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Winner of Daniel Owen Memorial Prize confirmed at National Eisteddfod in Wrexham
A fictional journey through time spanning nearly two centuries won its author a prestigious prize at the National Eisteddfod in Wrexham. Peredur Glyn, from Menai Bridge, Anglesey is the winner of this year's Daniel Owen Memorial Prize, presented to him at a special ceremony on the Pavilion stage.
The task of the 14 writers who entered was to create a novel with a strong storyline of no less than 50,000 words. The prize is the Daniel Owen Memorial Medal and the published novel.
Mr Glyn, a Reader in Linguistics and Bilingualism at the School of Language, Culture and the Arts at Bangor University, is the author of two novels. One of them, Pumed Gainc y Mabinogi, was shortlisted for Welsh Book of the Year 2023. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox
He writes within the genre of cosmic horror, where characters come to realise that supernatural powers exist beyond their imagination, and that humanity's place in the universe is insignificant and fleeting in the face of such horrors. He wrote Galwad Cthulhu a Straeon Arswyd Eraill, the first Welsh-language translation of the influential American author H. P. Lovecraft's work.
He has also published several books and scholarly papers on the linguistics of Welsh and its speakers, including on sociolinguistic variation, grammatical change, and code-switching.
Adjudicators, Mari Emlyn, Alun Davies and Haf Llewelyn, said Mr Glyn's work is "a model of how to use an exceptional store of research to create a fantastical historical novel without letting the research swallow the story".
In her adjudication, Mari Emlyn said: 'I knew I was in safe hands from the start in the company of this masterful writer, even though this isn't usually the kind of novel I go for.
"The novel is very cleverly structured like a classical Shakespearean drama with its five acts, although this author, thankfully, resists the temptation to include a dénouement, justifying this at the end by saying, 'Real life isn't tidy.' Ozymandias fully deserves the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize.'
Haf Llewelyn said in her adjudication: 'This has been a particularly special competition this year. Remarkably, Anfarwol leapt to the top and stayed there from the very first reading. We're in the company of a remarkable author here, and I feel privileged to be among the first people to read this work.
'From the beginning, I could relax, knowing that Ozymandias would not stumble, and that I was in the company of a confident author, a skilled storyteller, and a wordsmith who handles our language with elegance and agility.
"This is a very successful novel and will be an extremely valuable addition to the world of Welsh-language fiction. I venture to say that this is among the finest winners of the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize over the years.'
Alun Davies also praised the winning work in his adjudication: 'Judging 14 novels in a relatively short period can be a challenging task, but the reward for a judge is discovering a story like Anfarwol. Considering the standard of this year's entrants, it is high praise indeed to say that the story of Ozymandias stands head and shoulders above the other competitors, and not only deserves to win this year, but would likely have come out on top in many other years as well.
'This is truly a stunning story that is hard to summarise: a historical, supernatural, and science fiction adventure that is funny, exciting, thought-provoking, and challenging. The novel touches on mortality, Welsh identity, and what it means to be part of the human race, and I was prompted to reflect on many strange and interesting questions while reading.'
Winning at the National Eisteddfod is not new in his family. Peredur Glyn's grandfather, the poet and writer T Glynne Davies, won the Crown at the National Eisteddfod in Llanrwst in 1951.
