You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Six ‘powerful’ writers including Sams and Patel shortlisted for £20k Dylan Thomas Prize
The shortlist for this year’s £20,000 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize has been unveiled, with three novels, two short story collections and one poetry collection in contention.
The novels are Limberlost (Atlantic Books) by Robbie Arnott, Seven Steeples (Tramp Press) by Sara Baume and I’m a Fan (Rough Trade Books) by Sheena Patel. Saba Sams’ short story collection Send Nudes (Bloomsbury Publishing) is also up for the prize alongside Arinze Ifeakandu’s short story collection God’s Children Are Little Broken Things (Weidenfeld & Nicolson).
Warsan Shire’s poetry collection, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head, published by Chatto & Windus, is also shortlisted.
Celebrating the international world of fiction in all its forms, the prestigious award is presented annually for the best published literary work in the English language written by an author aged 39 or under.
This year’s shortlist was decided by a judging panel comprising: Di Speirs, chair of the panel and books editor at BBC Audio; Jon Gower, a former BBC Wales arts and media corresponden; and authors Maggie Shipstead, winner of the 2012 Dylan Thomas Prize for her debut Seating Arrangements (The Borough Press), Rachel Long and Prajwal Parajuly, who was shortlisted in 2013 for the Dylan Thomas Prize for The Gurkha’s Daughter (riverrun).
Speirs said: “There’s brilliance and beauty in the six books shortlisted for this year’s Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize. All six – while hugely different in style, subject and genre, and ranging from rural Tasmania and the wild Irish coast to the sharply contemporary in Nigeria and the UK – exemplify not only the talent and excitingly fresh, often startling, writing we were seeking, but draw the reader in and on.
“There’s wit and wisdom, pleasure and pain, acute observation of the natural world and of human relationships and above all, so much to savour. That we all agreed so clearly on our shortlist is testament to the strength of this potent mix of poetry, short stories and novels and to the power of the six writers.”
The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize winner will be announced at a ceremony held in Swansea on Thursday 11th May, prior to International Dylan Thomas Day on Sunday 14th May.
