Are You the Best Young Writer in the World?

A few weeks back, PW ran a short item about the Dylan Thomas Prize, a £60,000 prize for “the best young writer in the world,” at least the one who’s writing in English. And it included a quote from one of the prize board members indicating that “we haven’t gotten as many entries from America as we’d like.” And apparently that’s still the case.

So: If you’re between the ages of 18 and 30, and you published a novel, a collection of short stories, or a book of poetry, or you got hired to write a TV or radio script, or you wrote a play for the theatre, any time after April 2006, tell your publisher to cough up £100 and submit you for consideration already! (Personally, I’d consider the possibility that the best young writer in the world might be giving it away on a blog, but it’s their prize, not mine.) Heck, this is probably a bigger windfall for American writers than it will be for anyone else—when the PW item ran, the Prize was worth $119,000, but as of this morning, it’s slightly over $122,000. By the time the prize is actually presented in November, who knows how much it could be worth?

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