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Shortlist Announced for Top Literary Award

Prize-giving:
Friday 27 March 2009
The Guildhall, Brecon
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An all-women shortlist of Welsh writers has been chosen to compete for one of Wales’s top literary prizes next month. The four writers will be vying for the £2,000 Roland Mathias Prize for Welsh writing in English, which will be awarded on 27 March 2009.

The biennial prize is awarded for a work published during the last two years in the field of poetry, short stories, literary criticism or Welsh history. For the first time, the judges have chosen two works of literary criticism, charting the history of Welsh writing.

Aberystwyth University lecturer Sarah Prescott is shortlisted for her latest work, Eighteenth Century Writing from Wales: Bards and Britons (University of Wales Press). Also selected is Jane Aaron, Professor of English at the University of Glamorgan, for Nineteenth Century Women’s Writing in Wales: Nation, Gender and Identity (University of Wales Press). Also on the shortlist are poet and writer of short stories Sheenagh Pugh for her poetry collection, Long Haul Travellers (Seren) and short-story writer Carys Davies for her collection Some New Ambush (Salt).

Menna Richards, Controller BBC Wales, said, “The Roland Mathias Prize makes a major contribution to raising awareness of the high quality of Welsh writing in English. I am delighted that BBC Wales continues to support and celebrate the strength of writing in Wales today.”

The judges include poet and critic Sam Adams, novelist and poet Chris Meredith, literary historian Moira Dearnley, writer Catherine Merriman and former TV journalist Glyn Mathias.

Prize-giving:

The winner for 2009 will be announced on Friday 27 March, at The Guildhall in Brecon at a ceremony supported by BBC Wales and hosted by Nicola Heywood Thomas, presenter of BBC Radio Wales’ Arts Show. All the shortlisted writers will be invited to talk about their work.

At 4.30 pm you can join some of Wales’ finest writers including Jeremy Hooker, Meirion Jordan, Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch and Ifor Thomas for a celebration of Welsh literature. Refreshments will be served at 6.00 pm ahead of the Award Ceremony which will start at 7.00 pm. Admission is free and guests are welcome to attend either or both events.

The Prize was established in honour of the poet and author, Roland Mathias, who died in 2007 and who played a major part in establishing Welsh writing in English as a distinctive literary genre. The two previous winners were poets, Dannie Abse and Christine Evans.

For more information contact: glynmathias@btinternet.com