The University of Wales has announced the semifinalists for its annual Dylan Thomas Prize, given for a literary work in English by a writer of any nationality under the age of thirty. The 2010 longlist, which for the first time features a playwright—American Johnny Meyer—includes six poets and nine novelists from the Australia, Canada, Great Britain, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Somalia, South Africa, and the United States.
The longlisted poets are:
Caroline Bird, 23, for Watering Can (Carcanet)
Adebe D.A., 23, for Ex Nihilo (Frontenac House)
Elyse Fenton, 29, for Clamor (Cleveland State University Poetry Center)
Katharine Kilalea, 28, for One Eye'd Leigh (Carcanet)
Dora Malech, 28, for Shore Ordered Ocean (The Waywiser Press)
Leanne O'Sullivan, 27, for Cailleach (Bloodaxe Books)
The longlisted fiction writers are:
Eleanor Catton, 24, for The Rehearsal (Granta)
Brian DeLeeuw, 29, for In This Way I Was Saved (John Murray Publishers)
Ciara Hegarty, 29, for The Road to the Sea (Macmillan New Writing)
Emily Mackie, 27, for And This is True (Sceptre)
Karan Mahajan, 26, for Family Planning (Harper Perennial)
Nadifa Mohamed, 28, for Black Mamba Boy (Harper Collins)
Amy Sackville, 29, for The Still Point (Portobello Books)
Ali Shaw, 28, for The Girl with Glass Feet (Atlantic Books)
Craig Silvey, 27, for Jasper Jones (Windmill Books)
The winning writer, announced in Thomas's hometown of Swansea, Wales, on December 1, will receive a prize of thirty thousand pounds (approximately $46,700). Judging this year's award are Kate Burton, Peter Florence, Kurt Heinzelman, Gwyneth Lewis, Bruno Maddox, Natalie Moody, and Peter Stead.
In the video below, Somali-British novelist Mohamed discusses her debut, Black Mamba Boy, based on the life of her father. The book recently won the Society of Authors Betty Trask Prize, given to an author for travel abroad.