Owusu, Sams and Mortimer longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 

Maddie Mortimer, Derek Owusu and Saba Sams are among the 12-strong longlist for the £20,000 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize.

Won last year by Patricia Lockwood for No-one is Talking About This (Bloomsbury), the longlist for the prize for the best published literary work in English written by an author aged 39 or under is this year made up of authors hailing from the UK, Ireland, Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia, Lebanon and Australia.

Through themes of coming of age, adversity and love, it comprises eight novels, two poetry collections and two short story collections. Limberlost by Robbie Arnott (Atlantic Books), Seven Steeples by Sara Baume (Tramp Press), God’s Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu (Orion, Weidenfeld & Nicolson) and Maps Of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer (Picador, Pan Macmillan) are up for the prize, as well as Phantom Gang by Ciarán O’Rourke (the Irish Pages Press) and Things They Lost by Okwiri Oduor (Oneworld).

Also longlisted are Losing the Plot by Derek Owusu (Canongate Books), I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel (Rough Trade Books), Send Nudes by Saba Sams (Bloomsbury Publishing), Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire (Chatto & Windus), Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens (Picador, Pan Macmillan) and No Land to Light On by Yara Zgheib (Atlantic Books, Allen & Unwin).

The titles will be whittled down to a shortlist of six by a panel of judges chaired by  British producer and books editor for BBC Radio Di Speirs. She will sit alongside prize-winning Welsh author and lecturer in English at Swansea University, Jon Gower, bestselling American author and 2012 winner of the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize Maggie Shipstead, British poet and the founder of Octavia Poetry Collective for Women of Colour Rachel Long, and Nepali-Indian author and 2013 Prize shortlistee Prajwal Parajuly.

The shortlist will be announced on 23rd March followed by the winner’s ceremony in Swansea on 11th May, prior to International Dylan Thomas Day on 14th May.