New Zealand title on Dylan Thomas longlist 

Eleanor Catton's The Rehearsal continues its dazzling run

21.07.10 | Victoria Gallagher in The Bookseller

Authors from Canada, New Zealand, the US, South Africa and Somalia, as well as the UK, have made the longlist for The University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize.
Multi-award winning novel The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton (Portobello) and The Girl With the Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (Atlantic), which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, are among the titles in the running for the £30,000 prize, which awards the best published or produced literary work in the English language, written by an author under 30.

Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed (HarperCollins), which was also longlisted for the Orange Prize, has made the shortlist of 16. English poet Caroline Bird, was shortlisted for the 2008 prize, and is again up for the award with her third collection of poems, Watering Can (Carcanet).
Johnny Meyer is the first ever playwright to make the Prize’s longlist with 'American Volunteers' (City on a Hill Productions).

The judging panel will be chaired by Hay Literature Festival founder Peter Florence. Kate Burton, actress and daughter of Richard Burton, is also on the seven strong panel. Florence and Burton are accompanied by Kurt Heinzelman, professor of English at the University of Texas, poet and journalist Gwyneth Lewis (pictured), novelist and former reviewer for The New York Times and editor-in-chief of Spy magazine Bruno Maddox, chair of charitable organisation the Howard Gilman Foundation Natalie Moody, and Prize founder, historian and broadcaster professor Peter Stead.

Stead said: "The calibre of these 16 works is outstanding. This unique Prize was established to celebrate young, talented writers worldwide and these works aptly showcase the excellence of creative writing that exists across the entire English-speaking world. This award honours a truly great writer who died while still a young man and I am sure it will be a great encouragement to talented young writers everywhere."

The shortlist will be announced in September.

The Longlist:

Ex Nihilo by Adebe D.A. (Frontenac House)

Watering Can by Caroline Bird (Carcanet)

Clamor by Elyse Fenton (Cleveland State University Poetry Center)

One Eye’d Leigh by Katherine Kilalea (Carcanet)

Shore Ordered Ocean by Dora Malech (The Waywiser Press)

Cailleach by Leanna O’Sullivan (Bloodaxe Books)

American Volunteers by Johnny Meyer (City on a Hill Productions)

The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton (Portobello Books)

In This Way I Was Saved by Brian DeLeeuw (John Murray Publishers)

The Road to the Sea by Ciara Hegarty (Macmillan New Writing)

And This is True by Emilie Mackie (Sceptre)

Family Planning by Karan Mahajan (Harper Perennial)

Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed (Harper Collins)

The Still Point by Amy Sackville (Portobello Books)

The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (Atlantic Books)

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (Windmill Books (Random House)

Footnote:
The Rehearsal was of course first published by NZ's Victoria University Press. Publisher Fergus Barrowman and his small team must be elated with this news today. I wonder when we might expect another novel from Catton? Fergus?