Editing Welsh literature in English (section)

===Poetry===
The mining valleys produced a significant working-class poet in [[Idris Davies]] (1905–53), who worked as a coal miner before qualifying as a teacher. He initially wrote in Welsh "but rebellion against chapel religion", along with the "inspirational influence of English" poets, led him to write in English. ''Gwalia Deserta'' (1938) is about the Great Depression, while the subject of ''The Angry Summer'' (1943) is the 1926 miners' strike.

There are a number of other authors who published before the Second World War but who did not come from the South Wales valleys.

Amongst these was Swansea suburbanite [[Dylan Thomas]] (1914–53), whose first collection, ''18 Poems'', was published in 1934. Then there is [[Geraint Goodwin]] (1903–41) from [[Newtown, Powys|Newtown]] in mid-Wales, who, in such works as the novel ''The Heyday in the Blood'' (1936), wrote about declining rural communities in the border region. [[David Jones (poet)|David Jones]] (1895–1974), whose father was from North Wales, was born in a London suburb. His epic poem ''In Parenthesis'', which deals with his World War I experiences, was published in 1937. Another Swansea poet [[Vernon Watkins]] (1906–67) likewise does not belong with the main group of writers of the so-called First Wave from the South Wales mining communities. Roland Mathias suggests that "his use of Welsh tradition was highly selective – only the ancient custom of the Mari Lwyd and the legend of Taliesin".<ref>''The Pocket Guide'', p. 112; ''Anglo-Welsh Literature'', p. 95.</ref> [[Alun Lewis (poet)|Alun Lewis]] (1915–44), from [[Cwmaman]] near [[Aberdare]], published both poetry and short fiction and might well have been a major figure in the decades after the war but for his early death.