The Glittering Prize

The very prestigious Dylan Thomas Literary Awards were held last evening.

SwanTV were pleased to contribute to the Dylan Thomas Literary Award ceremony by producing the video shown at the beginning of the evening and by following the finalist during the week as they were involved in different events including talking at local schools to inspire pupils.                       



Jamie Owen of BBC Wales hosted the event. We heard excepts read by each finalist from their book. 

Chibunda Onuzo read from The Spider King's Daughter. Born in Nigeria in 1991, she is the yongest of for children. She gradated fro King's College. London in 2012 with a first in History.  When not writing Chibunda can be found playing the piano or singing.

D W Wilson was born and raised in the small towns of the Kooteney Valley, British Columbia. He read from Once You Break a Knuckle. He is the recipient of the University of East Anglia;s inaugural an Booker Prize Scholarship - the most prestigious award available to students in the MA programme. His stories have appeared in literary magazines across Cananda, Ireland and the United Kingdom: and The Dead Roads won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2011. He lives in London.

Seating Arrangements was read by Maggie Shipstead. She graduated from Harvard in 2005 and earned an MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Currently, she is a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Seating Arrangements is her first novel.

Tom Benn read an except from The Doll Princess. Born in 1987, he grew up in Stockport. He is a graduate of the UEA Creative Wrtiting MA and was a recipient of the 2009 Malcolm Bradbury bursary.

The White Shadow was read by Andrea Eames who was born in 1985. She was brought up in Zimbabwe, where she attended a Jewish school for six years, a Hindu school for one, a Catholic convent school for two and a half, and then the American International School in Harare. Andrea's family moved to New Zealand in 2002. She worked as a bookseller and editor and now lives in Austin, Texas with her husband. Her first novel, The Cry of the Go-Away Bird, was published in 2011.

It was no surprise to hear that the judges had a tough job selecting a winner, each book was a joy to listen to, and I would highly recommend reading all.

Andrea Eames, Chibundu Onuzo, D W Wilson, dylan thomas, Dylan Thomas Literary Award, Maggie Shipstead, swansea, swanseabay-tv, swantv, Tom Benn, Waterfront Museum Swansea,

The winner was Maggie Shipstead and she was presented with a cheque for £30,000 by Hannah Ellis, grand-daughter of Dylan Thomas.

The evening celebrations were held at the Waterfront Museum, Swansea and this was a superb sumptuous setting for such a glittering prize.  
 

















This is a bi-annual event and will coincide with the century of the birth of Dylan Thomas.

Out and about with SwanTV

SwanTV up and running. Not just running but racing to get the first programme up in the New Year. In fact as early as January.

Now with Mike Scott on board and partnering up we have both creative juices and technical genius to bring the best that Swansea Bay has to offer.

And we have covered a few events already so that we can put together a Showcase of what's to come.

Here we are at the Admiral 10k run where we spoke with the some of the front runners and winners. We caught a glimse of the mascots as they sped past us as if running through a sea of treacle.Well done guys!!

Then off to St Mary's Church where there was an Open Day. Whether a church goer or not this was an opportunity to see inside the church, pick up a coffee and look around, or climb the 129 steps to the top of the tower for some spectacular views.

We were given a tour and had an interview with the Treasurer on the battlement like top. You can see from these pictures that this is a great vantage point looking right across to the Brecon Beacons in the far distance.

I'm sure you'll be able to pick out the buildings around the city.

We looked in at the bells on the way up (thankfully appreciating the break).

With the changing face of the City with businesses closing down or re-locating it was good to see the new Polish Bakery and Cafe opening up in Cradock Street, city centre. The smell of fresh bread is compelling when you pass: the taste is yummy!

Art across the City continues. This is in Castle Square. The plaque will give other locations and dates. Well worth going on the tour and seeing what our local artists are doing.

 

And finally we are ramping up on posts now and getting some respectable number of views every day. Our new website is almost there and you can get your business out there. Ask about out peanut intro rates, no monkeying around!!