Some English people are very Anglo-centric--I'm putting this kindly--and don't value the Celtic languages and wouldn't take seriously a writer in Welsh. This has changed in recent years.
In America I found that people took it much more seriously that I was trying to write in Welsh. I think I might be the only person admitted to the Columbia graduate writing division with poems written in Welsh. That meant a great deal, to be taken seriously in that way.
Because it was not considered a big deal, there was no need to defend a nationalistic position, which wasn't quite one I felt comfortable in. It made it suddenly possible to experiment and play in English.
[--Gwyneth Lewis]
from Stanford University News: Welsh poet at Stanford: Small languages make a big difference
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