Five Women (including a NZ'er) On The GBP30,000 Dylan Thomas Prize Shortlist

Posted on Book2Book Tuesday 21 Sep 2010

The shortlisted six are from five continents and make up what is the prize's most diverse one to date.
The six works consist of two poetry collections and four novels and cover topics ranging from war and family to love and betrayal.

2010 Dylan Thomas shortlist

* Caroline Bird: UK poet and playwright, 23, the first writer to be nominated twice for the prize - for her third collection Watering Can

* Nadifa Mohamed: Novelist, 28, who said Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood was the inspiration for her work Black Mamba Boy which describes a journey from her Somalia homeland to Port Talbot

* Eleanor Catton: Novelist 24, who grew up in New Zealand explores the controversial topic of an affair between a high school girl and her teacher in The Rehearsal

* Karan Mahajan: Indian-born, 26 and the only man on the shortlist, with his debut novel Family Planning

* Elyse Fenton: US poet, 29, with her acclaimed collection Clamor, a book of war poety in which a woman reflects on her lover fighting in Afghanistan

* Emilie Mackie: Born in Winchester, aged 27, she based her novel And This is True in the Scottish Highlands where she grew up

BBC