The £30,000 prize, which opened for entries on 4 September 2017, is awarded to the best eligible published literary work in English, written by an author aged 39 or under.

‌‌Launched in 2006, the annual International Dylan Thomas Prize is aimed at encouraging raw creative talent worldwide.  Past winners have come from Wales, England, the USA, Vietnam and Australia, and include: Fiona McFarlane (The High Places [Farrar, Straus, Giroux (US) and Sceptre (UK)], Max Porter (Grief is the Thing with Feathers [Faber & Faber]), Joshua Ferris (To Rise Again at a Decent Hour [Penguin]); Claire Vaye Watkins (Battleborn [Granta]); Maggie Shipstead (Seating Arrangements [HarperCollins]); and Rachel Trezise (Fresh Apples [Parthian]).

The judging panel for the 2018 International Dylan Thomas Prize:

•    Namita Gokhale:  writer, publisher and festival director; author of sixteen books; co-founder and co-director of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival;  Director of Yatra Books.

•   Kurt Heinzelman:  poet, translator and scholar; professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

•    Paul McVeigh:  playwright, director and award winning writer; associate director of Word Factory; founder of the London Short Story Festival.

•    Dai Smith CBE (chair of panel):  historian and writer on Welsh arts and culture; Honorary Raymond Williams Research Chair in the Cultural History of Wales at Swansea University.

•    Rachel Trezise:  award winning novelist and playwright.

Professor Dai Smith, Honorary Raymond Williams Research Chair in the Cultural History of Wales at Swansea University said:

“The panel of judges assembled for 2018 under my chairmanship bring to their formidable task experience of Wales and the world, of the practice of creative writing in prose and poetry, of drama and communication, of readers’ expectations and writers’ risk taking, and, of course, of the multifariousness of Dylan himself. We have a hard act to follow after last year’s panel chose Fiona McFarlane’s book of short stories, The High Places, but the entrants for 2018 are already queuing up for the amazing accolade of being acclaimed the winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize in Swansea in May next year.”

The winner will be announced at the final awards ceremony in Swansea University’s Great Hall, Wales, on 10 May 2018.