TWO local authors have scooped the two main prizes at this year’s Wales Book of the Year awards.

Caryl Lewis, originally from Dihewyd but now lives near Aberystwyth, won the English-language award for her novel, Drift, with Llŷn author, Llŷr Titus winning the Welsh-language award for his book Pridd.

Caryl Lewis has won the Welsh-language Wales Book of the Year Award twice in the past – for Martha, Jac, a Sianco in 2005 and Y Bwthyn in 2016 and has become the first writer to win the coveted overall award in both languages.

The Wales Book of the Year Award is an annual prize hosted by Literature Wales to celebrate literary talent from Wales across many genres and in both English and Welsh.

The news was announced at a glittering Award Ceremony held at The Tramshed, Cardiff, and led by the presenter – and last year’s winner of the overall award in the Welsh Language – Ffion Dafis. Prizes were awarded across four categories in each language: Poetry, Fiction, Creative Non-fiction and Children & Young People.

Drift is Caryl Lewis’ debut novel in the English language. Moving between the wild Welsh coast and war-torn Syria, Drift is a love story with a difference, and a hypnotic tale of lost identity, the quest for home and the wondrous resilience of the human spirit.

Caryl Lewis is a multi-award-winning Welsh novelist, children's writer, playwright and screenwriter. Her breakthrough novel Martha, Jac a Sianco (2004) is widely regarded as a modern classic of Welsh literature and sits on the Welsh curriculum. The film adaptation – with a screenplay by Caryl herself – went on to win six Welsh BAFTAs and the Spirit of the Festival Award at the 2010 Celtic Media Festival. Lewis' other screenwriting work includes BBC/S4C thrillers Hinterland and Hidden. Caryl is a visiting lecturer in Creative Writing at Cardiff University, and lives with her family on a farm near Aberystwyth.

Judge Emily Burnett said: “This piece of writing made us want to read out loud, to feel the tangible lure of magical words in our mouths. Wales hums throughout this writer’s work, and in doing so, this book seems to, in some ways, defy the categories. Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction, the magic of Children’s Literature and the power of Fiction. “A story of love, magic and the irresistible lure of the sea”. It is a stunning piece of fiction, that swells with a magical lyricism and captures with sheer luminosity its characters, story and sense of place.”

Winner of the Welsh-language award, Pridd, offers a ‘raw but fascinating depiction of an Old Man’s life in the countryside of Llŷn’.

Through the four seasons of the year, past and present, sadness and joy and all the messiness of life flow into one another.

The author, Llŷr Titus comes from Bryn Mawr near Sarn in the Llŷn Peninsula, and now lives in Caernarfon. He won the Urdd Eisteddfod Crown in 2011, and the Drama Medal the following year. His first book, a science fiction novel for young people, Gwalia, won the Tir na n-Og Award in 2016. Llŷr is also a playwright; his play, Drych was staged by Frân Wen in 2015 and he is one of the founders of Cwmni drama’r Tebot. He also jointly founded Y Stamp magazine and Y Stamp

Each category winner received a prize of £1,000 and the overall winners received an additional £3,000. Winners also received an iconic Wales Book of the Year trophy, designed by artist and blacksmith Angharad Pearce Jones.

Literature Wales’ Executive Director, Claire Furlong, said: “Huge congratulations to Caryl, Llŷr and to all the Wales Book of the Year 2023 winners. The novels claiming the overall prizes this year are both unique, yet they are linked by their sense of place; their magical words are rooted in specific Welsh landscapes. We are incredibly pleased that, year-on-year, Wales Book of the Year demonstrates the huge wealth of literary talent in and from Wales. We hope that the platform provided by this competition brings these fantastic books to the attention of even more readers, and that wider audiences are drawn to read Wales.”

The Welsh-language Winners

The Children & Young People Award: Dwi Eisiau Bod yn Ddeinosor, Luned Aaron & Huw Aaron (Atebol)

The Poetry Award: Anwyddoldeb, Elinor Wyn Reynolds (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas)

The Creative Non-fiction Award: Cylchu Cymru, Gareth Evans-Jones (Y Lolfa)

The Golwg360 Barn y Bobl Award: Sgen i'm Syniad – Snogs, Secs, Sens, Gwenllian Ellis (Y Lolfa)

The Fiction Award, and Overall Welsh-language Wales Book of the Year Award: Pridd, Llŷr Titus (Gwasg y Bwthyn)

The English-language Wales Book of the Year category winners are as follows:

The Children & Young People Award: When the War Came Home, Lesley Parr (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)

The Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award: Drift, Caryl Lewis (Doubleday – an imprint of Transworld, Penguin Random House)

The Poetry Award: As If to Sing, Paul Henry (Seren Poetry Wales Press Ltd)  

The Creative Non-Fiction Award: And… a memoir of my mother, Isabel Adonis (Black Bee Books)

The Wales Arts Review’s People’s Choice Award: The Last Firefox, Lee Newbery (Penguin Random House Children’s)