Hanan Issa – Who am I?

A conversation with Ferelith Hordon

What does being Welsh mean to Hanan Issa, current Poet Laureate for Wales? This is interesting – she has a complex mixed background that brings Wales, the Wales of the coal-mining communities, together with the ancient Mesopotamian heritage of Iraq. She grew up in Penarth and then Cardiff where she found herself meeting many different cultural identities. She walks along the borders of each – just, as she says, Wales walks the borders of England. Looking at her Welshness is a personal quest, for it has been questioned by others -as have her Arabic credentials. But what are the criteria? This is something she considers in her essay ‘Have You Heard the One About the Niqabi on the Bus?’ which appears in the collection she edited together with Darren Chetty, Grug Muse and Iestyn Tyne Welsh [Plural]. Essays on the Future of Wales.  She points out that this collection, which was born after a conversation between a group of Welsh authors at Hay, is particularly interesting – all the contributors also represent an ‘other’. 

Language is often seen as a defining aspect. A point of pride – but can also represent shame. She cites her Nan who grew up at a time when the Welsh language was suppressed. Certainly she learnt Welsh at school but does not claim to be fluent. ‘I am not someone who picks up language easily’.  However, language was her refuge – the language of poetry. ‘Poetry has always been the place I have felt at home…. Poetry was always a space I feltwas mine and was safe’. Poetry was a place that was private and personal. This was her beginning as a poet. Her first published collection My Body Can House Two Hearts reflects on the singularity – and duality – of who she is. Through her poetry she expresses her love for her Welsh and Arabic background.

It is her experience growing up that has inspired her to edit an anthology she hopes will help young people who are also looking for an identity – what it might mean to be Welsh. This led her to think of the dragon as a particular focus – so ‘…and I hear Dragons’.  Why – the dragon? ‘Dragon poems were the first space I came to…The fantastical has always been very appealing to me as someone from a mixed background and who traverses different identities and different cultures.

Fantasy felt like a great space to escape a lot of heavy realities’. A dragon is of course at the centre of the Welsh flag. Here was a creature of the imagination which could inspire the poets contributing to the anthology to explore ideas, create metaphors, to reach through this creature ‘other’ children from multiple backgrounds; it could be a path to expression, literal or abstract. And this was the brief to the poets who contributed.

What about the Mabinogi– that great collection epic of Welsh stories. Did she meet them at school? Certainly a few were retold – though she confesses to be much more drawn to Greek mythology as well as the Arabian Nights at that time. Later studying the bog witchshe was fascinated and excited to discover similar beings across many mythologies – the other and the familiar. This sense of connection influenced her choice of story to retell in The Mab. Eleven stories from the Mabinogi edited by Matt Brown and Eloise Williams. She decided to take the story of Culhwch and Olwen. The original of a wonderful sprawling quest in which the hero Culhwch is presented with an unending series of tasks to complete; impractical in an anthology for young readers. She decided to concentrate on a finite number – and a band of eight (including Culhwch). Seven would possess special skills which would enable our hero to complete each task and so win Olwen. She had been drawn to it because for her it had a flavour of those Arabian Nights tales and a sense of The Superhero which would appeal to contemporary youth. I wondered if she knew the Russian tale ‘The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship’ to be found in Old Peter’s Russian Tales? Here it is the Fool who is the ‘hero’ with the help of a band of extraordinary companions. In the story from The Mabinogi we learn that Culchwch means ‘pig shed’.  The tales in The Mab are absolutely coming out of Wales – but for young readers exploring folk tales and myths from over the world these are echoes for them to catch.

Coming to terms about how to feel Welsh enough has made her keen to provide avenues to help young people explore these ideas; an edition of Welsh [Plural) for young people is something she feels would be important and welcome. However, far more interesting is the question of how do we write stories that will appeal to as many as possible? There is a danger of making things too general. There is real value in the niche offer. It is capturing the thread of familiarity that contributes to a feeling of inclusion and is key. The Mabinogi – so Welsh – is an example of this.

‘If I can leave anything behind for that next little person who is figuring out their place in the world, that makes the quest worthwhile’

Works cited

Chetty, Darren, Muse, Grug, Issa, Hanan, Tyne, Iestyn (eds) (2022) Welsh [Plural).Essays on the Future of Wales. London. Repeater Books 

Issa, Hanan (2019). My Body Can House Two Hearts. Burning Eye Books  

Issa, Hanan (ed) (illus Eric Heyman) (2024). …and I hear Dragons. Cardiff: Firefly Press 

Brown, Matt, Williams, Eloise (eds) (illus Max Low) (2022) .The Mab. London:Unbound 

Ransome, Arthur, (illus Christina Hardyment) Old Peter’s Russian Tales (2003). London: Jane Nissen Books 

Hanan Issa is a Welsh-Iraqi poet, filmmaker, and artist. Her publications include her poetry collection My Body Can House Two Hearts and Welsh [Plural]: Essays on the Future of Wales. Her winning monologue With Her Back Straight was performed at the Bush Theatre as part of the Hijabi Monologues. She is part of the writersroom for Channel 4’s award-winning series We Are Lady Parts. Hanan is co-founder of the Where I’m Coming From open mic series. She was the recipient of the 2020 Ffilm Cymru/ BBC Wales commission for her short film The Golden Apple. She is the current National Poet of Wales and 2022 Hay International Fellow.