Aeronwy Thomas

Aeronwy Thomas
Thomas at the poetry reading in Torino, Italy
Born	Aeronwy Bryn Thomas (1943-03-03)3 March 1943 London, England, UK
Died	27 July 2009(2009-07-27) (aged 66) New Malden, London, England, UK
Cause of death	Cancer
Other names	Aeronwy Thomas-Ellis
Alma mater	Isleworth College (B.A. (Hons))
Occupation	Poetry translator
Spouse(s)	Trefor Ellis
Children	2
Parent(s)	Dylan Thomas Caitlin Macnamara
Relatives	Nicolette Macnamara (maternal aunt) Gwilym Marles (paternal great-granduncle)

Aeronwy Bryn Thomas-Ellis (3 March 1943 – 27 July 2009) translator of Italian poetry, was the second child and only daughter of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and his wife, Caitlin Macnamara.

Born in London, where her parents lived at the time, she was named after the River Aeron. In 1949, the family moved to the Boat House, Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales. The middle child of three, she had two brothers, Llewellyn and Colm (also deceased).

At the age of 10 Aeronwy Thomas was enrolled by her mother at the Arts Educational School in Tring, Hertfordshire, now Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, also spending one year in 1958 at Dartington Hall School in Devon. Following her father's death in 1953, she and her mother went to Rome, later moving to Sicily after her mother began a relationship with her long term partner Giuseppe Fazio. Thomas earned a B.A. (Hons) in English and Comparative Religion at Isleworth College, and a TEFL Diploma at Woking Adult Education College. In 2003 she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Wales, Swansea.

After learning Italian, she became a translator of Italian poetry. She was also known as an ambassador for her father's work, and as a patron of the Dylan Thomas Society. She was the President of the Alliance of Literary Societies.

A much sought-after visiting professor in schools and universities in the U.K. and abroad, in the late ‘90s she was highly popular with the students of Giuseppe Perotti School in Turin, Italy, for her distance-learning "creative writing" courses. In 2007 she became President of IMMAGINE&POESIA (Image and Poetry), an artistic literary movement founded at Teatro Alfa in Turin.