We’re honoring one of the greatest poets of the 20th Century with a new map of places from the Dylan Thomas canon. Thomas was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century and really kicked off the age of the literary rockstar, making appearances all over the world and embracing the new medium of radio. He was known as a master storyteller and produced several radioplays that he would perform live on the air. The Dylan Thomas Centre in Dylan’s hometown of Swansea is curating the collection for us.
Placing Literature Launches Map of Places in Dylan Thomas Poems, Short Stories and Radio Broadcasts
The collection features more than 50 locations in Wales and is curated by the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea
NEW HAVEN, CONN., Feb. 2, 2016—Placing Literature (PlacingLiterature.com) today launched a literary map of Dylan Thomas poems set across Wales. Curated by the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea, the collection includes places that the Welsh poet wrote about in his poems and discussed in his popular radio broadcasts. The interactive map allows readers to browse, visit and share the sites of famous (and not so famous) scenes from the Thomas canon.
Placing Literature is the global clearinghouse for location-based literary information, collecting crowdsourced information about books and the locations where they take place—and displaying them all on an interactive world map. Since launching in June 2013, readers, educators, librarians and authors have mapped more than 3,000 places from novels, short stories, poems and plays ranging from Shakespeare to Kerouac.
Swansea Council manages the Dylan Thomas Exhibition at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea’s Maritime Quarter. The Council also has a team there who work on literature, outreach and educational programs to promote creative writing and share Dylan’s talents with people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.
Cllr Robert Francis-Davies, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Enterprise, Development and Regeneration, said: “Dylan Thomas has arguably done more than anyone else in history to put Swansea on the map over the years, so it’s a further boost for the city’s international profile that our most famous son is again being recognized in such an innovative and imaginative way. We look at a number of innovative ways to mark and promote our links with Dylan and projects like this help complement our strategy to preserve his legacy and celebrate his genius Our staff at the Dylan Thomas Centre have done a fantastic job in contributing to the map, which will educate people from across the world on how Swansea inspired the wordsmith, helping attract more virtual and physical visitors to Swansea in future.”
Each place card on Placing Literature provides rich content about the poem, the scene and the place where each plot point occurs. For example, you can click on markers on the map near Swansea to learn about Cwmdonkin Park where Dylan played as a child and memorialized in Reminiscences of Childhood and his radio play Return Journey. Nearby, Swansea Bay plays an important part in the poet’s first collection, 18 poems.
On each card, visitors can view a photo of the location, search Google and Wikipedia for more information on the place, purchase the book from a local bookstore, write a review on Goodreads, share the place on social media, report an error and even check in, indicating that they’ve been to that particular location.
Placing Literature plans to launch additional collections of literary places and is putting out a request for data. Libraries, universities, cultural organizations and researchers should contact info@placingliterature.com if they have existing data or would like to work with Placing Literature to create content for local programming.
About Placing Literature
Placing Literature (PlacingLiterature.com) is a crowdsourcing website that maps literary scenes that take place in real locations. Map a scene from your favorite novel or explore the literature of a place at PlacingLiterature.com. Follow us at Facebook.com/PlacingLiterature and twitter.com/PlacingLit.
About Dylan Thomas Centre
The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is the focal point for exhibitions, studies and events on Dylan Thomas. Visit us at http://www.dylanthomas.com.
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