Book of the Year finalists revealed

08/06/2010

Three big names vie for prestigious prize

Philip Gross, Nikolai Tolstoy and Terri Wiltshire have been announced as the three finalists on the shortlist for Wales Book of the Year’s English language prize.

The three authors have been whittled down from a longlist of 10 nominees in the running for the prestigious £10,000 accolade.

Philip Gross, who is the current recipient of the TS Eliot Prize, was nominated for his poetry collection, I Spy Pinhole Eye, which features pinhole photographs by Birmingham City University lecturer Simon Denison.

British-Russian writer Nikolai Tolstoy was selected for The Oldest Prose Literature: The Compilation of The Four Branches of The Mabinogi, which uncovers the chronology of some of the country’s oldest known medieval tales.

Terri Wiltshire’s debut novel, Carry Me Home, which looks at racism in America’s Deep South at the beginning of the 20^th century. Wiltshire, who was raised on a farm in Alabama, is also a former NBC News presenter.

Peter Finch, chief executive of competition organisers Academi, said the shortlist “draws attention worldwide to the strength of [Wales’] native creativity. For a small nation, Wales consistently punches well above its literary weight. This year’s shortlisted titles prove the point admirably.”

The winners of both English and Welsh Books of the Year will be announced at the St David’s Hotel in Cardiff on June 30.