{"id":1422,"date":"2025-07-17T21:36:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T21:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/1422\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T21:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T21:36:13","slug":"remarkable-novel-clear-by-carys-davies-wins-wales-book-of-the-year-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/1422\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Remarkable’ novel, Clear by Carys Davies wins Wales Book of the Year 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Clear, Carys Davies<\/p>\n

Clear by Carys Davies was named Wales Book of the Year 2025 during a prestigious awards ceremony held tonight.<\/p>\n

The author receives a prize of \u00a34,000, as well as an iconic trophy designed and created by Angharad Pearce Jones.<\/p>\n

The overall English-language award is sponsored by Cardiff University\u2019s School of English, Communication and Philosophy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The winner was announced by Literature Wales during an award ceremony held at Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, which was also live-streamed for audiences at home by Buffoon Media on the ambobdim.cymru<\/a> site.<\/p>\n

Tonight\u2019s ceremony saw 10 winners take to the stage to claim a total prize fund of \u00a314,000. Carys Davies first took to the stage to collect the Fiction Award, supported by The Rhys Davies Trust, before returning to claim the overall award and the prestigious title Wales Book of the Year 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The winner of the Welsh-language overall prize, sponsored by Cardiff University\u2019s School of Welsh, is Camu by Iola Ynyr (Y Lolfa).<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIntricately crafted, passionate and remarkable novel\u201d<\/p>\n

Clear is a short novel set on a remote Scottish island in 1843. Ivar, the sole occupant, leads a life of quiet isolation until the day he finds a man unconscious on the beach below the cliffs.<\/p>\n

The newcomer is John Ferguson, an impoverished church minister sent to evict Ivar and turn the island into grazing land for sheep.<\/p>\n

Unaware of the stranger\u2019s intentions, Ivar takes him into his home, and despite the two men having no common language, a fragile bond begins to form between them.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile on the mainland, John\u2019s wife Mary anxiously awaits news of his mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On behalf of the judging panel, Carole Burns said: \u201cWe all loved this book, for its story, for its ambition, for its sentences, for its relevance to our world today. It is an intricately crafted, passionate and remarkable novel. Excellence is always the only criteria, in the end, for a prize, and that\u2019s true for this winning book. Congratulations to Carys Davies, author of this year\u2019s winning book, Clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clear is Carys Davies\u2019 third novel, all published by Granta. Her previous two are The Mission House (2020) and West (2018), which won the Wales Book of the Year Fiction award, was Runner-Up for the Society of Authors\u2019 McKitterick Prize and was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize.<\/p>\n

Her short stories have been widely published in magazines and anthologies and broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and have won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, the Society of Authors\u2019 Olive Cook Award, the Royal Society of Literature\u2019s V S Pritchett Prize, and a Northern Writers\u2019 Award.<\/p>\n

Davies\u2019 second collection, The Redemption of Galen Pike, was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year and won the Frank O\u2019Connor International Short Story Award 2015.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Celebration<\/p>\n

Each year, the Wales Book of the Year Award celebrates talented Welsh writers who excel in a variety of literary forms in both Welsh and English.<\/p>\n

There are four categories in both languages \u2013 Poetry, Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction and Children and Young People. Each category winner takes home a prize of \u00a31,000.<\/p>\n

One category winner in each language goes on to win the Overall Award, earning a further \u00a33,000 and claiming the title, Wales Book of the Year. Although it has existed in some form since the 1960s, Wales Book of the Year has been run by the literature development charity, Literature Wales, since 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Artistic Director of Literature Wales, Leusa Llewelyn said: \u201cWhat an incredible night for Welsh literature. Huge congratulations to all the writers and their publishers for reaching the shortlist. It\u2019s been an honour to celebrate with you all tonight at our award ceremony in Cardiff. Special congratulations to Carys Davies for being crowned winner of the overall prize for her beautifully subtle yet evocative novella, Clear. Carys is no stranger to Wales Book of the Year, and now she has one more well-deserved trophy to add to her collection as the winner of Wales Book of the Year 2025. Llongyfarchiadau mawr.\u201d<\/p>\n

The English-language winners of Wales Book of the Year 2025 are:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wales Book of the Year 2025 \u2013 Sponsored by Cardiff University\u2019s School of English, Communication and Philosophy & Fiction Award \u2013 Supported by the Rhys Davies Trust
Clear, Carys Davies (Granta)<\/p>\n

Poetry Award
Girls etc, Rhian Elizabeth (Broken Sleep Books)<\/p>\n

\"\"girls etc by Rhian Elizabeth is published by Broken Sleep<\/p>\n

Creative Non-Fiction Award \u2013 Sponsored by Hadio
Nightshade Mother: A Disentangling, Gwyneth Lewis (Calon Books)<\/p>\n

\"\"Nightshade Mother is published by Calon<\/p>\n

Children & Young People Award
A History of My Weird, Chloe Heuch (Firefly Press)<\/p>\n

\"\"A History of My Weird is published by Firefly<\/p>\n

Nation.Cymru People\u2019s Choice Award
Girls etc, Rhian Elizabeth (Broken Sleep Books)<\/p>\n

A panel of judges is appointed each year to read, debate and select their favourite titles. This year\u2019s English-language panel members are: award-winning author and the inaugural Children\u2019s Laureate Wales,\u00a0Eloise Williams; author, journalist, and former lecturer in literature at Aberystwyth University,\u00a0Ned Thomas; award-winning author and journalist,\u00a0Carole Burns; and performer, facilitator, and Senior Platform Manager at Wales Millennium Centre,\u00a0Jason Camilleri.<\/p>\n

Welsh-language Winners:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Llyfr y Flwyddyn 2025 \u2013 Sponsored by Cardiff University School of Welsh
& Creative Non-Fiction Award
Camu, Iola Ynyr (Y Lolfa)<\/p>\n

\"\"Camu, Iola Ynyr<\/p>\n

Poetry Award
Rhuo ei distawrwydd hi, Meleri Davies (Cyhoeddiadau\u2019r Stamp)<\/p>\n

Fiction Award \u2013 Sponsored by HSJ Accountants
V + Fo, Gwenno Gwilym (Gwasg y Bwthyn)<\/p>\n

\"\"Gwenno Gwilym and her groundbreaking novel, V + Fo<\/p>\n

Children and Young People Award \u2013 Supported by Cronfa Elw Park-Jones
Arwana Swtan a\u2019r Sgodyn Od, Angie Roberts and Dyfan Roberts (Gwasg y Bwthyn)<\/p>\n

Golwg360 Barn y Bobl Prize (Welsh-language People\u2019s Choice)
V + Fo, Gwenno Gwilym (Gwasg y Bwthyn)<\/p>\n

Camu is Iola Ynyr\u2019s autobiography, written as a series of personal essays in which she aims to reclaim her life and memories through creativity, having lost periods of both due to alcoholism, trauma and mental illness. Iola\u2019s book is an attempt to let go of fear and trust that she is safe. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The members of the Welsh-language judging panel are: award-winning poet and playwright,\u00a0Menna Elfyn; author and winner of the 2023 People\u2019s Choice Award,\u00a0Gwenllian Ellis; writer and playwriter,\u00a0Dr Miriam Elin Jones,\u00a0who is a lecturer in Welsh at Swansea University; and author and translator\u00a0Hammad Rind.<\/p>\n

To read more about Wales Book of the year and all of 2025\u2019s winners, visit www.literaturewales.org\/wales-book-year<\/a><\/p>\n

Support our Nation today<\/p>\n

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an
\n independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by
\n the people of Wales.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clear, Carys Davies Clear by Carys Davies was named Wales Book of the Year 2025 during a prestigious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,63,457,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-1422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}