a modern, crime thriller trilogy set in his native south Wales and East Africa.

After cycling around Wales in 2016 he wrote Wales Trails, a humorous cycling account interspersed with a serious concern about the anglification of his homeland. He has since tried to promote Wales as a world class cycling destination and coined the phrase 'LEJOG-lite'.

Lewis lectured digital photography and Photoshop at Gartholwg Lifelong Learning Centre where he set up two camera clubs but after leaving teaching, in 2014 he setup Publish & Print, a small publishing company that aims to encourage and promote struggling Welsh writers.

He is still very active in his local community, starting or contributing to many projects that aim to improve the physical and spiritual health of the inhabitants of Pontypridd. Since 1998 he has provided a free, online platform for the people of his home town to voice their concerns by running the well-known Pontypridd Town website and message board. He has, for many years, maintained the websites of Cancer Research Genetics UK, Bowel Cancer Wales and Prostate Cancer Wales, and raised money for Ty Hafan and Prostate Cancer through his cycling endeavours.

He organises a regular, family cycling ride from Pontypridd to Ynysybwl, started the Pontypridd Curry Club, featured in Iolo Williams, BBC Wales 'I Love Wales' TV programme, began, in 2013, the annual Druids Drink at the Rocking Stones, Pontypridd where locals gather at midday, on Christmas Day, to raise a glass to the exploits of Dr William Price. Lewis has even created a Welsh T-shirt Shop and is the designer of the iconic ‘Route A470 tee’.

In February 2019 he setup the Writers of Wales A to Z database to try to help promote Welsh authors on the global stage.

Lewis also judged the inaugural international Poetry Book Awards, a prize for the best poetry books from small presses, self published authors and independent publishers.

As famous Welsh writer, filmmaker and environmental activist John Evans says of him: “He is a 21st Century Renaissance Man; a genuine multitasker; a man who's life history and work reflects and documents so many of the changes that effect us all today.”

Bibliography

Lewis' work includes:

• Scratching The Surface. Publish & Print. 2019.
• Hadrian's Cycleway & Coast 2 Coast. Publish & Print. 2019.
• Never Seventeen. Publish & Print. 2018.
• Going Off Grid. Publish & Print. 2018.
• Basic Photoshop. Publish & Print. 2017.
• Happy. Publish & Print. 2017.
• Ten Years On. Publish & Print. 2016.
• Wales Trails. Publish & Print. 2016.
• Reclaiming The Beat. Publish & Print. 2016.
• Land’s End to John o’ Groats. Publish & Print. 2015.
• iCommand. Publish & Print. 2015.
• Photographic Composition. Publish & Print. 2014.
• Roadkill. Ponty Press. 2013.
• Raising Skinny Elephants…. Ponty Press. 2013.
• Haiku. Ponty Press. 2012.
• Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Ponty Press. 2011.
• The First Five Years. Ponty Press. 2011.
• Sawing Fallen Logs For Ladybird Houses. Ponty Press. 2011.
• Urban Birdsong. Ponty Press. 2011.
• Layer Cake. Ponty Press. 2009.