{{Short description|Welsh writer (1931–2001)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{more footnotes needed|date=July 2013}}
'''David Heslin Rowlands''' (25 December 1931 – 26 April 2001) was a Congregational minister, lecturer and writer. Rowlands won the crown at the National Eisteddfod in 1969 and 1972, and was made archdruid in 1996.
==Life history== Rowlands was born in Pontardawe in 1931; his father, Lewis Dennis Rowlands, was a steelworker.<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-75797|title=Rowlands, David Heslin [Dafydd] (1931–2001), Welsh-language poet and essayist|year=2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/75797|access-date=2020-04-07}}</ref> His father abandoned the family when Dafydd was ten; he never saw his father again.<ref name=":0" /> Rowlands was educated at University College, Swansea, where he gained a degree in Welsh.<ref name=":0" /> He then went on to train for the ministry at the Presbyterian College in Carmarthen.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-first=John |editor1-last=Davies|editor1-link=John Davies (historian)|editor2-first=Nigel |editor2-last=Jenkins | editor2-link=Nigel Jenkins| editor3-first=Baines |editor3-last=Menna|editor4-first=Peredur I. |editor4-last=Lynch|title=The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales |year=2008 |publisher=University of Wales Press |location=Cardiff|page=778 |isbn=978-0-7083-1953-6}}</ref> After leaving education he worked as a Congregational minister.<ref name=":0" /> In 1959 he married Margaret Morris; the couple had three sons.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Stephens|first=Meic|title=Obituary: Dafydd Rowlands|date=30 April 2001|work=Independent}}</ref> Rowlands left the ministry and became a teacher at Garw Grammar School in Pontycymer.<ref name=":0" /> In 1968 he was appointed to the staff of Trinity College Carmarthen, in the Welsh Department. He left in 1983 and began a career as a scriptwriter and programme presenter.<ref name=":0" /> His programmes included documentaries about the poet Gwenallt Jones, the hymn-writer Ann Griffiths and the daughters of Rebecca, 1840s rioters in West Wales.<ref name=":0" /> He wrote scripts for ''Pobol y Cwm,'' the Welsh language soap and ''Licrys Olsorts,'' the Welsh-language counterpart of ''Last of the Summer Wine.''<ref name=":0" />
In 1969, Rowlands was awarded the crown at the National Eisteddfod held at Flint for his sequence of poems ''I Gwestiynau fy Mab''. He was again awarded the crown in 1972, this time in Pembrokeshire with his work 'Dadeni'.<ref name="Stephens">{{cite book |editor1-first=Meic |editor1-last=Stephens |editor1-link=Meic Stephens |title=The New Companion to the Literature of Wales |year=1998 |publisher=University of Wales Press |location=Cardiff |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newcompaniontoli0000unse/page/656 656–657] |isbn=0-7083-1383-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/newcompaniontoli0000unse/page/656 }}</ref> and that same year he won the Prose Medal for his volume of essays ''Ysgrifau yr Hanner Bardd''. This was followed by three collections of poetry, ''Meini'' (1972), ''Yr Wythfed'' (1975) and ''Sobers a Fi'' (1995) and in 1980 he produced a pamphlet of prose poetry ''Paragraffau o Serbia''.<ref name="Stephens" /> In 1977 Rowlands wrote the experimental ''Mae Theomemphus yn Hen'', a prose novel in the Welsh language. In the novel he explored his relationship with his father in an uncompromising self-examination, rarely seen in modern Welsh literature.<ref name="Stephens" /> He was archdruid (David Rowland) from 1996 to 1999.
Rowlands died of ischaemic heart disease in 2001.<ref name=":0" />
==References==
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowlands, Dafydd}} Category:1931 births Category:2001 deaths Category:People from Pontardawe Category:Welsh-language poets Category:Crowned bards Category:Welsh Eisteddfod archdruids Category:20th-century Welsh poets Category:20th-century Welsh male writers Category:Welsh-speaking clergy <references /> {{Navbox|name=|list1={{s-start}} {{s-bef|before=John Gwilym Jones}} {{s-ttl|title=Archdderwydd of the National Eisteddfod of Wales |years=1996-1999}} {{s-aft|after=Meirion Evans}} {{s-end}}|image=[[File:Tribann.svg | 40px | link= Gorsedd Cymru | alt= Awen Bardic symbol]]|imageleft=[[File:Tribann.svg | 40px | link= Gorsedd Cymru | alt= Awen Bardic symbol]]}}