Lockwood and Azumah Nelson make shortlist for £20k Dylan Thomas Prize

No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (Bloomsbury Circus), Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water (Viking) and Brandon Taylor’s Filthy Animals (Daunt Books) have been shortlisted for this year’s £20,000 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize.  

This year’s “powerful” shortlist, which also includes A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam (Granta), Auguries of a Minor God by Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe (Faber) and Nathan Harris’ The Sweetness of Water (Tinder Press), comprises four novels, one poetry collection and one short story collection, as well as three debuts. 

The shortlist was selected by a judging panel chaired by co-founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival and award-winning author Namita Gokhale and including 2006 Dylan Thomas Prize winner Rachel Trezise, poet and novelist Luke Kennard, novelist and Swansea University lecturer Alan Bilton, and Nigerian-British author Irenosen Okojie.

Celebrating the international world of fiction in all its forms, the prestigious award is awarded annually for the best published literary work in the English language written by an author aged 39 or under.

Gokhale said: “The longlist for the 2022 Swansea University DylanThomas Prize was one of the strongest ever. The jury has whittled this down to a shortlist that is riveting and compelling on so many levels. It presents a rich diversity of accomplished young and debut voices and their explorations of the poetic, the historical and the contemporary.”

The winner’s ceremony will be held in Swansea on 12th May, two days before International Dylan Thomas Day.