Recently the longlist for the 2020 International Dylan Thomas Prize was announced. The prize is celebrating it’s 15th anniversary this year. It’s open to any author aged 39 or under. Since it’s one of my goals this year to read more poetry and short stories, I’m keen to follow this prize as the 12 books on the longlist include 3 books of poetry and 2 short story collections – as well as 7 novels (many of which are ones I’ve been meaning to read anyway.) You can watch me discussing all these books here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P81rIwrpRIE
Coincidentally, I’ve already read two of the books of poetry including Jay Bernard’s “Surge” which is extraordinarily powerful and one of the best books I read last year. More recently, I enjoyed Mary Jean Chan’s “Fleche” which won the Poetry category at the Costa Book Awards. I found these poems so immersive and emotional. I’ve also been very keen to read Stephen Sexton’s collection “If All the World and Love were Young” as I heard him read some poems from it at the Forward Prizes last year.
I’ve really enjoyed reading Kirsty Logan’s short stories in the past so I’m particularly keen to read her most recent collection “Things we say in the Dark” and I’ve heard lots of good things from readers in America about Bryan Washington’s story collection “Lot”.
Interestingly, two debut novels on the list represent their authors first forays into long-form fiction. Helen Mort and Ocean Vuong are both established and well-regarded poets. I’m always curious to see how authors modify their writing style when changing form. The results can really vary. For instance, I thought Garth Greenwell’s poetic sensibility works very well in his narratives, but poet Katharine Kilalea’s first novel didn’t work quite as well.
Two novels on the list I began reading but set aside are “Exquisite Cadavers” and “Stubborn Archivist”. Although I loved Kandasamy’s novel “When I Hit You” I found the high concept of this new book made it difficult for me to engage with the story. It’s a dual narrative where the author is telling a fictional story alongside all the real-life influences which went into making it. While this is an interesting idea, I found it made for a frustrating reading experience. Equally, Fowler uses a very informal style in her novel for telling the story of a woman’s migration from Brazil to England. From what I read of the novel it lacked the kind of artfulness I look for in fiction so didn’t finish it.
Out of the remaining three books I’m most keen to read Tea Obreht’s historical novel “Inland” and Madhuri Vijay’s “The Far Field” which won the 2019 JCB Prize for Literature (a literary award for Indian authors.) But, if I have time I’d also be keen to read Yelena Moskovich’s novel which sounds so atmospheric.
The shortlist for this year’s prize will be announced on April 7th and the winner on May 14th. Hopefully, I’ll be able to read a number of these books before then. Let me know which you are keen to read or, if you’ve read any, let me know your thoughts about them.
