The 2013 Wales Book of the Year Award will be presented to the best Welsh and English-language works first published in 2012 in the fields of creative writing and literary criticism in three categories: Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction. The Award is administered by Literature Wales. For further information about the award, contact Literature Wales: 029 2047 2266 / post@literaturewales.org
Wales Book of the Year Short List 2013
The Roland Mathias Prize for Poetry
Banjo
Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch (Picador Poetry)
Celebrating the centenary of Captain Scott’s arrival at the South Pole in 1912, Banjo gives us new psychological insight into the lives of the early Antarctic pioneers, as well as an extraordinary account of the role played by music in surviving the long Antarctic winters.
Burying the Wren
Deryn Rees-Jones (Seren)
In Burying the Wren, Deryn Rees-Jones returns to familiar preoccupations but with a new clarity and maturity of vision. With intense lyricism she calls on the Roethkean ‘small things’ of the universe, and sets them up against loss.
Clueless Dogs
Rhian Edwards (Seren)
In Rhian Edwards’ first collection of poetry the noted performance poet chronicles er childhood in Bridgend, teenage lusts, student rivalries, damaged peers and tense situations, all with warmth and dark humour.
Fiction:
A Girl’s Arm
Gee Williams (Salt Publishing)
A Girl’s Arm is a collection of stories homing in on the pressure points in the lives of its characters. The stories focus on that single extraordinary event from which the course of his or her particular narrative veers off and they are offered the chance to become what they were meant to be.
Singing a Man to Death
Matthew Francis (Cinnamon Press)
Singing a Man to Death is a collection of short stories notable for its range, sophistication, and readability. Displaying linguistic range and richness, characters are stranded in or confronted by disorientating milieus.
Creative Non-Fiction:
Forgotten Footprints
John Harrison (Parthian)
Forgotten Footprints takes you on a journey into the heads and hearts of those who were driven to explore this unknown land of Antarctica, guided by a man with many years’ experience of this mysterious continent.
Wales at Water’s Edge
Jon Gower (Gwasg Gomer)
Published to coincide with the opening of the All-Wales Coastal Path, Wales at Water’s Edge is a visual and verbal evocation of the journey around the Welsh coast that is grounded in a deep knowledge and understanding of the highways and byways of Wales at water’s edge.
Welsh Lives
Meic Stephens (Y Lolfa)
In this book of obituaries, Meic Stephens celebrates the lives of 75 eminent Welsh people who have made significant contributions to life in Wales during the last few decades. All are treated with a warm appreciation of their achievements and a knowledgeable account of their lives and times, so that the reader will find much to enjoy in remembering them in this way.
Dates for your diary
Monday 13 May 2013
The Wales Book of the Year Award 2013 Short List was announced on the Wales Book of the Year website at 2.00 pm on 13 May 2013. You can watch the video below:
Thursday 18 July 2013
Wales Book of the Year Ceremony at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Ffion Hague graduated from Jesus College, Oxford University with a BA in English Literature and the University of Wales with an MPhil in Welsh Literature. She spent six years in the Civil Service, joining the Welsh office in 1991 as a fast stream civil servant and leaving in 1997 from the post of Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Wales. For the next two and a half years, she was a Director of Arts & Business, a national business charity.
In 2000, Ffion became a headhunter at board level across all sectors, and was a director of Hanson Green, a top-level non-executive search company, between 2003 and 2008. Specialising in corporate governance, since 2008 she has focused on board evaluation consultancy and also acts as a mentor for non-executive directors.
Ffion’s first book was published in June 2008. The Pain and the Privilege (Harper Collins) is a biography of the women in Lloyd George’s life. In 2009 she wrote and presented a Bafta-Cymru winning documentary on The Two Wives of Lloyd George for S4C and she is currently working on her second series of historical biographies, ‘Mamwlad’, also for S4C. She broadcasts and speaks regularly on related subjects.
Ffion has been a Director of the British Council, The Voices Foundation, Action on Addiction and the Woburn Centre for Conservation and Education and a member of the LSO Advisory Board. She is currently a Trustee of English National Opera and The Outward Bound Trust. In 2010, Ffion was elected Honorary Fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford.
Jasper has been writing in the Comedy/Fantasy Genre since 2001 when his novel The Eyre Affair debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list. Since then he has published eleven more books, and more recently has branched out into YA with his ‘Last Dragonslayer’ series.
Amongst Jasper’s outputs are police procedurals featuring nursery rhyme characters; a series for Young Adults about magic and dragons set in a shabby world of failing magical powers, and Shades of Grey a post-apocalyptic dystopia set three world orders into the future, where social hierarchy is based on the colours you can see.
He freely admits that he’s fascinated not just by books themselves, but by the way we read and what we read, and his reinvigoration of tired genres have won him many enthusiastic supporters across the world. He lives and works in Wales.
Richard Marggraf Turley. Picture credit: Sara Penrhyn Jones
Richard Marggraf Turley is author of Wan-Hu’s Flying Chair (2009), editor of The Writer and the Academy: Creative Interfrictions (2012), and has published several books on the Romantic poets, including Bright Stars (2009). In 2007, he won the Keats-Shelley Prize for poetry (“Elisions”), and won the “People’s Choice” award in the 2010 Wales Book of the Year. He was born in the Forest of Dean and moved to Wales when he was seven. He is a Professor of Engagement with the Public Imagination in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University. Blog
Alun Gibbard was a broadcaster for over twenty five years in Wales and England as a producer and presenter on news, documentary and feature programmes. Amongst those he has collaborated with are two Nobel Peace Prize winners, Desmond Tutu and Lech Walesa. Five years ago he left the world of television and radio in order to write full time. During this period he has written or co-written 15 books in Welsh and in English. He is also a regular contributor to the Welsh language magazine, Golwg. Although he now lives in Llanelli, he was born in Dowlais, Merthyr Tudfil, and it is said that the location of his upbringing nurtured his enjoyment of Welsh as well as English culture. When he isn’t reading Welsh language novels, he loves to read about Wales. When his head isn’t buried in a book, he loves watching rugby at Par cy Scarlets, listening to contemporary music and writing song lyrics as personal therapy!
Bethan Elfyn has been a familiar name on BBC Radio Wales for over two years after over ten years presenting and producing with BBC Radio 1. She began her career with BBC Radio Cymru in Bangor as a researcher where she worked on all kinds of programmes, and during this period she was a researcher for factual documentaries for BBC Radio 4. During the last year she has been a researcher for specialist music programmes for the BBC 4 television channel. During the past ten years she has presented and has been a DJ on numerous states and at many festivals over the wor,d, frequently writing for the BBC music website and presenting some television programmes such as The Pop Factory, Popcorn, and Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol. She lives in Cardiff with her husband and her daughter Tegan Tirion who was born in 2012.
Elin ap Hywel is a poet and a translator who was born in Colwyn Bay. She received her higher education at Cambridge and Aberystwyth before undertaking research in Ireland. She worked for many Welsh establishments before working freelance. One of her interests is translating poetry, and her versions of Mena Elfyn’s poems have appeared in many collections. Her own work has been translated into many languages including Polish and Japanese. She was the first bilingual Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund at Aberystwyth University (2001/02 and 2003/04).
Sarah Coles, Here and the Water (Gomer)
John Fraser Williams, Scan (Cinnamon Press)
Ruth Bidgood, Above the Forests (Cinnamon Press)
Herbert Williams, White Walls (Cinnamon Press)
Kevin Mills, Libra per libris ad astra (Cinnamon Press)
Rhian Edwards, Clueless Dogs (Seren)
Samantha Wynne Rhydderch, Banjo (Picador)
Deryn Rees-Jones, Burying the Wren (Seren)
Gillian Clarke, Ice (Carcanet)
Grahame Davies, Lightening Beneath the Sea (Seren)
Zoë Brigley, Conquest (Bloodaxe Books)
Selima Hill, People Who Like Meatballs (Bloodaxe Books)
Damian Walford Davies, Witch (Seren)
Simon Mundy, More for Helen of Troy (Seren)
Emily Hinshelwood, On Becoming a Fish (Seren)
Stephen Knight, The Prince of Wails (CB Editions)
Alan Kellermann, You, Me and the Birds (Parthian)
Anna Lewis, Other Harbours (Parthian)
Ken Jones, Bog Cotton (Alba Publishing)
Peter Walker, Old Men in Jeans (Y Lolfa)
Lynne Rees, Forgiving the Rain (Snapshot Press)
John Barnie, The Roaring Boys (Cinnamon Press)
Kate North, Bistro (Cinnamon Press)
Sally Spedding, Cold Remains (Sparkling Books)
Wendy Jones, The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals (Corsair)
Terry Cooper, Kangazang! Star Stuff (Candy Jar Books)
Kate Furnivall, The White Pearl (Sphere)
RA Farmer, The Desconstructing World (RA Farmer)
Tessa Hadley, Married Love (Jonathan Cape)
Matthew Francis, Singing a man to death (Cinnamon Press)
Alastair Reynolds, Blue Remembered Earth (Gollancz)
Grace McCleen, The Land of Decoration (Chatto & Windus)
Will Hamley, The Candidate (Llanerch Press)
Gee Williams, A girl’s arm (Salt)
James Smythe, The Testimony (Blue Door)
David Edwards, The Ebb and the Flow (IndePenPress)
Simon Lewis, Border Run (Sort of Books)
Wayne Price, Furnace (Freight Books)
Jennifer Cryer, Breathing on Glass (Little Brown)
Brian Jones, Conspiracy of Angels (Greencroft Books)
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Christopher Meredith, The Book of Idiots (Seren)
Juliet Greenwood, Eden‘s Garden (Hono)
Jon Gower, Too Cold for Snow (Parthian)
Dan Rhodes, This is Life (Canongate)
Trisha Ashley, Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues (Avon)
M Stanford Smith, Flights of Angels: A Nicholas Talbot Adventure (Honno)
John Idris Jones, Madocks (Alun Books)
Nikita Lalwani, The Village (Penguin/ Viking)
Tom Bullough, Konstantin (Penguin)
Evonne Wareham, Never Coming Home (Choc Lit)
Jo Carnegie, Horse Play (Corgi)
Scott Mariani, The Sacred Sword (Avon)
Rob Atenstaedt, Dr Volkisch and the Stempelhorst Legacy (Y Lolfa)
Belinda Bauer, Finders Keepers (Bantam Press)
Jean Bonnin, Lines Within the Circle (Red Egg)
Sheila Morgan, Feet of Clay (Y Lolfa)
Barbara Erskine, River of Destiny (HarperCollins)
Hilary Shepherd, Animated Baggage (Honno)
Myrrha Stanford Smith, Flight of Angels (Honno)
Chris Keil, Flirting at the Funeral (Cillian Press)
Christine Stovell, Move Over Darling (Choc Lit)
Thorne Moore, A Time for Silence (Honno)
Paul Surridge, Girls can’t make gun noises (Man Overboard)
Peter George, Mr Tim (Carn Ffoi Publications)
Rod Humphries, The Last Coal Trip to Tenby (Parthian)
George Brinley Evans, When I Came Home (Parthian)
Lloyd Jones, New Stories from the Mabinogion: See How they Run (Seren)
Cynan Jones, New Stories from the Mabinogion: Bird, Blood, Snow (Seren)
S. L. Venables, Ironbark (FeedaRead)
Gaynor Arnold, After Such Kindness (Tindal Street Press)
Julia Gregson, Jasmine Nights (Orion Books)
L. M. Shakespeare, The Messenger (Hopcyn Press)
Steve Venables, The Dancing Men (FeedARead)
Cathy Ace, The Corpse with the Silver Tongue (Touchwood Editions)
Carole Llewellyn, For the Love of Catherine (Robert Hale)
John Hughes, Glyndwr’s Daughter (Y Lolfa)
Tim Lebbon, Coldbrook (Hammer)
Ken Follett, Winter of the World (Macmillan)
Tim Lebbon, The Heretic Land (Orbit)
M. R. Hall, The Flight (Mantle)
David Powell, The 16th Song (FeedARead)
Deke Leonard, The Twang Dynasty (Northdown Publishing)
Jasmine Donahaye, Whose People? Wales, Israel, Palestine (University of Wales Press)
Judy Kendall, Edward Thomas, The Origins of his Poetry (University of Wales Press)
Eirian Jones, The Welsh Lady from Canaan (Y Lolfa)
Jon Gower, Wales at Water’s Edge (Gomer)
John Harrison, Forgotten Footprints (Parthian)
Mark T Hooker, Tolkien and Welsh (Llyfrawr)
Michael O’Brien, Prisons Exposed (Y Lolfa)
Jackie Hayden, A Map of Love, Around Wales with Dylan Thomas (Iconau)
Matthew Jarvis, Writers of Wales: Ruth Bidgood (University of Wales Press)
Neil Walklate, A step back, St Nicholas, a Glamorganshire parish (Y Lolfa)
Frances Thomas, A Bracelet of Bright Hair (Arima Publishing)
Eirug Davies, The Welsh of Tennessee (Y Lolfa)
Elaine Morgan, Knock’em Cold, Kid (Matador)
Geraint H. Jenkins, Bard of Liberty – The Political Radicalism of Iolo Moarganwg (University of Wales Press)
John Humpries, Spying for Hitler, The Welsh double-cross (University of Wales Press)
Daniel G. Williams, Black Skin, Blue Books (University of Wales Press)
Gwyn Griffiths, Henry Richard Apostle of Peace and Welsh Patriot (Francis Boutle Publishers)
Phil Carradice, A Pembrokeshire Childhood in the 1950s (Amberley Publishing)
Robert King, Ghosts of Neath (Amberley Publishing)
Mark Charlton, Counting Steps – a journey through landscape and fatherhood (Cinnamon Press)
Roger Penn, Beyond the call of duty (Gomer)
Jim Perrin, Snowdon – The Story of a Welsh Mountain (Gomer)
Imogen Rhia Herrad, Beyond the Pampas – In Search of Patagonia (Seren)
Patrick Thomas, From Carmarthen to Karabagh – a Welsh discovery of Armenia (Carreg Gwalch)
Meic Stephens, Welsh Lives (Y Lolfa)
Frank Olding, Mynydd Du (Gwasg y Bwthyn)
Eigra Lewis Roberts, Parlwr Bach (Gomer)
Geraint Jarman, Cerbyd Cydwybod (Gomer)
Aneirin Karadog, O Annwn i Geltia (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas)
Cyril Jones, Eco’r Gweld (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas)
Dewi Stephen Jones, Ffynhonnau Uchel (Gomer)
Euryn Ogwen Williams, Tywod a Sglodion (Gomer)
Gareth Neigwl, Ar y Tir Mawr (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch)
Llion Jones, Trydar mewn Trawiadau (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas)
Robert Lacey, Sut i fod yn Hapus (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas)
Myrddin ap Dafydd, Blodau Gwanwyn, Blodau Gwyn (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch)
Mihangel Morgan, Kate Roberts a’r Ystlum (Y Lolfa)
Dafydd Chilton, DIM (Y Lolfa)
Tony Bianchi, Ras Olaf Hari Selwyn (Gomer)
Ceri Elen, Pentre Saith (Y Lolfa)
Haf Llewelyn, Mab y Cychwr (Y Lolfa)
Gwennan Evans, Bore Da (Y Lolfa)
Lleucu Roberts, Rhyw Fath o Ynfyntyn (Y Lolfa)
Gareth F Williams, Y Tŷ Ger y Traeth (Y Lolfa)
Manon Steffan Rhos, Blasu (Y Lolfa)
Robat Gruffudd, Afallon (Y Lolfa)
Jerry Hunter, Gwreiddyn Chwerw (Gwasg Gwynedd)
Mared Lewis, Min y Môr (Gwasg Gwynedd)
Marlyn Samuel, Llwch yn yr Haul (Gwasg Gwynedd)
Llwyd Owen, Heulfan (Y Lolfa)
Harri Parri, Ifan Jones a’r Fedal Gee (Gwasg y Bwthyn)
John Gruffydd Jones, Dawns Ganol Dydd (Gwasg y Bwthyn)
William Owen, Pluen y Sgwennwr (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch)
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Gareth Ffowc Roberts, Mae Pawb yn Cyfrif: stori ryfeddol y Cymry a’u rhifau (Gomer)
Meic Stephens, Cofnodion (Y Lolfa)
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Eirwyn George, Cynnal y Fflam (Y Lolfa)
Bob Morris, Terfysgoedd Cymru (Gomer)
Hefin Wyn, Ar Drywydd Waldo (Ar Gefn Beic) (Y Lolfa)
Robin Gwyndaf, Taliesin o Eifion a’i Oes – Bardd y Gadair Ddu Gyntaf (Y Lolfa)
Jerry Hunter, Y Meddwl a’r Dychymyg Cymreig: Llwybrau Cenhedloedd – Cyd-Destunoli’r Genhadaeth Gymreig i’r Tsalagi (Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru)
Dei Tomos, Jeremy Moore, Cymru ar Hyd ei Glannau (Gomer)
Neil ‘Maffia’ Williams, O’r Ochr Arall (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch)
Bethan Gwanas, Hanas Gwanas – Hunangofiant Bethan Gwanas (Gwasg Gwynedd)
Moc Morgan, Byd Moc (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch)
Gwyn Thomas, Gair yn ei Le (Y Lolfa)
Mari Gwilym, Melysgybolfa Mari (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch)
Elin Haf, Blwyddyn y Fflam (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch)
Aled Jones Williams, Tuchan o Flaen Duw (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch)
Elystan Morgan, Atgofion Oes (Y Lolfa)
8 Comments
Author
Sian Morris
November 19, 2012, 11:07 pm
Is a book eligible if it meets all the criteria but has been self published?
Many thanks
Ref#15649 Wales Book of the Year – Roland Mathias Poetry Prize
Hello,
I am writing to determine if the above referenced program will be accepting applications in 2013. If so, when might one expect to find updated application guidelines and deadlines posted on the website? Please provide updated Web links. Thanks for your time.
Greetings. I cant seem to find any information on your website about the rules for submission for a creative non-fiction book for WALES bOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD., the closing dare for submission, the address where you submit your MS., whether the book must be sent by the publisher, how many copies you require. etc.
I do remember reading somewhere that you have to be born in Wales or have Welsh education – I have both plus I’m Welsh despite my English surname!
Would appreciate information about the above.
Sincerely,
Thelma Wheatley.
I note that the winning author last year, 2012, was not Welsh and his book had nothing to do with Wales. ? I guess that’s OK. for a WALES Book of the Year? Or is your award a general award for literatire in general, not Welsh specifically?
Banjo
Burying the Wren
Clueless Dogs
A Girl’s Arm
Singing a Man to Death
Forgotten Footprints
Wales at Water’s Edge
Welsh Lives
Is a book eligible if it meets all the criteria but has been self published?
Many thanks
Good morning, Sian. Yes, a self published book os eligible! Feel free to call us if you would like to discuss this: 029 2047 2266
Diolch!
Ref#15649 Wales Book of the Year – Roland Mathias Poetry Prize
Hello,
I am writing to determine if the above referenced program will be accepting applications in 2013. If so, when might one expect to find updated application guidelines and deadlines posted on the website? Please provide updated Web links. Thanks for your time.
Good afternoon E Grignon,
Thank you for your query.
I have emailed you an answer to your query directly.
Best wishes,
Branwen
What is the closing date for submissions to the Wales Book of the Year 1913 please?
Sincerely.
Dear Thelma,
Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. I have emailed you directly with an answer to your query.
Best wishes,
Branwen
Sorry – I found most of the answers to my questions under FAQ after I posted the query.
However, I still could not find the answer to the most important question:
What is the closng date for my publisher to submit my book? We’re in Canada.
Many thanks.
Thelma Wheatley.
Greetings. I cant seem to find any information on your website about the rules for submission for a creative non-fiction book for WALES bOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD., the closing dare for submission, the address where you submit your MS., whether the book must be sent by the publisher, how many copies you require. etc.
I do remember reading somewhere that you have to be born in Wales or have Welsh education – I have both plus I’m Welsh despite my English surname!
Would appreciate information about the above.
Sincerely,
Thelma Wheatley.
I note that the winning author last year, 2012, was not Welsh and his book had nothing to do with Wales. ? I guess that’s OK. for a WALES Book of the Year? Or is your award a general award for literatire in general, not Welsh specifically?