"Tongue Tied" Author Peter Griffiths at the Clearing Cafe in Portland, Oregon

Peter Griffiths, author of Tongue Tied, invited AmeriCymru members in Portland to a reading and discussion of his book at the Clearing Cafe on NW Thurman in Portland last Monday evening. Peter and his wife, Yvonne, hosted the gathering at the Clearing Cafe, owned by their son, Andrew Griffiths, and his wife, Kelley Winchester, to celebrate the second printing of Peter's book by YLlofa. The senior Griffiths live in Colorado and travel to Portland to visit and will be back for the 2010 NAFOW in September. Peter gave readings from the book, discussed some of his process in creating it and answered questions. He described how he'd used cynghanedd (the concept of sound-arrangement within one line in Welsh language poetry, using stress, alliteration and rhyme) to some of the lines here and there throughout the book, and read examples to show how he'd applied these concepts to an English-language prose work. Peter and Yvonne's son, Andrew was born in Wrexham and his wife and partner, Kelly in New York. Although they both spent a lot of their early lives in Colorado, they met in Portland while working at the same bakery. They recently bought the cafe, which had been in business more than two years in that location, and they've kept the cafe's menu, which includes bagels, panini sandwiches, rice and bean bowls, salads, smoothies and juices and a good variety of teas and coffees. Wherever possible, they use local and organic ingredients for everything they make. They plan to introduce Welsh dishes to their menu, starting with Welsh cakes, and add beer and wine, so those of us in Portland can look forward to somewhere with a more specifically Welsh flavor to go. Andrew put on the red and green for the occasion and sported the Ddraig Goch on his tie to welcome us all. An interview with Peter appears on the AmeriCymru blog and Ceri's review of Tongue Tied will be up shortly.