“After 39 years, this is all I've done”
Dylan Marlais Thomas was born in Wales on 27 October 1914. He is widely regarded by many literary scholars as one of the Twentieth Century's most influential lyrical poets, and amongst the finest as such of all time. His acclaim is partly due to the idiosyncratic and surreal introspection which was his hallmark. His imagery is said to be brilliant and inspirational. Although Dylan was primarily a poet, he also published film scripts, short stories, publicly performed his works and conducted radio broadcasts; one of his most famous works, "Under Milk Wood" - set in a fictional Welsh seaside town - was a radio play for voices which contained a poetic sensibility. His most famous poem is arguably, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night - containing the line, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" - an impassioned account of the scene which haunted him at his father's deathbed. In less than a year following this event, Thomas himself collapsed in New York, and consumed by alcoholic poisoning, died shortly afterwards. Throughout his life, Thomas experienced a profound melancholy which was the catalyst to his alcohol abuse; decades later the same affected Welsh actor Richard Burton who essentially suffered the same fate.
One of Dylan Thomas's many noteworthy fans is former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who campaigned for Thomas to be commemorated at "Poet's Corner", within London's Westminster Abbey. In 1995, President Carter opened the Dylan Thomas Centre (the National Literature Centre of Wales) in Swansea, the first literary powerhouse in the U.K. Today, the centre hosts, "I, In My Intricate Image", Jeff Towns' definitive Dylan Thomas exhibition. The centre is the focus for an annual Dylan Thomas Festival, which celebrates the life and works of one of the city's most notable sons. Swansea is also home to the Dylan Thomas Theatre and his bronze statue literally sits nearby. Thomas's birthplace, in the Uplands district of Swansea, can also be viewed; a short walk away is Cwmdonkin Park, a world in itself - unchanged today since the author's childhood, where a mischievous Dylan climbed over railings to pelt the swans and a magical, fertile place of inspiration for poems such as "The Hunchback In The Park".
The Dylan Thomas Prize
The young Dylan wrote his poems and ideas in notebooks from his mid-teens onward; this proved to be the most prolific period of his life and many of the poems in his first collection 18 Poems (published in 1934 when he was just 20) were written during this period. Literary London in the 1930s was quick to acclaim the energy and innovation of the young poet’s work, much of it written in his bedroom at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, overlooking Swansea Bay. It is therefore fitting that the Dylan Thomas Prize should be awarded to the best published writer in English under the age of 30 from anywhere in the world.
28 year-old Welsh writer Rachel Trezise is the first-time winner of EDS Dylan Thomas Prize 2006
Welsh author Rachel Trezise has been named the winner of the first ￡60,000 EDS Dylan Thomas Prize for her collection of short stories Fresh Apples, published by Parthian. The new international prize of over $100,000 will be awarded biennially to writers in English under 30 years of age and is one of the world's largest literary prizes.
Rachel was born in the Rhondda Valley, Wales, in 1978. After graduating from Glamorgan University in 2000, her debut novel In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl was published that same year. Fresh Apples deals with the troubled times for the once vibrant coal valleys of South Wales and for the area's youngsters.
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