A Room Above a Shop by Anthony Shapland is Wales Book of the Year 2026
We revealed the news on Thursday 9 July at our Award Ceremony held at Galeri Caernarfon. It was also announced that Mererid Hopwood was the winner of the overall Welsh-language prize with her poetry collection, Mae (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas). Both overall winners receive a prize of £4,000 each as well as iconic trophies designed and created by Angharad Pearce Jones.
A Room Above a Shop is a tender and resonant love story, and a powerful debut. It is set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic and Clause 28, centring on two men living a secret life in their lodgings in South Wales.
Anthony Shapland grew up in Bargoed, south Wales. He is a writer and artist, and founder of g39, an artist-led space in Cardiff. His short story ‘Foolscap’ was shortlisted for the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition and he was selected for the Hay Writers at Work programme in 2023. He is an alumni of Literature Wales’ Representing Wales programme, where he was mentored by award-winning writer Cynan Jones, who was shortlisted alongside Anthony for this year’s Wales Book of the Year Fiction Award.
On behalf of the judging panel Catrin Kean said:
“The other judges and I had long and hard discussions: these are all very special books and we loved them all. But in the end the decision was unanimous.
A Room Above a Shop is a gorgeous work of art. A concealed love story, where the concealment is so much part of it that even the characters’ names are withheld. We loved the visual prose, the sense of place, and the love that was woven through every line. With its tender, precise, poetic prose, this a thrilling debut novel. We all felt that this was a special new voice in the Welsh literary landscape.”
Mae by Mererid Hopwood is the first poetry collection to win the overall Wales Book of the Year Award in the Welsh language since 2002. Mererid Hopwood is the first woman to win the Eisteddfod Chair, the highest accolade for poetry composed in cynghanedd. She has also won other literary awards at the National Eisteddfod; the Crown and the Literary Medal. She is Professor of Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University.
Although she is well known for her poetry, Mae is her second full collection of poems. It contains pieces about peace, injustice, the environment, being a mother and a grandmother, and much more.
Each year, the Wales Book of the Year Award celebrates talented Welsh writers. There are four categories in English and Welsh – Poetry, Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction and Children and Young People. Each category winner takes home a prize of £1,000. One category winner in each language goes on to win the Overall Award, earning a further £3,000 and claiming the title, Wales Book of the Year.
The English-language winners of Wales Book of the Year 2026 are:
Wales Book of the Year 2026 (Sponsored by Cardiff University’s School of English, Communication and Philosophy);
& Fiction Award (Supported by the Rhys Davies Trust)
A Room Above a Shop, Anthony Shapland (Granta Publications)
Poetry Award (Supported by Parry Davies Clwyd-Jones & Lloyd)
The Storm’s Flora, Laura Wainwright (Seren Books)
Creative Non-Fiction Award
Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance, Joe Dunthorne (Hamish Hamilton)
Children & Young People Award (Sponsored by Darwin Gray)
My Dog, Olivia Wakeford (Harper Collins Children’s Books/ Harper Fire)
Gwobr People’s Choice Nation.Cymru
There she Goes my Beautiful World, Gosia Buzzanca (Calon)
Welsh-language Winners:
Llyfr y Flwyddyn 2026 (Sponsored by Cardiff University School of Welsh)
& the Poetry Award (Supported by Parry Davies Clwyd-Jones & Lloyd)
Mae, Mererid Hopwood (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas)
Creative Non-fiction (Sponsored by Stori Cymru)
Y Cyfan a Fu Rhyngom Ni – Ar Lwybrau ‘Atgof’ Prosser Rhys, Iestyn Tyne (Gwasg y Bwthyn)
Fiction Award (Sponsored by HSJ Accountants)
Tri, Sonia Edwards (Gwasg y Bwthyn)
Children & Young People Award (Supported by Cronfa Elw Park-Jones)
Y Cae Ras, Manon Steffan Ros (Y Lolfa)
Golwg360 Barn y Bobl Prize
Trochi – Cerddi Carwyn Eckley, Carwyn Eckley (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch)