Bookselling as Resistance (BRN 2025)

In 2023, over sixty books were published in the Welsh Language: novels, memoirs, educational material, children's books, and poetry. They were distributed across Wales through a network of over 100 bookshops covering the 8000 square miles of the Welsh nation, serving its three million inhabitants. 26% can read Welsh and 27% can speak it. Over 26% of Welsh inhabitants read Welsh and 27% speak it as well. Siopau llyfrau Cymraeg (or Welsh language bookshops) – stores often recognizable by their Welsh names (Na-Nog, Awen Meirion, Cant a Mil) which primarily or solely sell books and other printed material in the Welsh Language – have played an important role in sustaining that linguistic culture. The growth of Welsh language bookshops since the 1950s has coincided with the establishment of legal recognition of and protections for Welsh, including the Welsh Language Acts of 1967 and 1993. They have provided not only access to the material published in the language, but a meeting place for radical cultural and political action by Welsh speakers. They played a substantial role in the Welsh devolution movement which culminated in devolved government in 1998 and in the modern independence movement, Yes Cymru. Using archival sources and interviews with Welsh language booksellers, this paper will examine the growth of these minority language bookshops and their role in sustaining both a strong sense of national identity and resistance to monolingual culture in Wales.