The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize is pleased to announce its 2024 judging panel

Namita Gokhale

Namita Gokhale is a writer and festival director. She is the author of twenty three works of fiction and non-fiction. Her acclaimed debut novel, Paro: Dreams of Passion, was published in 1984. Recent fiction includes The Blind Matriarch and Jaipur Journals. Never Never Land is scheduled for publication in 2024.

Recent non-fiction includes Mystics and Sceptics- Searching Himalayan Masters. Gokhale’s work spans various genres, including novels, short stories, Himalayan studies, mythology, several anthologies, books for young readers, and a recent play. She is the recipient of various prizes and awards, including the prestigious Sahitya Akademi (National Academy of Literature) Award 2021 for her novel Things to Leave Behind. She is the co-founder and co-director (with William Dalrymple) of the famed Jaipur Literature Festival. 

Namita Gokhale is the Chair of the 2024 Judging Panel.

X: @NamitaGokhale_

Jon Gower

Jon Gower is a former BBC Wales arts and media correspondent who has over 40 books to his name. These include The Story of Wales, which accompanied a landmark TV series, the travelogue An Island Called Smith and Y Storïwr which won the Wales Book of the Year. His latest book is The Turning Tide: A Biography of the Irish Sea. Jon is currently writing a Welsh language historical novel about the polar explorer Edgar Evans, a collection of essays about mountains as well as a volume about the American footballer Raymond Chester, due out in 2024. He lives in Cardiff. [Photo Credit: Marian Delyth]

X: @JonGower1

Seán Hewitt credit is Stuart Simpson - Penguin Random House

Seán Hewitt is the author of two poetry collections, Tongues of Fire (2020) and Rapture's Road (2024), and the memoir All Down Darkness Wide (2022), all published by Jonathan Cape. His work has been shortlisted for many awards, and he has won The Laurel Prize and The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. An Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin, he is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. [Photo credit: Stuart Simpson / Penguin Random House]

X: @seanehewitt

Julia Wheeler

Julia Wheeler is a writer, journalist and interviewer who worked for the BBC for fifteen years including as the BBC’s Gulf Correspondent based in the UAE and covering the Arabian Peninsula. Julia wrote ‘Telling Tales: An Oral History of Dubai’. She chairs discussions at literature and science festivals across the UK and internationally. Chair of judges for the 2024 Stanfords Travel Book of the Year, Julia is also a trustee of the Stratford Literary Festival. She read Economic and Social History at Swansea University, before postgraduate study in Broadcast Journalism at City, University of London.

X: @JuliaWheeler1

Tice Cin

Tice Cin is an interdisciplinary artist, freelance editor and cultural consultant from North London and the author of Keeping the House. She has acted and performed at venues such as Edinburgh College of Arts, The Roundhouse and Barbican Centre, and has been commissioned by organisations including Cartier, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Montblanc. She was named one of Complex Magazine’s best music journalists of 2021 and 2022, and has written for places such as DJ Mag and Mixmag

A DJ and music producer, she is preparing an accompanying album for Keeping the House with a host of talented features. Keeping the House has been named one of Guardian’s Best Books of 2021, and has been featured in The Scotsman, New York Times and Washington Post. Tice is a recent recipient of a Society of Authors’ Somerset Maugham Prize, and was shortlisted for both Book of the Year (British Book Awards) and the Desmond Elliott Prize. [Photo credit: Eric Aydin-Barberini]  

X: @ticecin

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