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Women dominate New Welsh Writing Awards 2017 shortlists

Published Fri 5 May 2017 - By Literature Wales
Women dominate New Welsh Writing Awards 2017 shortlists

New Welsh Review, in association with Aberystwyth University and AmeriCymru, have announced two shortlists for the New Welsh Writing Awards 2017: the Aberystwyth University Prize for Memoir, and the AmeriCymru Prize for the Novella.

The Awards were established to champion short books of less than 30,000 words, in rotating categories that have so far comprised writing of nature, travel and memoir, as well as the novella. This year, women writers dominate the shortlists in both categories, with two out of three women contesting the Memoir category, and an all-women final in the Novella prize.

The Aberystwyth University Prize for Memoir shortlist is Catherine Haines, Mary Oliver and Adam Somerset whilst Maria Apichella, Liz Jones and Amanada and Robert Oosthuizen are highly commended.

On the AmeriCymru Prize for the Novella shortlist are Cath Barton, Nicola Daly and Olivia Gwyne whilst Rebecca Casson, Barbara de la Cuesta and Atar Hadari are highly commended.

The winners will be announced at a special event at Hay Festival on 1 June, 2017, where Gwen Davies, editor of New Welsh Review, will make adjudications for winners of both the memoir and the novella, and also present a short film interpretation of the winners, made by Aberystwyth University graduate, Emily Roberts. Each category winner will receive £1,000 cash, e-publication by New Welsh Review on their New Welsh Rarebyte imprint and a positive critique by leading literary agent Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown. Second prize for each category is a weeklong residential course at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre in Gwynedd, north Wales and third prize is a weekend stay at Gladstone’s Library in Flintshire, north Wales. All six winners will also receive a one year subscription to New Welsh Review. In addition, New Welsh Review will publish the highly commended and shortlisted nominees in a forthcoming edition of its creative magazine New Welsh Reader with an associated standard fee.

The 2017 Awards are sponsored by Aberystwyth University, the core sponsor and host of New Welsh Review, and US online magazine and social network AmeriCymru. The Awards are run in partnership with Curtis Brown, Gladstone’s Library and Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre.