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Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize heads to Jaipur Literature Festival to announce its 2020 longlist live in celebration of its 15th year
To celebrate 15 years of the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, the Prize is announcing this year's longlist live from the Jaipur Literature Festival.
The event, supported by British Council Wales, will take place on Friday 24 January and will feature an incredible panel discussion featuring the first ever winner, Rachel Trezise and latest winner, Guy Gunaratne, along with Festival Director and jury member Namita Gokhale and the Prize’s Executive Officer Elaine Canning.
On returning to the judging panel Jaipur Literature Festival Director Namita Gokhale said: “I am delighted to return to the jury of the inspirational Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, which so generously rewards young writers at a crucial phase of their creative development.”
And on the longlist being announced at the Festival Sanjoy K Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts and Festival Producer, said: “We are delighted to be hosting the Long List announcement of the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize. The Jaipur Literature Festival creates a platform for the written word across all genres.”
In addition to the longlist announcement the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize will be taking part in a fascinating series of panel discussions throughout the Jaipur Literature Festival.
2019 Prize winner, Guy Gunaratne and author Ben Judah will be in conversation with Elaine Canning on the subject of ‘Rewriting London’ which will focus on Guy’s multi-award-winning debut In Our Mad and Furious City and acclaimed foreign correspondent Ben Judah’s book This is London.
The Prize Executive Officer, Elaine Canning will be taking part in a panel discussion on ‘The Anatomy of a Literary Prize’ at Jaipur BookMark along with a number of literary prize directors and authors including Aanchal Malhotra, Hemali Sodhi, Mita Kapur and Sunny Singh, moderated by Arunava Sinha.
Outside of the main festival and supported by the British Council Wales, an additional cultural exchange programme will be taking place. This will continue to build on the long-standing cultural relationship between Wales and India which begun with the #IndiaWales season of artistic collaboration 2017/ 2018, and which marked the UK India Year of Culture, funded by the British Council and Wales Arts International.
Activities will include, original Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize winner Rachel Tresize who will be joining Literature Across Frontiers, an Aberystwyth-based Welsh literature organization for intercultural exchanges, at the Mathrubhumi Festival of letters in Trivandrum, Kerala. Supported by Creative Europe, Wales Arts International, and British Council Wales.
Welsh writers Mab Jones and Tristan Hughes have been invited to deliver events at Brahmamputra Literary Festival in Assam, North East India this February, also supported by the British Council.
And in February, Welsh musician Gareth Bonello and theatre director Lisa Lewis will continue their Khasi-Welsh musical heritage collaboration at several festivals across India, including the Kolkata Book Fair, Brahmaputra Literary Festival, Surajkund Mela and workshops at British Council offices in Delhi and Kolkata. The tour is funded by The University of South Wales and The Leverhulme Trust.