Yasmin Zaher Wins the 2025 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize

Namita Gokhale, chair of judges, said on behalf of the panel: “Whittling our exceptional longlist of twelve down to six brilliant books

The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize has been awarded to debut novelist Yasmin Zaher for her novel The Coin.

Announced at a ceremony held in Swansea on Thursday, May 15, Zaher was selected by the judges from a shortlist of six.

The prize, which is valued at £20,000, recognizes outstanding literary talent in writers aged 39 or younger from any country and is named after the Swansea-born poet Dylan Thomas, celebrating his 39 years of creativity and productivity.

This year's judges were chair Namita Gokhale, British poet and writer Seán Hewitt, and American writer and translator Elizabeth Gaffney.

Said Gokhale on behalf of the panel: "Whittling our exceptional longlist of twelve down to six brilliant books, and then again to just one, was not an easy exercise – yet the judging panel was unanimous in their decision to name debut novelist Yasmin Zaher as the winner of the 2025 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize. Zaher brings complexity and intensity to the pale through her elegantly concise writing: The Coin is a borderless novel, tackling trauma and grief with bold and poetic moments of quirkiness and humour. It fizzes with electric energy. Yasmin Zaher is an extraordinary winner to mark twenty years of this vital prize."

The shortlisted titles were:

Rapture's Road by Seán Hewitt (Jonathan Cape, Vintage, Penguin Random House)

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (Fig Tree, Penguin Random House)

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Viking, Penguin Random House UK)

I Will Crash by Rebecca Watson (Faber & Faber)

Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good by Eley Williams (4th Estate)

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher (Footnote Press)

The annual Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize is one of the most prestigious awards for young writers, aimed at encouraging raw creative talent.

First launched in 2006, the prize is awarded to a writer from any country in the world who is aged 39 or younger for a work of fiction, poetry or drama written in English and published in the year of the award in the UK or Republic of Ireland.

It celebrates and nurtures international literary excellence.

The prize, which is open to writers of any nationality, is funded by Swansea University and supported by the Dylan Thomas estate.

It is named after the Swansea-born writer Dylan Thomas who died in 1953 at the age of 39.

The prize, which is now in its twentieth year, also pays tribute to Thomas’s legacy by supporting the writers of today and nurturing the talents of tomorrow.

It recognises and celebrates Dylan Thomas’s enduring contribution to literature and his unyielding belief in the power of words to move, inspire and change the world.

The award, which is now in its twentieth year, also pays tribute to Thomas’s legacy by supporting the writers of today and nurturing the talents of tomorrow. It recognises and celebrates Dylan Thomas’s enduring contribution to literature and his unyielding belief in the power of words to move, inspire and change the world.