CALL FOR ENTRIES FOR £30,000 DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE
The world’s biggest literary prize for young writers
Entries are invited each year for the world’s biggest literary award for young writers – the £30,000 ($45,000) Dylan Thomas Prize – which will be awarded for the best published work in the English language by an author under the age of 30 from any country in the world.
Dawn over Swansea Bay and the Swansea Cork ferry waits at Mumbles Head to dock
Yesterday’s early morning sight of the Swansea Cork ferry looming out of the mist off Mumbles Head got me thinking about our Irtish literary links.
The new service is in operation for the first time in three years and its appearance reminded me of Dylan’s admiration of James Joyce and Brendan Behan. (more…)
Sculptor Peter Nicholas with the head of Dylan which will form part of a new sculpture in the Uplands by 2014
The announcement today of the death at 95 of David Slivka who sculpted Dylan’s death mask brings to an end another link with the writer.
Both were born on 27th October 1914 and celebrated their 39th birthdays just days before Dylan died in a New York hospital on 9th November 1953.
Four years after Dylan’s death he made five bronze busts. Two are now in America, one in the National Museum of Wales, one in the BBC Headquarters and the fifth in the Dylan Thomas Centre. (more…)
Easter always seems a bit on a non event as a Bank Holiday weekend. The promised sun never seems to materialise and this year it was rain and cold winds to make it feel more like December.
While the beaches and attractions suffered we were ones to gain with a steady flow of house tours. I got me wondering which of the events of the weekend would Dylan have chosen? (more…)
Rugby is very much part of Welsh life but Dylan was never known to be much of a fan – cricket was his sport – well, watching it was!
He spent many hours at St Helen’s Ground watching Glamorgan and became great friends with the great cricket commentator John Arlott. Arlott was also a radio producer and used Dylan for many performances on (more…)
We’ve developed our tours and walks with the emphasis on the ambulant. Not that you need to be an Olympic athlete but Swansea, hilly as it is, inevitably means there’s a climb involved.
Our latest project has been to design a day long visit for an elderly group of literature lovers. (more…)
Eating out can sometimes be a bit of a gamble but we’d heard such good reports of Vincent’s in Eversley Road, Sketty that we sent John, Eric and Lorraine there last week – they were not disappointed so when Ian Griffiths and Carol came over from Suffolk we decided to put our money where our mouth was and give it a try. (more…)
Join Dylan for breakfast
“…the most inspirational house in Wales…”
Leading European writer Eric Verdonck and his Welsh guide John Wake stayed at Number 5 during Eric’s visit to research a book about Wales.
John’s video is accompanied by evocative music from the group Osian whose lead singer Lorraine King joined them on part of their stay.
Evelyn Hannon (left) of journeywoman.com and welsh Blue Badge guide Bill O''Keefe are among the guests taking afternoon tea at Dylan Thomas Birth House
We recently welcomed a group of Canadian writers to the house and they were amazed by the attention to detail of the conversion.
Among them was Evelyn Hannon who is the webmaster of the hugely successful Journey Woman website. Her travel experience is vast and the website emails thousands of subscribers each week making it one of the largest and most influential in North America. (more…)
Particularly towards the end of his life Dylan Thomas has periods when the words never came. Actually, that’s not strictly true – the words of his poetry didn’t come but his film scripts and his radio work gave him new life – and money!
That is why the Dylan Thomas Prize accepts entries in all the genres that Dylan worked – fiction, short stories, poetry collections, film and media scripts. It was strange then to hear that Tessa Dahl (she’s the one squashed between Roald and Sophie) at the launch of the Prize in Boston on St David’s Day question whether you could differentiate and find a winner. (more…)
The front of Dylan Thomas Birth House at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea - the writer's home for 23 years
Dylan Thomas Birthplace / Family Home 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea, Wales, UK 