Wales Book of the Year Focus: Carys Davies

Ask the Author: Carys Davies
When did you first realise that you wanted to be an author?
When I was living in Chicago, early 90s, I discovered the great American short story writers Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, John Cheever, Bernard Malamud and the rest. I was blown away and wanted to try to do what they’ve done.
What inspires you?
Things I don’t understand.
Who’s your hero and why?
I’m not sure I have a real life hero. Clear has three: two men, Ivar and John, and a woman, Mary. If I had to choose one, I’d choose Mary for being intrepid, bold, pragmatic and open hearted.
Your favourite place on earth and why?
The walk in the Cairngorms from Braemar up to Ben Macdui and along the River Avon back to Braemar. It’s one of the routes I used to go hiking and camping along with my husband, who died last summer.
What are you currently reading?
How To End A Story, the collected diaries of Helen Garner.
What inspired the idea for your book?
Finding Jakob Jakobsen’s dictionary of the (now extinct) Norn language.
Will you read a piece from it please?!
Who should read your book and why?
Anyone interested in what people do in difficult situations.
How does it feel to have reached the WBOTY 2025 Shortlist?
I couldn’t be more thrilled! The tenacity of the Welsh language was very much on my mind as I wrote this novel about the tragedy of a vanishing language in the far north of Scotland.
Do you have any other work/events in the works?
I’m on my way to the Hexham Literary Festival this weekend, and to London next week for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize dinner. I’m also looking forward to talking to some A Level students at a school in Edinburgh, where I live, who have been studying Clear.