For his literary work, Small Worlds, the writer will receive a cash prize of £20,000.
By Hope Ibiale
British-Ghanaian writer and photographer, Caleb Azumah Nelson, has been announced as the recipient of the 2024 Dylan Thomas Prize. For his literary work, Small Worlds, the writer will receive a cash prize of £20,000.
Chair of the 2024 panel, Namita Gokhale, described the winning work – the author’s second novel – “as viscerally moving and heartfelt with deeply realised characters”.
While receiving the prize, Nelson said, “I’m deeply grateful to be acknowledged for the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize. I want to thank my editor – Isabel Wall – who guided me not just as a writer but as a person. My agent – Seren Adams – who changed my life, and is not just my agent, but family. My mum, dad, brother and sister – this is for them – and my partner, who shows me what is love. And to the other shortlisted authors – I’m grateful to be on a list with you and your astounding work.”
Caleb Azumah Nelson is a British-Ghanaian writer and photographer living in south-east London. His writing has been published in Litro, Granta, The White Review and many others. He has won awards like the Costa Book Award, the People’s Choice Prize, and the Palm Photo People’s Choice Prize. Nelson has also been nominated for the Palm Photo Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, and the BBC National Short Story Prize. His other literary works include Open Water and A Little Unsteadily Into Light.
The Dylan Thomas Prize is a literary prize given to the best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under. The prize celebrates the international world of fiction in all its forms, including poetry, novels, short stories, and drama.
The 2024 judging panel was chaired by writer and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, Namita Gokhale, alongside author and lecturer Jon Gower, and Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin, Seán Hewitt, former BBC Gulf Correspondent and author of Telling Tales: An Oral History of Dubai, Julia Wheeler, and interdisciplinary artist and author of Keeping the House, Tice Cin.