Patricia Lockwood wins £20k Dylan Thomas Prize for ‘searing’ debut

American poet, novelist and essayist Patricia Lockwood has been awarded the £20,000 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize for her debut novel, No One Is Talking About This (Bloomsbury Publishing), also shortlisted for last year’s Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Namita Gokhale, chair of judges, hailed the work as a “vital reflection on online culture today”, calling Lockwood a “deeply timely winner” and “the voice of a generation of new writers who grew up under the constant pressures of real-time news and social media”.

“No One Is Talking About This is a searingly witty and innovative take on modern-day internet culture and the experience of family trauma in the modern world,” she said. “The book’s flow of consciousness, almost diary-like in quality, is remarkably deft at capturing the psychological impact that simultaneous alienation and ‘group think’ life online has on us as individuals. Lockwood is an astonishing and wholly original new voice. 

“We are delighted that the jury of the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize decided on her debut novel as its choice for the 2022 prize. We cannot wait to see what comes next from this uncompromising talent.”

The book was unanimously well received by the wider panel of judges. Author and former winner of the prize Rachel Trezise described Lockwood’s debut novel as “a poignant, witty and genre-defying portrayal of the absurdity of being ‘extremely online’ as well as an urgent rumination on the necessity of human connection”. 

Novelist Alan Bilton added that the book was “inventive, smart and hyper-self aware”, describing Lockwood as “the patron saint of digital natives, an explorer who has navigated the Twittersphere and knows: Here There Be Monsters.”

The other titles shortlisted for the 2021 Prize were: A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam (Granta Books), Auguries of a Minor God by Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe (Faber), The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris (Tinder Press), Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Viking Press) and Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor (Daunt Books Publishing).

Patricia Lockwood joins an illustrious list of writers to have been awarded the prize, including Raven Leilani, Bryan Washington, Guy Gunaratne, Kayo Chingonyi, Fiona McFarlane and Max Porter. She received the £20,000 prize at a ceremony in Swansea University’s Great Hall on Thursday 12th May, two days before International Dylan Thomas Day.