John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2009
As you will be aware, the last few months have been particularly challenging for Booktrust. Our new funding settlement with the Department for Education has allowed us to protect the universal offer of the national bookgifting programmes, but it has nonetheless forced us to undertake a thorough review of all of the prizes and projects in the Booktrust portfolio.
As a result of this review, we have taken the difficult decision not to run the John Llewellyn Rhys in Autumn 2011. This Prize is incredibly important, highlighting and celebrating the best new books by writers under 35, as well as being very dear to Booktrust. We have not taken this decision lightly and we strongly intend to bring back the Prize with a bang in the very near future.
Do contact Claire Shanahan, the Prizes and Awards Manager, if you have any questions or suggestions.
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Winner
After the Fire, A Still Small Voice
VintageA sweet, sun-drenched, heart-felt love affair. Evie Wyld's debut novel slips across hard-edged themes of masculine expression, war, paternal relationships and grief with such beauty and ease that it feels like she is already an old hand.
After the Fire, A Still Small Voice
Evie Wyld
Winner, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
A sweet, sun-drenched, heart-felt love affair. Evie Wyld's debut novel slips across hard-edged themes of masculine expression, war, paternal relationships and grief with such beauty and ease that it feels like she is already an old hand.
Publisher: Vintage
Evie WyldEvie Wyld
Award-winning author Evie Wyld was Booktrust's third online writer in residence.
In 2008 she was chosen as one of Granta's New Voices for 2008. Her debut novel After the Fire, A Still Small Voice was the winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2009, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize regional winners (South East Asia and Pacific Best First Book) 2010, and shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2010. In March 2010 she became Booktrust’s third online writer in residence.
She studied Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and Goldsmiths University London, where she concentrated mainly on short stories. Her stories have been published in various magazines and in Goldfish: An Anthology of Writing from Goldsmiths, the National Maritime Museum anthology Sea Stories and in the 3:AM Magazine anthology, London, New York, Paris.
Evie Wyld has lived in South East London for most of her adult life, with frequent trips to Australia, and her family’s sugar cane farm in New South Wales. Much of her writing begins with the landscapes of her childhood, remembering being alone and making up stories from there.
She works in a small independent bookshop in Peckham called Review, and lives in Stockwell.
Evie Wyld saw off competition from an exceptional shortlist which included the Booker winner Aravind Adiga and Orange Prize winner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to win the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2009 with her book After the Fire, a Still Small Voice.
The novel, which was published to rave reviews in August 2009, is set in eastern Australia and tells a story of fathers and sons, their wars and the things that they will never know about each other. Following the collapse of his marriage, Frank retreats to a small costal community in an attempt to build a new life for himself, away from the horrors of his violent past. Frank’s story is set against the struggles of his own father, Leon, who forty years earlier, is forced to depart from life working in his family’s suburban cake shop to face horrors of his own in the war in Vietnam.
Wyld, who was named one of Granta’s New Voices of 2008, received her cheque for £5,000 at a ceremony at the Century Club in Piccadilly.
Louise Doughty, chair of Judges said:
Evie Wyld's first novel is a remarkable book. A sometimes poignant, sometimes comic story of a father and son who have so much in common but never quite connect, it is awash with fine images that linger in the mind. Wyld’s choice of subject matter is both brave and wide-ranging, from the wars in Korea and Vietnam to the back country of Eastern Australia, Wyld captures the inflections of male speech and male bonding in a way that feels both acute and realistic. Most importantly, she writes brilliantly, able to paint a picture or create a convincing encounter with a few deft, evocative strokes, in a prose style worthy of our very best writers. There is nothing "first novelish" about this first novel. It's a fantastically mature book, never showy, a slow burn that drags the reader in.
About the shortlist
Debuts by Emma Jones and James Maskalyk were up against prize winner stalwarts Aravind Adiga and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie whose short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck was her first work since winning the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007.
Global issues were at the forefront of the non-fiction nominations in 2009, with both James Maskalyk and Tristram Stuart examining the issues of want and surplus from either side of the developed world. Maskalyk's Six Months in the Sudan began life as a blog written from a hut during his time as a doctor working for Médecins sans Frontière, and the hardship and malnutrition suffered by the inhabitants of the contested border town of Abyei. In contrast, Stuart's book Waste encountered grotesque examples of the profligacy of the West, and its direct consequence on the poverty and rising costs of food in the developing nations.
Louise Doughty, Chair of the judging panel said:
We're very pleased to have chosen such a strong and diverse list for this year's John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Although the books were judged solely on quality, four different genres are represented by writers living across the globe - it's a truly international selection with authors from Nigeria, India, Canada, the UK and Australia. We have one collection of poetry, two works of non-fiction, one short story collection and two novels, one of which is arguably a 'hybrid' book. As such, this list is a fascinating display of the range and strength of contemporary writing by young writers. It will be very hard to choose just one book from it and the prize is wide open.
Viv Bird, Chief Executive of Booktrust commented:
The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, run by Booktrust, recognises and celebrates the very best young writers in the early stage of their careers. I have no doubt that readers will enjoy the rich mix of books nominated in this year’s shortlist.
Shortlist
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The Thing Around Your Neck
Fourth Estate
The Thing Around Your Neck
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Shortlisted, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
These beautifully written short stories from former Orange Prize winner, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, feature a range of compelling characters whose personal experiences raise themes of alienation, identity and lov.
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieChimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria. She studied medicine and pharmacy at the University of Nigeria then moved to the US to study communications and political science at Eastern Connecticut State University. She gained an MA in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. After initially writing poetry and one play, For Love of Biafra (1998), she had several short stories published in literary journals, winning various competition prizes. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, won the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book), and was shortlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction. Her second novel is Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), set before and during the Biafran War. It won the 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.
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Between the Assassinations
Atlantic Books
Between the Assassinations
Aravind Adiga
Shortlisted, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
Told with humour, the stories are compelling, touching and sometimes painful. This is a wonderful read, easy to pick up and difficult to put down.
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Aravind AdigaAravind Adiga
Aravind Adiga was born in Madras in 1974 and was raised in Australia. He studied at Columbia and Oxford Universities. A former correspondent in India for Time magazine, his articles have also appeared in publications like the Financial Times, the Independent, and the Sunday Times. He lives in Mumbai. The White Tiger, his first novel, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize.
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The Striped World
Faber
The Striped World
Emma Jones
Shortlisted, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
Emma Jones' The Striped World is a hugely impressive debut. It is described as an investigation into the meetings of different worlds - sea and land, humanity and nature.
Publisher: Faber
Emma JonesEmma Jones
Emma Jones was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney, and a PhD in English from the University of Cambridge. In 2005 she won the Newcastle Poetry Prize, Australia’s largest prize for a single poem, and has been the recipient of an emerging writer’s grant from the Australia Council for the Arts, and the Harper-Wood Studentship in English Poetry and Literature from St John’s College, Cambridge. In 2009 she was appointed Poet-in-Residence for the Wordsworth Trust.
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Six Months in Sudan
Canongate
Six Months in Sudan
James Maskalyk
Shortlisted, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
With great hope and insight, Maskalyk illuminates a distant place - its heat, its people, its poverty, its war - to inspire possibilities for action.
Publisher: Canongate
James MaskalykJames Maskalyk
James Maskalyk is an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine and a founding editor of the medical journal Open Medicine. He lives in Toronto.
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Waste
Penguin
Waste
Tristram Stuart
Shortlisted, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
Tristram Stuart's second book is an informative and energetic investigation of the global food crisis.
Publisher: Penguin
Tristram Stuart
Tristram Stuart has been a freelance writer for Indian newspapers, a project manager in Kosovo, and prominent critic of the food industry. He has made regular contributions to television documentary, radio and newspaper debate on the social and environmental aspects of food. His first book, The Bloodless Revolution: Radical Vegetarians and the Discovery of India, was published in 2006 to great critical acclaim.
Judges
The judges for the 2009 prize were Louise Doughty (Chair), Joanna Kavenna and Stephen Knight.
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Louise DoughtyLouise Doughty is a novelist, playwright and critic. She is the author of five novels; Crazy Paving, Dance With Me, Honey-Dew, Fires in the Dark and Stone Cradle and one work of non-fiction A Novel in a Year. She has also written five plays for radio.
She has judged many prizes for emerging authors, including the Orange Award for New Writers, and was a judge for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for fiction. Her novel, Whatever You Love, was published in 2010. -
Joanna KavennaJoanna Kavenna grew up in various parts of Britain, and has also lived in the USA, France, Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltic States. Her first book The Ice Museum was about travelling in the far North. Her book, Inglorious, was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2006/7 and won the 2008 Orange Award for New Writers.
Kavenna’s writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, the Guardian and Observer, the Times Literary Supplement, the International Herald Tribune, the Spectator and the Telegraph, among other publications -
Stephen KnightStephen Knight read English at Jesus College, Oxford, after which he studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School to become a freelance director with a particular interest in new writing. He is the author of Flowering Limbs, which was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the T S Eliot Prize; Dream City Cinema, also shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize; and, for younger readers, Sardines and Other Poems.
He also published a novel, Mr Schnitzel, which won the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year in 2001. His fiction and poetry reviews appear in the TLS and the Independent on Sunday.
About the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2009
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