News Archive

 Wales Book of the Year Award 2006
The Winners

The two winners of the Wales Book of the Year Award, the UK’s only bilingual literary prize, were announced on Tuesday 11th July at a glittering ceremony at the Cardiff Hilton.

Robert Minhinnick fought off competition for the English language award from Kitty Sewell and Ifor Thomas to win the valuable prize. Rhys Evans won the Welsh language award despite strong contenders Manon Rhys and Dafydd Johnston.

The awards were presented to the winners by First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, at the ceremony. Scriptwriter Andrew Davies, best known for the BBC’s acclaimed adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Bleak House as well as the film Bridget Jones’s Diary, was the guest speaker.

Peter Finch comments:
“The prize is a timely boost in an already flourishing career for Robert Minhinnick. We hope to see his work go from strength to strength from here”

The Wales Book of the Year Award is a unique parallel prize with two Long Lists, two Short Lists and two winners.  The two prizes are given to the best works in the fields of creative writing and literary criticism by Welsh or Welsh–interest writers, with one awarded to an English-language writer and the other to a Welsh-language writer. The award is run by the Welsh Academi.

Information on the winners:

• English Language winner: Robert Minhinnick

Robert Minhinnick is an acclaimed author and the editor of Poetry Wales magazine. He was born and brought up in south Wales and lives near the sea in Porthcawl. He has read his work around the world, from the Amazon to Saskatoon, Helsinki to Baghdad. He won the Forward Prize for his poetry and Wales Book of the Year 1993 for his essays, Watching the Fire-eater (Seren). A freelance writer, he also works for the environmental organisation Sustainable Wales.

To Babel and Back (Seren, 2005)

Join Robert Minhinnick on a journey across a radioactive planet as he follows a deadly trail from the uranium mines of the USA to the wastes of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. From the devastating technology of the first Gulf War he is led through the temples of a deserted Babylon to what his guides insist is the site of the Tower of Babel.

Interspersed with these ’radioactive writings’ - part documentary, part dream - are a host of other adventures across Europe, North America and Argentina. Minhinnick pursues Dante through Florence, Dylan Thomas through Berlin and searches for a poem given him by a murdered schoolgirl.

The world is simultaneously familiar and bizarre, filled with the background noise of contemporary society yet capable of providing places and moment of utter silence. Even when Minhinnick is ‘back’ in his native Wales, its coastline and valleys are as extraordinary as anything encountered in a Babel that might be myth or alarmingly real.

• Welsh Language winner: Rhys Evans

Rhys Evans was born in Carmarthen and raised in Aberystwyth. He was educated at Penweddig Comprehensive School, Aberystwyth and Hertford College, Oxford. For over 10 years now he has been working as a journalist for BBC Cymru. This is his first book.

Gwynfor: Rhag Pob Brad (Y Lolfa, 2005)

A biography of Welsh politician, Gwynfor Evans’ life. As well as encompassing 7 years of public life and non-stop political campaigning, this volume also offers an insightful analysis into the Welsh nation’s hopes and fears during the last century. An honest portrayal of his private life, looking at the heroic icon he became, as well as his role as a politician, father and husband. It also deals with Plaid Cymru’s progress and the events that pre-empted such milestones as founding S4C (the Welsh-language channel). Gwynfor Evans broke the mould of Welsh politics when he became the first Plaid Cymru MP in 1966.

The People’s Choice
Following in the footsteps of the now famous and influential Richard & Judy’s Bookclub, this year BBC Radio Wales and Academi asked a selection of Wales’ most avid reading groups to read all three short-listed books and select their winners. Kitty Sewell’s The Ice Trap (Honno) - the only novel in the running - was first choice for the majority of the groups. Manon Rhys’ Rara Avis (Gwasg Gomer) - also the only novel in the Welsh category - was selected by BBC Radio Cymru’s Listener’s Prize, winning over 75% of the vote. This proves the enduring popularity of a cracking good read amongst Welsh readers

The judges of the English-language prize are:
Nicola Heywood Thomas (Chair), BBC Radio Wales broadcaster
John Sam Jones, author
Dr Daniel Williams, lecturer in literature at University of Wales

The judges of the Welsh-language prize are:
Catrin Beard (Chair), translator and scriptwriter
Elan Closs Stephens, broadcaster, former Chair of S4C, Professor of Communications and Creative Industries at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Ieuan Wyn, poet

The Short Lists were announced at the Guardian Hay Festival in May.

The Award is administered by the Academi and funded by the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government. The Award is supported by the Welsh Books Council.

For more information about the Wales Book of the Year Award contact Academi
029 2047 2266 or post@academi.org

For all press enquiries please contact
Anna Mayall at Colman Getty PR
Tel: 020 7631 2666, or email anna@colmangettypr.co.uk