Thurs 12 July
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Winner of the Fiction category as well as overall in English, The Last Hundred Days is Patrick McGuinness’ debut Fiction novel, having published successful poetry and literary criticism: set in 1989 Bucharest it handles Ceausescu's last days in power and shows a city struggling to survive an intense moment in its history. As the world stands on its own precipice, some watch as others battle for freedom or survival the book focuses on a moment within history, weaving the line between fiction and the historical novel. As the English language panel said of the book “In a world turned upside by the Arab Spring and economic cataclysm, can there be a more apposite or important book than The Last Hundred Days?”
Jon Gower’s novel Y Storïwr ‘The Story Teller’ the Welsh category winner in Fiction, aptly follows a boy born on a stormy night in West Wales with an amazing talent for telling stories.
The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama played host to this year’s winners, a spectacular space for the revamped awards, with its open meeting hall and concert space blending the modern and traditional.
2012 is the first year the competition has included the categories of Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction and Poetry, instead of the previous 2 long lists of ten authors going into the ceremony. Each category winner takes home £2,000 and the overall winner then takes a further £6,000 prize. The Roland Mathias Poetry prize in English has also been adapted into the awards for the first time, this year the prize was won by former Welsh National Poet Gwyneth Lewis for her Poetry collection Sparrow Tree, a collection that puts nature writing in a spin.
The Creative Non-Fiction prize went to Richard Gwyn for his memoir and autobiographical book The Vagabond’s Breakfast. The book is an account of years of his life lost to addiction, reckless travel and serial hospitalizations once he was faced with a sentence of death unless a liver donor was found.
The People’s Prize, chosen by readers of the Western Mail and available to all the English language shortlist, was awarded to Philip Gross for his poetry collection Deep Field. It was a fantastic moment to see poetry in the forefront of reader’s imaginations, highlighting the diversity of talent and choice available in Welsh literature.
English Language Chairman of the Judges Spencer Jordan recognised that “each of the three category winners are writers at the very top of their game” and that writing is far more than pen, paper, characters and words as he added “Writing is never more compelling or braver that when it comes from the heart, and that’s what these three books do. In their own small way, each is a manifesto for the human soul in the 21st Century.”
Welsh Language Winners:
Fiction: Jon Gower with Y Storïwr
Creative Non-Fiction: Allan James with John Morris-Jones
Poetry: Karen Owen with Siarad Trwy’i Het
With such a strong shortlist to Judge for 2012 my expectations for 2013’s long lists and short lists to be as diverse, creative and brilliantly written are high. The process for next year’s awards has already begun, an event definitely to look forward to.
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