Llyfr y Flwyddyn - Wales Book of the Year

The Wales Book of the Year for 2013 was announced this week. It is presented to the best Welsh and English-language works first published in previous calendar year in the fields of creative writing and literary criticism across three categories: Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction. The English-language poetry Award is titled the Roland Mathias Poetry Award. It works a little like the Costa Prize, in that an overall winner from the three category winners takes home the main title.

I thought I'd add this, to complement the posts here on the Scottish Book of the Year, and simply to see what other books are winning plaudits, away from the big prizes.

Past winners and shortlists can be found here on the prize's website. I've only ever read one of the books listed, namely Tom Bullough's The Claude Glass which was a very memorable book. It will also have been memorable for Bullough as he 'nearly' won the prize the year as this cringe-worthy video on the BBC News website demonstrates.

So to the 2013 prize.

The Roland Mathias Prize for Poetry
Winner:
Clueless Dogs by Rhian Edwards
Other shortlisted books:
Banjo by Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch
Burying The Wren by Deryn Rees-Jones

Fiction
Winner:
The Testimony by James Smythe
Other shortlisted books:
A Girl's Arm by Gee Williams
Singing A Man To Death by Matthew Francis

Creative Non-Fiction
Winner:
Forgotten Footprints by John Harrison
Other shortlisted books:
Wales at Water's Edge by Jon Gower
Welsh Lives by Meic Stephens

The overall winner of the Wales Book of the Year was Clueless Dogs by Rhian Edwards.

The 2014 Wales Book of the Year Award will be presented to the best Welsh and English-language works first published in 2013 in the fields of creative writing and literary criticism in three categories: Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction and Poetry. The winner of the Poetry category will receive the Roland Mathias Prize for Poetry. The 2014 Wales Book of the Year Award Ceremony will take place at the spectacular Galeri Caernarfon on Thursday 10 July.

The Roland Mathias Prize for Poetry shortlist:

Barkin!, Mike Jenkins
The Shape of a Forest, Jemma L. King
Pink Mist, Owen Sheers

Fiction Short List:

Clever Girl, Tessa Hadley
The Drive Tyler Keevil
The Rice Paper Diaries, Francesca Rhydderch

Creative Non-Fiction Short List:

Rhys Davies: A Writer’s Life, Meic Stephens
R. S. Thomas: Serial Obsessive, M. Wynn Thomas
And Neither Have I Wings to Fly, Thelma Wheatley

Wales Book of the Year 2015:

The Roland Mathias Poetry Award Short List;

Telling Tales, Patience Agbabi (Canongate Books)
So Many Moving Parts, Tiffany Atkinson (Bloodaxe Books)
My Family and Other Superheroes, Jonathan Edwards (Seren)

Fiction Short List

The Redemption of Galen Pike, Carys Davies (Salt)
The Dig, Cynan Jones (Granta)
Burrard Inlet, Tyler Keevil (Parthian)

Creative Non-Fiction Short List

Down to the Sea in Ships, Horatio Clare (Chatto & Windus)
Other People’s Countries, Patrick McGuinness (Jonathan Cape)
American Interior, Gruff Rhys (Hamish Hamilton)

Welsh-language Short List 2015.

The Welsh-language judging panel for 2015 are author Annes Glynn, poet and lecturer Hywel Griffiths, and author, DJ and performer Gareth Potter. Here is the Welsh-language Short List:

Poetry Short List

Un Stribedyn Bach, Rhys Iorwerth
Storm ar Wyneb yr Haul, Llŷr Gwyn Lewis
Wilia, Meic Stephens

Fiction Short List

Awst yn Anogia, Gareth F. Williams
Saith Oes Efa, Lleucu Roberts
Y Fro Dywyll, Jerry Hunter

Creative Non-Fiction Short List

Rhyw Flodau Rhyfel, Llŷr Gwyn Lewis
100 o Olygfeydd Hynod Cymru, Dyfed Elis-Gruffydd
Mwy na Bardd, Kate Crockett

4 works on LT