Dylan Thomas Literary Prize Launched

Posted on November 5, 2004

The Dylan Thomas Literary Prize is a new International award which rewards writing in English by authors under the age of 30 from anywhere in the world is the latest literary prize initiative. The inaugural bi-annual Prize was simultaneously launched in Swansea, the birthplace and inspiration of Dylan, and New York on October 27th 2004.

This biennial literary prize in the amount of �60,000 will be awarded to the most outstanding literary talent, age under 30 at the launch date, writing a published work in the English language. The first prize will be awarded at the Dylan Thomas Literary Festival in Swansea in September 2006.

Catherine Zeta Jones will serve as an Ambassador for the Prize. She comments, "I hope that as the first International Ambassador for the Dylan Thomas Literary Prize I can help encourage the participation of young writers from all over the World. This is a fantastic initiative and one which I am proud to be part of".

A high profile jury will combine the talents of Independent Editor in Chief, Simon Kelner, novelists Stevie Davies, Stephen Knight and Ben Marcus and poet Gwyneth Lewis. Simon Kelner said," This Prize has the full support of the Independent. I am pleased to be involved at the outset with such a great concept".

Peter Stead, Chairman of the Prize Board said, "It is right and timely to properly reward young writing talent on an International scale from here in this "sea town" as Dylan referred to Swansea. The link is so relevant as Dylan's most prolific work was published when he was very young and much of his well known work such as Hunchback in the Park, Return Journey and A Child's Christmas in Wales refer lovingly to Swansea, his home town. I call on publishers and writers to make themselves known and come forward for this truly rewarding and prestigious award".

A series of Educational programmes will run across Wales for the short listed writers during 2006 and, after the Award, the winning author will embark on a 12 month creative writing residency in University of Wales, Swansea and The University of Texas, Austin.

In the 1930s, literary London was quick to acclaim the energy and innovation of the young Dylan's verse. Dylan's first collection, 18 Poems, was published in 1934, shortly after the twenty year old moved to London. They were drawn from the Notebooks he had kept since his mid-teens as he grew up in 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea, which turned out to be the most prolific period of his life. Dylan mined these Notebooks until the 1940s, and continued to engage with the themes of these early poems -- birth, death, the body, the natural world -- throughout his life.

Swansea featured in many of his poems and short stories and was the central subject of his book of prose, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, and of many of his pioneering broadcasts. His later work, such as the poem "The Hunchback in the Park", and the broadcast Return Journey, also reveals the lasting influence Swansea had upon him. During what remained of his short life Dylan became an international figure, but subsequent critics have established the extent to which he had learned and honed his craft during his twenty Swansea years.