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Ferris wins Dylan Thomas Prize

US author Joshua Ferris has won the International Dylan Thomas Prize for his novel To Rise Again at a Decent Hour (Viking). Ferris was presented with the £30,000 (A$55,115) prize and a bronze cast of Dylan Thomas at a ceremony in Swansea, Wales, on 7 November. Chair of the judging panel Peter Florence praised the author for his comic style: ‘People who can make comedy from human comedy are rare and wonderful. It’s an incredibly hard thing to do and takes a kind of genius todeliver it on the page.’ The novel follows a New York dentist ‘faced with the frustration of his job, his s-xual relationships and his identity’. As previously reported by Books+Publishing, New Zealand author Eleanor Catton was shortlisted for the award for her novel The Luminaries (Granta). The Dylan Thomas Prize, which is sponsored by the University of Swansea, is open to any writer under the age of 30 who has been published in English.

 

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Category: International news