Jonathan Edwards, 35, who has taught at Haberdashers’ Monmouth School for Girls for nine years, won the Costa Poetry Award 2014 with his debut collection, My Family and Other Superheroes. He talks to CIARAN KELLY about growing up in Cross Keys, his influences, and how his writing has evolved.

I WAS born in Newport in 1979, but lived in Cross Keys all my life. I was an only child in a very friendly village with incredible community spirit. My Mum, Kerry, taught maths and art while my Dad, Aubrey, was a self-employed estate agent in Risca.

It was the typical Valleys upbringing and I lived on the same street as Waunfawr Primary School, where I went to school. I had some inspirational teachers when it came to the history of the Valleys and Welsh history in general. One of them even took us on a re-enactment of the Chartist March. I don’t think we realised just what the teachers gave us at the time in inspiring an interest in local history.

Growing up in the Valleys, there was an incredible history of working-class defence. The Manic Street Preachers’ Holy Bible was in the consciousness. I was 15 when it came out and that was the big one, really. The Manics drew on the history of the area and its political thinking.

Nicky Wire’s brother, Patrick Jones, was a big influence on my writing and I attended his workshops at Blackwood Miners’ Institute when I was younger. I was also a big fan of Richey Edwards, particularly his lyrics and writing. He wrote with such intelligence about politics and history, and made centuries of working-class dissent modern and cool. He was a positive role model – intelligent, articulate and thoughtful.

I was a big football fan and I have fond memories of my first football match, when Wales beat Germany in 1991. Ian Rush scored and football was yet another way of connecting with my father. I played for Pontymister and various school teams and I went on to watch Newport County a lot, particularly when they were in the non-league.

At school, English was always my main interest and Roald Dahl was an important writer. I just loved Dahl’s imaginative style and humour and that outlandish way he did things. I loved all his books, particularly George’s Marvellous Medicine. I was always reading and writing.

At junior school, I was writing army stories, which were Rambo inspired, and I was just engrossed by the whole process. I loved films like Apocalypse Now and I was really interested in pop culture. The Simpsons have been a big influence, given how it has layers of elements of pop culture and looks at relationships within a family. The accessibility is great and pop culture features a lot in the book.

Family relationships and family paths are something I’ve always been interested in and there’s an element of mystery about it. For example, my grandfather and his brother served during the First World War and only my grandfather made it back. Our family constantly reminisced about it, but he never talked about it. Supposedly, they went to the Ebbw River together before they left and filled their water bottles as a way of saying that they would both return back together. Ultimately, they didn’t.

When you grow up, writing becomes something more and it progressed in seriousness as I got older. I entered a young pupil writing competition at 16 and university at Warwick was an inspirational time for me in taking on poetry. It was a natural leap and it was a more refined form that I was a long way from mastering.

As I got older, my writing progressed in seriousness and I knew I wanted to do something, even if it was not massively concrete yet. English became more practical at university, with American writers like Mark Twain, J.D. Salinger, and Joseph Heller. Perhaps, there was an element of escapism and it was great to go on adventures with these writers, who have such a distinctive voice.

I spent a few years at Warwick, between 1999 and 2003, and I also did an MA in creative writing there. As my undergraduate degree had progressed, there were more creative modules. There was more risk involved and it was a lot more fun when you took the jump. It was a really great time and my tutors were encouraging me to use my Welsh background. There was a thriving Welsh society there, as well as different writing groups, and we all used to go to the rugby.

When I left Warwick, I worked in the National Assembly for a year. It was a really good experience and everyone was so friendly. I was working in the equality policy unit, which deals with things like immigration. Edwina Hart was the minister at the time and I was helping out with speeches and briefings.

But, I was always thinking about my English degree and passing on my skills. I did my teaching course in Cardiff and was on placement in Chepstow and Bassaleg. It was all about observing and being very bad at it all at first. Coming from an academic, humanities background, the training prepares you for reading in sitting rooms but eventually it worked itself out.

I’ve been at Haberdashers in Monmouth for nearly 10 years and we’ve been so lucky with the pupils we have had. They’re well motivated and, at the same time, hilarious. They give us as much as we give them and they’re incredible kids. Any time you might think you are feeling down, you soon realise you have the best job in the world after a class with Year 10.

My writing had been on the backburner after university and I was busy trying to figure out what I had learned. Writing only came back the more assured I got. I find that weekends and school holidays are particularly good times for writing and, usually, I can write in one big blast so it does not seep into a second day.

Winning the Costa award was absolutely brilliant and the publisher did a brilliant job. The previous winners are an incredible list of who’s who, with Carol Ann Duffy, Ted Hughes, and Seamus Heaney among them. When I heard I had won, it was the first time I even knew that I had been entered.

I’ve been everywhere across Wales reading at pubs and in festivals and I’ve been doing all I can to promote the book. It’s been a brilliant adventure. Hopefully, I’ll do another book and the nice thing about poetry is that you can just do small chunks in the morning and then continue with it later.

The awards evening is in London on January 27 in a big posh London restaurant, where I know I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb.