Longlist for 2012 Dylan Thomas Awards announced

London, United Kingdom (4E) – The University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize has announced this year’s longlist on Monday featuring published authors from three continents.

Hannah Ellis, granddaughter of Dylan Thomas, made the announcement at the newly restored Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea, his hometown. The longlist includes 10 outstanding literary works composed of eight novels and two short story collections. The authors come from Canada, the USA, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and the UK.

This year’s longlisted candidates and their respective works are:

Tom Benn, 24 – The Doll Princess (Vintage Publishing)

Ben Brooks, 20 – Grow Up (Canongate Books)

Matthew Crow, 24 – My Dearest Jonah (Legend Press)

Andrea Eames, 26 – The White Shadow (Harvill Secker/Random House)

Amelia Gray, 29 – Threats (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Chibundu Onuzo, 21 – The Spider King’s Daughter (Faber)

Maggie Shipstead, 28 – Seating Arrangements (Blue Door)

Alexandra Singer, 29 – Tea at the Grand Tazi (Legend Press)

DW Wilson, 27 – Once You Break A Knuckle (Bloomsbury)

Lucy Wood, 27 – Diving Belles (Bloomsbury)

The panel of judges includes Peter Florence, Kurt Heinzelman, Carolyn Hitt, Kim Howells, Cerys Matthews, Allison Pearson, Peter Stead and Nicholas Wroe.

Thomas Prize, founding chairman of the University of Wales said in a press release, “Once again we have another quality longlist with an extensive international span. We also have our youngest ever entrant in Chibundu Onozu with The Spider King’s Daughter. The calibre of the ten longlisted works is outstanding and I’m sure the next few weeks are going to see a number of heated debates as the judging panel whittles down this list of 10 extremely talented young writers to the final shortlist for this years Prize.”

The international prize is open to any published writer in the English language aged 18-30 years. The annual prize, which amounts to 30,000 pounds (around $ 47,000), is considered to be one of the largest in the world for young writers.

Shortlisted authors will be announced by the panel of judges in September, and the winner will be announced in Swansea on November 9.