Patricia Lockwood wins the 2022 International Dylan Thomas Prize for her debut novel No One Is Talking About This.
American novelist, poet and essayist Patricia Lockwood has been announced as the winner of the £20,000 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize 2022 at the ceremony held in The Great Hall in Swansea University. The event was hosted by Jeff Towns and featured readings from each of the shortlisted writers.
Chair of judges for the prize, writer and festival director Namita Gokhale, said that Lockwood is an “astonishing and wholly original new voice […] A deeply timely winner, Patricia Lockwood is the voice of a generation of new writers who grew up under the constant pressures of real-time news and social media.”
The winning title was picked from a shortlist of six books praised as some of “the strongest ever” – The Prize recognises the best published literary work in the English language. The shortlist this year included 3 debuts, and, alongside Chair Gokhale, was judged by Luke Kennard, Alan Bilton, and Irenosen Okojie.
First launched in 2006, the prize – for writers aged 39 or under – is considered one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world and is administered by Swansea University. Last year’s winner was author Raven Leilani who won with her debut novel, Luster. Speaking on the 2022 shortlist, Gokhale said: “The jury has whittled this down to a shortlist that is riveting and compelling on so many levels. It presents a rich diversity of accomplished young and debut voices, and their explorations of the poetic, the historical, and the contemporary.”
The six titles shortlisted for this year’s prize were:
Anuk Arudpragasam, A Passage North (Granta)
Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, Auguries of a Minor God (Faber)
Nathan Harris, The Sweetness of Water (Tinder Press/Headliine)
Patricia Lockwood, No One is Talking About This (Bloomsbury Circus)
Caleb Azumah Nelson, Open Water (Viking, Penguin General)
Brandon Taylor, Filthy Animals (Daunt Books Publishing)