The Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize recognizes the best published work in the English language written by an author aged 39 or under. The 12-strong longlist for the 2022 prize, announced this morning, features lots of women and diverse voices. All literary genres are eligible. There are eight novels, two poetry collections and two short story collections in the running:
- A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam (Granta)
- What Noise Against the Cane by Desiree Bailey (Yale University Press)
- Keeping the House by Tice Cin (And Other Stories)
- Auguries of a Minor God by Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe (Faber)
- The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris (Tinder Press/Headline)
- No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (Bloomsbury Circus)
- Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz (Atlantic Books)
- Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley (John Murray Press)
- Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Viking, Penguin General)
- Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan (Jonathan Cape)
- Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi (Faber)
- Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor (Daunt Books Publishing)
Coming just a week and a half after the Young Writer of the Year Award shortlist news, the longlist repeats two of its titles, Open Water and Acts of Desperation. No One Is Talking About This was shortlisted for the Booker and Women’s Prizes last year. A Passage North was also Booker shortlisted, while The Sweetness of Water was on the longlist.
I happen to have already read and reviewed No One Is Talking About This, Open Water, and Filthy Animals; I DNFed Hot Stew (some thoughts here). I am being sent a copy of Acts of Desperation for my Young Writer of the Year Award reading.
Of the rest, I’m most interested in reading the short story collection Milk Blood Heat and the two poetry nominees, What Noise Against the Cane and Auguries of a Minor God. I’m hoping that review copies of these few, perhaps as part of a longlist blog tour, will be a possibility.
Looking at the longlist, Brandon Taylor immediately jumps out to me as a deserving winner. I feel like his debut novel and follow-up story collection establish him as a confident writer with a mature voice and style that will be with us for the long haul.
This year’s judges are novelist and Swansea University lecturer Alan Bilton, Jaipur Literature Festival founder and director Namita Gokhale (chair), poet Luke Kennard, and novelists Irenosen Okojie and Rachel Trezise.
The shortlist will be announced on 31 March and the winner on 12 May.
(My previous Dylan Thomas Prize coverage: I reviewed a few nominees for the blog tours in 2019 and 2020, and introduced the shortlist in 2021.)
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I’ve read three of these – Lockwood, Nelson and Taylor – but am most keen to read Acts of Desperation.
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We’ve read the same three 🙂 I’m worried Acts of Desperation will be too similar to other books I’ve read by young Irish women, but I’m willing to give it a try.
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Same here – it sounds very similar to Tennis Lessons I think, but I have heard enough good reports to want to give it a try.
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I’ve not read any, yet! But I own copies of five of them, so will be getting stuck in soon, certainly Open Water, Acts of Desperation as they double up and I have Lockwood, Mozley and Harris.
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I’ll be keen to see how you get on with them all. Open Water is nice and short, so you could polish it off in a sitting.
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Nolan and Nelson are doing well! I’ve read the Lockwood and have been dithering about Filthy Animals having been less keen on Real Life than you. Interesting list.
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Filthy Animals basically takes up the same voice and protagonist, so if you weren’t a fan of Real Life you might want to pass. I think of Taylor and Bryan Washington as being very similar, but though they have things in common outwardly their style is rather different.
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I’ve not read any of these yet but I always root for Brandon Taylor because I loved his novel so much. I own his short stories but haven’t gotten to it yet.
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I’d love for his talent to be recognized. His short stories are very much of a piece with Real Life.
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The only one that I have is Hot Stew. Not read it yet mind you
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I wonder if you’ll like it! A bit of an attempt at a Dickensian London novel, showing various classes of society.
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I’ve read the same three! I’d be happy to see any of them win, mostly Nelson or Taylor, but a lot of the other titles look like they could be great contenders.
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Lockwood is squeaking in by the skin of her teeth — I think she turns 40 the month after the Prize is awarded. It’s always interesting to see what they nominate. No matter how well read I think I am, there are always titles I’ve NEVER heard of. Acts of Desperation seems like a disaster-woman book for you to read, yes?
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Ha, this suggests that I am not on the same page as the judges this year! I was distinctly underwhelmed by the Lockwood (so tired of seeing this on prize lists!), Nelson, Mozley and Moniz, whereas I generally don’t get on with Taylor and Oyeyemi, and decided against the Harris and Arudpragasam when they were on the Booker longlist. I think I’ll be giving this a miss!
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The title No One Is Talking About This was always going to be ironic, wasn’t it? 😉 I don’t think I fancy the Arudpragasam, Harris or Oyeyemi either. I enjoy discovering new poets so that’s where my main interest lies here, though I’m also going to try Acts of Desperation; it’s also a good excuse to read Milk Blood Heat, which I’ve had from NetGalley for ages.
Prize season is busy, so ruling out one list is helpful in a way. The Women’s Prize longlist will be here before we know it. Do you plan to follow it this year?
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I think I’ll take a similar approach to the WP as I did last year – only picking out the titles I really want to read. I do feel like shadowing it too closely these days often just ups the number of books I read by mediocre white women, which doesn’t suit my reading goals.
Looking back at my review of Milk Blood Heat I actually liked it more than I thought, but called it forgettable, and that’s definitely true – I can’t remember anything about it!
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Somehow I always have to re-learn that this is not exclusively a poetry prize! heh Having read just four, I don’t have serious thoughts on who should win. It sounds like quite a strong list!
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I tend to go the other direction and think of it as being like the Folio Prize, which is for all genres including NF!
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[…] I’m currently reading Megan Nolan’s Acts of Desperation, doing double duty from the Dylan Thomas Prize longlist and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award shortlist, and enjoying it more than expected […]
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This seems like a good list! I would really like to give Taylor a try!
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