Celebrating the written word has become a popular pastime as the abundance of literary awards would suggest, and it’s no different in Wales with the winners of the annual Wales Book of the Year award announced this month.
Considering the strong calibre of Welsh writers past and present, our strong literary heritage includes Dylan Thomas and Roald Dahl no less, it’s no surprise that we can boast a literary award that has grown in stature over recent years. To confirm the calibre of authors, four of the 2016 shortlisted authors have previously won the award.
Established in 1992, the award has developed into a prestigious platform for Welsh writers. Now administered by Literature Wales, the format was changed in 2012 to incorporate a variety categories within the Welsh and English language providing a distinctive element to the judging procedure and celebrating the different written formats.
To explain the technicalities, the award will be presented to the best Welsh language and English language works published during the preceding year and is broken down into three categories – poetry, fiction and creative non fiction. As if vying for the coveted title was not enough, the winners of each category will receive a £1,000 prize with the overall winner in each language awarded a further £3,000 with the awards ceremony being held at The Redhouse in Merthyr Tydfil on the 21st July.
Tasked with selecting the shortlist from over ninety entries, the English language award judging panel included Tony Brown, Justin Albert and associate editor for the Bookseller, Caroline Sanderson, who explains “the diversity of entries across each category and the sheer affluence of the vein of writing, both Welsh and out of Wales is a cause for celebration in itself.” Perhaps a telling sign for the future is that six out of the eighteen books on the shortlist are from debut authors, with four from the English language category.
Known as The Roland Mathias Poetry Award, the shortlist for the English language poetry price features Love songs of Carbon by Phillip Gross, Boy Running by Paul Henry and Pattern Beyond Chance by Stephen Payne. The creative non-fiction award includes Jasmin Donahaye’s Losing Israel, Woman Who Brings the Rain by Eluned Gramich and Wales Unchained by Daniel G. Williams.
The Rhys Davies Trust fiction award shortlist includes debut novelist Thomas Morris for his short story collection We Don’t Know What We’re Doing. Owen Sheers will be vying for the award hat-trick with his novel I Saw a Man after winning on two previous occasions and the debut novel from Kate Hamer which has been shortlisted for numerous national book awards – The Girl in the Red Coat.
A writer, poet and BBC Radio 1 DJ form the Welsh language judging panel, Lleucu Roberts, Llion Roberts and Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens also breaks down into three categories. Gracing the poetry prize shortlist is Nes Draw by Mererid Hopwood, Gruffudd Owen’s Hel Llus yn y Glaw and Eiliadau Tragwyddol by Cen Williams.
In the creative non-fiction category the shortlist includes Pam Na Fu Cymru by Simon Brooks, Dyddiau Olaf Owain Glyndwr by Gruffydd Aled Williams and Is-deitla’n Unig by Emyr Glyn WIlliams. And the final category, the Welsh language fiction award offers Norte by Jon Gower, Y Bwthyn by Caryl Lewis and Rifiera Reu by Dewi Prysor.
It’s not only the judges who face tough decisions ahead of the award ceremony. The public can vote online for their favourite shortlisted title to be crowned the People’s Choice Award for the English language shortlist or Gwobr Barn y Bobl for the Welsh language prize. Celebrating both the English and Welsh written word you’ll find plenty of inspirational reading material to keep you occupied over the summer.
words RHIANON HOLLEY
