News & Events
2008 Prize Schedule
May 2008 – Panel of judges announced
June 2008 – Longlist announced
July 2008 – Shorlist announced
November 2008 – Winner announced
£60,000 Prize Now Accepting Entries
In a world that offers a veritable smorgasbord of literary prizes, the Dylan Thomas Prize was designed not only to richly reward the best young writer in the world but also to serve as a focus for and incentive to all young writers throughout the English-speaking world.
In Wales the last decade has seen a mushrooming of young writing talent and it is that phenomenon that has prompted the people of Wales to set up this prize in honour of a writer whose talents were recognised and nurtured during his adolescence. Essentially the Prize brings Wales and its literature to the attention of young writers (and their instructors) throughout the world and, at the same time, invites Welsh writers to submit their work to international scrutiny.
Fundamental to the Prize is the provision for winning and short-listed writers both to come to Wales to talk to schools and colleges and subsequently to attend international conferences, organised by the Prize, in which the whole phenomenon of Creative Writing and its teaching will be discussed.
In 2006, the first year of the Prize, the international judging panel were not only greatly impressed by the quality of the six short-listed books but also struck by the elegance, maturity and ambition of the writing. The first Prize was won with a volume of short stories: the other five short-listed books were all novels.
The competition, however, is open for poetry, drama and screenplays. The aim of the Prize is now encourage entries in all categories and at its conference to focus attention on the publication prospects of young poets and dramatists as well as novelists.
£1000 Young Writing Category!
The Dylan Thomas Prize is designed to not only reward the best young writers in the world but also to serve as a focus for and incentive for new exciting creative work that shows true innovation. It will focus the attention of the literary world on Wales and its role in identifying, supporting and generously rewarding cutting-edge writing.
Therefore it is only fitting that the Prize should now partner with Swansea Life to offer a new £1000 young writing category for budding writers under 21. The new category will dovetail with the main £60,000 competition both culminating in the Awards ceremony in November 2008. We have every hope that the winner of the young writing category will be encouraged to go on and enter the main competition in later years and possibly even win that also.
Rachel Trezise, the inaugural Prize winner, will be making an appearance as part of the Tenth Dylan Thomas Festival on 30th October, where she will be in conversation with both Peter Stead, Honorary Chair of the Prize and Kurt Heinzelman from Texas University, who remains a Prize Judge. Rachel will be talking about how the Prize has Prize has impacted on both her life and her writing. Writers thinking of entering the new young £1000 category should be encouraged to come along and take advice from the £60,000 winning author for tips on winning literary prizes.
Full Guidelines for entering the young writing category will be shortly announced through Swansea Life Magazine and will also be available from the Dylan Thomas Prize website on www.dylanthomasprize.com