2011 Award

Winner - John Harrison, Cloud Road (Parthian)

The Welsh-language winner was Ned Thomas with 'Bydoedd' published by Y Lolfa.

The Short List

Pascale Petit, What the Water Gave Me (Seren)
John Harrison , Cloud Road (Parthian)
Alastair Reynolds, Terminal World (Gollancz)

The authors on the Welsh-language Shortlist were Angharad Price for her novel Caersaint (Y Lolfa), Dewi Prysor for his novel Lladd Duw (Y Lolfa), and Ned Thomas for Bydoedd (y Lolfa).

The Longlist

Gladys Mary Coles, Clay (Flambard Press)
Stevie Davies, Into Suez (Parthian)
John Harrison, Cloud Road (Parthian)
Tyler Keevil, Fireball (Parthian)
Patrick McGuinness, Jilted City (Carcanet)
Pascale Petit, What the Water Gave Me (Seren)
Alastair Reynolds, Terminal World (Gollancz)
Dai Smith, In the Frame (Parthian)
Alan Wall, Doctor Placebo (Shearsman Books)
M. Wynn Thomas, In The Shadow of the Pulipt  (University of Wales Press) 

The Judges

Francesca Rhydderch

Francesca Rhydderch is a freelance writer and literary editor based in Aberystwyth. She was associate editor of Planet: The Welsh Internationalist (1998-2000) and English-language editor at Gomer Press (2000-2002) before taking up the editorship of New Welsh Review (2002-2008). She is currently writing a novel set in Hong Kong and Wales.




Deborah Kay Davies

Deborah Kay Davies' poetry and stories have been published in many journals including Agenda, Mslexia, New Welsh Review, and Planet, and her first collection of poetry Things You Think I Don't Know was published by Parthian in 2006. She is a three-times winner of the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition, and her stories have been broadcast on Radio 4. Her first collection of short stories Grace, Tamar and Laszlo the Beautiful, also published by Parthian, won 2009 Wales Book of the Year award. Her debut novel True Things About Me has recently been published by Canongate.

 Jon Gower

BBC Wales’ Arts and Media correspondent from 2000 – 2006, Jon Gower has written a number of books about travel and local history. These include An Island Called Smith (Gomer, 2001), which was a John Morgan Award winner, and a book about his home town, Real Llanelli (Seren, 2009). He has edited a further four volumes, published a collection of short stories, Big Fish (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2000), and has recently published his first Welsh-language novel, Dala’r Llanw and an English adaptation, Uncharted.


 The judges on the Welsh language panel were Simon Brooks, Gerwyn Wiliams and Kate Crockett.