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Congratulations to Alys Conran (Pigeon) and Peter Lord (The Tradition) who have both had their latest books shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2017, as announced on BBC Radio Wales this morning.

The Wales Book of the Year Award, administered by Literature Wales, is presented to the best Welsh-language and English-language works first published in the preceding year in the fields of creative writing and literary criticism in three categories: Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction. 

The Short List comprises of three books in each of the following categories in both Welsh and English: Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction.

The English-language poetry category, sponsored by The Brecknock Society is entitled The Roland Mathias Poetry Award. The English-language fiction category is sponsored by The Rhys Davies Trust, and is entitled The Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award. The English-language judging panel this year are: award-winning author Tyler Keevil; Senior Lecturer Dimitra Fimi and the Costa Poetry Prize winner Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards said: 'This shortlist offers a real celebration of just how exciting, vibrant and diverse literature in Wales currently is. There are books here for everyone: poetry collections which are novelistic in their scope and ambition, novels whose innovations in language might be traditionally expected of poetry. There are biographies which don't so much show you a life as let you amble round in a world, reference books which can put six centuries on your coffee table. To be part of the announcement of this list is to be proud to be Welsh; the country which moved these writers to such astonishing achievement.'

Lleucu Siencyn, Chief Executive of Literature Wales said: 'It’s one of the literary highlights of the year, and we at Literature Wales have been filled with excitement for the release of this year's Short List. With the announcement taking place during Libraries Week, we hope that readers will head to their local library to seek out these wonderful titles to enjoy the wealth and variety of modern Welsh literature. Readers will travel from the shadow of slate mountains to 60s London; they’ll be lost at sea; they’ll experience the pain of radiation therapy; will learn about the history of Welsh art, and journey through themes of loss, myth and memory.'

The winners of this prestigious award will be announced at an Award Ceremony held in The Tramshed, Cardiff on the evening of Monday 13 November, where a total prize fund of £12,000 is up for grabs. Each category winner will receive a prize of £1,000, and the main award winners in each language will receive an additional £3,000. Each winner will also receive a specially commissioned trophy created by the artist Angharad Pearce Jones. Tickets for the Award Ceremony are £6 and can be purchased online from http://tramshedcardiff.com.

At the Award Ceremony both the People’s Choice Award and Gwobr Barn y Bobl (the Welsh-language people’s prize) will also be presented to the reading public’s favorite title from the Short List. Visit Wales Arts Review to vote for your favorite English-language title. 

 Award-winning author Tristan Hughes' most recent novel Hummingbird has been making the review rounds - here are some of the highlights:   'lean, lyrical...beautifully nuanced and utterly touching' -- Claire Allfree (Daily Mail), full review.   'Hummingbird is a triumph of compression, almost occupying a place somewhere between a novella and a more fully-blown novel. The narrative control and sense of scale it takes to make everything neither too long nor too short inform its structure...its evocation of eternity, the ever-deferred destination of the ever-changing, just perfect...this novel has scarcely any faults' -- Nigel Jarrett (Wales Arts Review), full review.  ...

Uršuľa Kovalyk is a poet, fiction writer, playwright and social worker. She was born in 1969 in Košice, eastern Slovakia and currently lives in the capital, Bratislava. She has worked for a women's non-profit focusing on women's rights and currently works for the NGO Against the Current, which helps homeless people. Kovalyk is the director of the Theatre With No Home, which features homeless and disabled actors. She has published plays, short stories and novels, and was shortlisted for the Anasoft Litera 2014 for Krasojazdkyña (The Equestrienne). I lived several lives in the brief instant before my feet touched the ground. The music stopped....

Join us this summer for The Festival of Bad Ideas (1-9 July) as our Carnival pop-up bookshop returns to Duke Street Arcade in Cardiff. On Saturday 1 July we'll be launching Lloyd Markham's dark and weird novel 'Bad Ideas\Chemicals' at 4pm at 3-7 Duke Street Arcade, with more bad ideas (but no chemicals) to follow throughout the week. In a year of bad ideas, one more can't hurt. Or can it?

We'll also be launching Biddy Wells' travel memoir A Van of One's Own in store on Thursday 6 July at 5.30pm.