Category: Atlantic Books

Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize Award Announcement 2020

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Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize Award Announcement 2020

Thursday evening 14th May 2020 saw the the prize giving evening for this years prize, but because of the Corvid 19 pandemic and the current lock down this years prize ceremony was held online with viewers tuning in from across the globe.

This years event was hosted by the award-winning actor and honorary fellow Michael Sheen.

Prize

This year’s shortlist comprises three poetry collections, two novels and one short story collection:

  • Surge – Jay Bernard (Chatto & Windus)
  • Flèche – Mary Jean Chan (Faber & Faber)
  • Inland – Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
  • If All the World and Love were Young – Stephen Sexton (Penguin Random House)
  • On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong (Jonathan Cape, Vintage)
  • Lot – Bryan Washington (Atlantic Books)

 

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2020 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize Shortlist

And it was announced that this years £30,000 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize was awarded to:

  • Bryan Washington  – Lot 

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Summary:

In the city of Houston – a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America – the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He’s working at his family’s restaurant, weathering his brother’s blows, resenting his older sister’s absence. And discovering he likes boys.
This boy and his family experience the tumult of living in the margins, the heartbreak of ghosts, and the braveries of the human heart. The stories of others living and thriving and dying across Houston’s myriad neighbourhoods are woven throughout to reveal a young woman’s affair detonating across an apartment complex, a rag-tag baseball team, a group of young hustlers, the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a local drug dealer who takes a Guatemalan teen under his wing, and a reluctant chupacabra.

Bryan Washington’s brilliant, viscerally drawn world leaps off the page with energy, wit, and the infinite longing of people searching for home. With soulful insight into what makes a community, a family, and a life, Lot is about love in all its unsparing and unsteady forms.
 

Many congratulations to Bryan Washington and his collection of stories ‘Lot’ which was also one of Barack Obamas books of the year. Available to order through Amazon and Waterstones as well as your local independent bookshops.

Bryan Washingon:

@brywashing

For further inforamtion about the Dylan Thomas Prize and past winners:

Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize:

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/dylan-thomas-prize/

@dylanthomprize

My thanks as always to everyone at Midas PR for this years invitation to take part in the Shortlist Blog Tour and also for the invitation to the Prize Ceremony.

@midaspr

 

The Midnight Watch by David Dyer

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The Midnight Watch by David Dyer

 The Last Word Review

 

The role of the SS Californian during the loss of the Titanic. Outstanding fictional account

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At 11.40pm on Sunday 14 April 1912 the largest passenger liner RMS Titanic was four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York when the Titanic struck an iceberg. Two hours and forty minutes later the Titanic was lost on board there was an estimated 2,224 people. Over 1,500 men, women and children perished, one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history.

History records that nearby a ship looked on that ship was the SS Californian and its Captain, Stanley Lord slept on and did not go to the bridge. The RMS Titanic fired eight distress rockets and all eight were ignored. Still Captain Lord stayed in his cabin.

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The SS Californian

In The Midnight Watch by David Dyer the role of the Californian has been fictionalised to tell of what may have been going on at the time on board the Californian. On board Second Officer Herbert Stone on Midnight Watch sees the first of the rockets light up the night sky and realises the significance of the flares and alerts his captain only to be told to carry on and only alert him when it is certain the rockets are a distress signal. Further rockets light up the night sky and still no response from Captain Lord. By morning the Titanic is at the bottom of the North Atlantic.

The enormity of the disaster reaches the states and John Steadman a reporter with the Boston America realises there is a massive story to be told and he wanted that story no matter what.  Dyer manages to tell the story brilliantly switching from the crew on board the Californian who experienced the disaster at first hand and then from the point of view of John Steadman determined to tell a story of the loss of the Titanic.

What the story tries to tell is what was going on board the Californian and why did Captain Lord not react to the distress rockets, to this day and I guess forever more we will never know why the captain reacted in a way despite him a very good and enigmatic captain. On land Steadman is gathering his story and determined to get to the truth and be the voice of those who perished either in the freezing Atlantic or those who went down with the Titanic.

What does come out of the story in The Midnight Watch is that Captain Lord was an extremely difficult man to get to and went through his entire life in total denial of his role in the loss of the Titanic and his action can only be described as totally reprehensible.

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Credit must go to Dyer for the amount of research that went into writing this book and the way he weaves the story so beautifully and sensitively from historical fact to fiction to create an incredible story.

One part of the book brought more than a few tears to my eyes as the story moves to that of the perspective of the passengers and of an entire family of eleven who perished. For someone like me who has followed the story of the Titanic since a boy this part of the story hit me pretty hard and one I will not forget.

If you have an interest in historical fiction or just want to read a fictional account of what took place on the Californian during those hours as the Titanic slipped beneath the waves taking with her over 1,500 souls, then I can highly recommend this fabulous fictional account.

Thank you to Atlantic Books for a review copy.

The Midnight Watch by James Dyer and published by Atlantic Books is now available through Waterstones and all good book shops

 

What A Way To Go by Julia Forster

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What a Way to Go by Julia Forster

The Last Word Review

A debut novel set in the 1980’s full of wit and charm but also touching. A joyous read from beginning to end

 

Set in the 1980’s a decade of colour and change a time of Kylie Minogue and Culture Club you either loved this era or just wanted to hide for the next decade.

We meet 12-year-old Harper Richardson, she is wise and funny and is split between her divorced parents who to say the least are somewhat dysfunctional and Harper tries to make sense of the life around her.

It is 1988 and Harper spends a lot of time reading as money always seems to be a little tight. Forster has written What A Way To Go very much through the eyes of Harper as she sets about trying to all things right including her estranged parents. I really enjoyed the narrative as Harper has a lot to say for herself about everything going on around her whether is her father who is obsessed with the last War or her mother’s friend Kit.

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Every other weekend Harper spends the weekend with her father, and the elderly next door neighbour is her only friend here and gives her order during the weekend.

We also get to meet Cassie who is Harpers only really best friend and is the complete opposite to Harper, Cassie has an ordered lifestyle whereas Harper only seems to live in a world of chaos while split between both parents. A joyous read as we get to know Harper as she deals with the day to day chaotic life which she tries to make sense of. A laugh out loud read but it has its emotional moments in the storyline. Writing a novel with as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old is no easy feat but Forster manages to capture the time and the characters brilliantly.

This is an idyllic nostalgic read for anyone who loves the decade of the 1980’s and I for one loved this era and also loved What A Way To Go

My thanks to Ruth Killick and Atlantic Books for a review copy.

‘What A Way To Go’ written by Julia Forster and published by Atlantic Books is now available in all good book shops.

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