{"id":10516,"date":"2025-05-15T19:45:06","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T19:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/2025\/05\/15\/debut-of-the-palestinian-writer-wins-the-dylan-thomas-prize\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T19:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T19:45:07","slug":"debut-of-the-palestinian-writer-wins-the-dylan-thomas-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/2025\/05\/15\/debut-of-the-palestinian-writer-wins-the-dylan-thomas-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"Debut of the Palestinian writer wins the Dylan Thomas Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Introduction to the Award<\/h2>\n<p>A Palestinian writer has been awarded a prestigious literary award from Swansea University, named after the famous writer Dylan Thomas. The award is given to young writers under the age of 39, in honor of Dylan Thomas&#8217;s life and work. This year&#8217;s winner, Yasmin Zaher, received \u00a320,000 for her debut novel, &quot;The Coin&quot;.<\/p>\n<h2>About the Winning Novel<\/h2>\n<p>&quot;The Coin&quot; tells the story of a wealthy Palestinian woman living in America, who struggles with trauma and grief. The jury described the novel as &quot;limitless&quot; and praised its &quot;brave and poetic moments of quirking and humor&quot;. The novel&#8217;s unique blend of themes and literary style impressed the judges, who unanimously decided to award Zaher the prize.<\/p>\n<h2>The Award Ceremony<\/h2>\n<p>Yasmin Zaher, born in Jerusalem in 1991, received the award at a ceremony in Swansea on Thursday evening. The chairwoman of the 2025 judges, Namita Gokhale, praised Zaher&#8217;s writing, saying that she &quot;brings complexity and intensity to the page with elegantly concise prose&quot;. Gokhale also noted that the jury had a difficult task choosing a winner from the longlist of twelve brilliant books, but ultimately decided on Zaher&#8217;s debut novel.<\/p>\n<h2>The Selection List<\/h2>\n<p>The full selection list for the 2025 award included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&quot;Rapture&#8217;s Road&quot; by Se\u00e1n Hewitt &#8211; a poetry collection from the UK\/Ireland<\/li>\n<li>&quot;Wonderful heroic deeds&quot; by Ferdia Lennon &#8211; a novel from Ireland<\/li>\n<li>&quot;The SafeKeep&quot; by Yael van der Wouden &#8211; a novel from the Netherlands<\/li>\n<li>&quot;I will crash&quot; by Rebecca Watson &#8211; a novel from the UK<\/li>\n<li>&quot;Medium to arm, occasionally good&quot; by ELEY Williams &#8211; a short story collection from the UK<br \/>\nThese books showcased a diverse range of literary talent from around the world, but ultimately, Zaher&#8217;s &quot;The Coin&quot; stood out as the winner.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>The Swansea University Dylan Thomas award is a prestigious recognition of young literary talent, and Yasmin Zaher&#8217;s win is a testament to her exceptional writing skills. Her debut novel, &quot;The Coin&quot;, is a powerful exploration of themes such as trauma, grief, and identity, and its recognition by the award judges is well-deserved. As a young writer, Zaher&#8217;s future in literature looks bright, and her win is an inspiration to aspiring writers around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction to the Award A Palestinian writer has been awarded a prestigious literary award from Swansea University, named after the famous writer Dylan Thomas. The award is given to young writers under the age of 39, in honor of Dylan Thomas&#8217;s life and work. This year&#8217;s winner, Yasmin Zaher, received \u00a320,000 for her debut novel,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10518,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10516\/revisions\/10518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}