This is the 11th year of the prize which is targeted at young authors under the age of 40 who are writing in English.
The Prize celebrates published work in the broad range of literary forms in which Dylan Thomas excelled, including poetry, prose, fictional drama, short story collections, novels, novellas, stage plays and screenplays. Entries for the prize are submitted by publishers, editors, agents and in the case of theatre plays and screenplays, by producers.
The five novels and one collection of short stories shortlisted for 2019 are:
- American-Ghanaian writer Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah for his debut short story collection Friday Black which explores what it’s like to grow up as a black male in America.
- Debut novelist Zoe Gilbert for Folk (Bloomsbury Publishing) which was developed from her fascination in ancient folklore and the resurgence of nature writing. She won the Costa Short Story Award in 2014.
- British-Sri-Lankan debut novelist, Guy Gunaratne for In Our Mad and Furious City. It was longlisted for The Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for The Goldsmiths Prize.
- Louisa Hall with her latest book Trinity which tackles the complex life of the father of the Atomic Bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer through seven fictional characters.
- For the second time Sarah Perry has been shortlisted for the prize; this time for her best-selling novel Melmoth, named by The Observer newspaper as one of the best fiction books of 2018 B. It’s a morally complex novel which poses questions about mercy, redemption, and how to make the best of our conflicted world.
- Zimbabwean debut novelist Novuyo Rosa Tshuma with House of Stone which reveals the mad and glorious death of colonial Rhodesia and the bloody birth of modern Zimbabwe.
Authors who were longlisted but didn’t make the final selection were:
- Michael Donkor, Hold
- Clare Fisher, How the Light Gets In
- Emma Glass, Peach
- Sally Rooney, Normal People
- Richard Scott, Soho
- Jenny Xie, Eye Level
An interesting initiative this year sees BA English Lit students at Swansea University (a partner in the awards) study the shortlisted works as part of a new module. Their interviews with the authors are available as podcasts here
Last year’s winner Kayo Chingonyi won for his critically-acclaimed debut poetry collection, Kumukanda, which explores black masculinity.
The 2019 winner – who will pick up a cheque for £30,000 – will be announced on Thursday 16 May.