Poet Ailbhe Darcy is the People’s Choice Winner
In a ceremony at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on 20th June, the Cardiff-based poet Ailbhe Darcy was declared overall winner of the Wales Book of the Year Award 2019 with her impressive collection, Insistence (published by Bloodaxe Books).
The judges described Darcy’s collection, which is set during a six-year period the poet and her family spent living in a post-industrial city in the Midwestern United States, as a “thoroughly human project” and as opening up a natural world “where love erupts with explosive force onto the necessity of living.”
Literature Wales chief executive Lleucu Siencyn commented to journalists: “Wales has an age-old poetic tradition, and Ailbhe Darcy’s win shows us that poetry’s power to help us make sense of the world, ourselves, and others around us is as relevant today as it always has been.”
Recognizing books across three categories in both English and Welsh – in poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction – ten winners took to the stage during the ceremony and between them shared a prize fund of £12,000.
The category winners were:
THE ROLAND MATHIAS POETRY AWARD
Insistence, Ailbhe Darcy (Bloodaxe Books Ltd.)
ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY FICTION AWARD
West, Carys Davies (Granta Publications)
THE CREATIVE NON-FICTION AWARD
Moneyland, Oliver Bullough (Profile Books)
THE WALES ARTS REVIEW PEOPLE’S CHOICE PRIZE
Insistence, Ailbhe Darcy (Bloodaxe Books Ltd.)
THE WELSH-LANGUAGE POETRY AWARD
GWOBR FARDDONIAETH
Cyrraedd a cherddi eraill, Alan Llwyd (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas)
THE WELSH-LANGUAGE FICTION AWARD
GWOBR FFUGLEN PRIFYSGOL ABERYSTWYTH
Llyfr Glas Nebo, Manon Steffan Ros (Y Lolfa)
THE WELSH-LANGUAGE CREATIVE NON-FICTION AWARD
GWOBR FFEITHIOL- GREADIGOL
Cymru mewn 100 Gwrthrych, Andrew Green (Gwasg Gomer)
