Poet Philip Gross has won the Wales Book of the Year 2010 for I Spy Pinhole Eye – a collection of poems written to accompany Simon Denison’s pinhole photography – published by Cinnamon Press. Gross’s poetry collection The Water Table won the 2010 T S Eliot Prize earlier this year.
The announcement was made tonight, Wednesday 30 June, at a Gala Dinner at St David’s Hotel in Cardiff, introduced by BBC Wales Political Editor, Betsan Powys.
Gross was presented with the £10,000 prize by Minister for Heritage, Alun Ffred Jones.
I Spy Pinhole Eye is a collaborative work between poet and photographer. Simon Denison uses a pinhole camera to transform that most mundane of objects – the footings of electricity pylons – while Philip Gross’s poems explore the act of seeing and interpretation.
Poet and critic George Szirtes wrote in his introduction to the book: ‘What Denison presents – the dark rootings of steel and concrete; the feeling of something slamming into the earth, establishing its narrow vocabulary of grass, stone, mould, leaf, strut… moves through the clarity, steadiness and humaneness of Philip Gross’s verbal imagination to create something new.’
The judges for the 2010 English-language Award are poet and lecturer at the University of Wales, Ian Gregson (Chair); fiction writer, James Hawes and broadcaster Sara Edwards.
The winner of the Welsh-language award, who also received a £10,000 prize, was John Davies for his book Cymru: Y 100 lle i’w gweld cyn marw published by Y Lolfa.
The Welsh-language judges were John Gwilym Jones, Aled Lewis Evans and Branwen Gwyn.
Judge of the English-language prize James Hawes commented:
‘Anyone who thinks literary prizes are stitch-ups should have been in the room with us this afternoon. It was a close-fought battle with no unanimous agreement in the end so the winner is on a 2-1 majority verdict. We hope that Philip will relish the fact that this was a real five-set tussle not a straight sets walkover. I am personally delighted that we are making this award to a writer who his other recent collection confirms at the very top of his game.’
Peter Finch, Academi Chief Executive commented:
‘The most difficult task in the world is to decide between poetry and prose, compounded in the case of this year’s Book of the Year award by one of those prose works being a critical study. However after long debate the judges have chosen what is clearly one of the best books of poetry to come out of Wales this year.’
Nick Capaldi, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Wales said:
‘The quality and diversity of this year’s entries has not only demonstrated the strength and vibrancy of Welsh writing, it has also set a remarkably high standard. The books which have featured in this prestigious competition are excellent examples of the growing confidence in what the arts can deliver in and for Wales and shows that literature in Wales is vibrant and thriving.’
The Media Wales People’s Choice Prize, which was chosen by the public via an online poll for the second year running, was awarded to poet Richard Marggraf Turley for Wan Hu’s Flying Chair published by Salt. Karen Price, Chief Arts Correspondent of the Western Mail, presented the trophy. The Welsh language Readers’ prize sponsored by Golwg went to Manon Steffan Ros for Fel Aderyn published by Y Lolfa, presented by Gwynfryn Evans.
Actor Steffan Rhodri, best known for his role in the hit TV series Gavin & Stacey, was the guest speaker.
The Wales Book of the Year is administered by Academi and funded by the Arts Council of Wales through its income from the Welsh Assembly Government.
Philip Gross is the author of poetry, fiction and drama for children and adults and Professor of Creative Writing at Glamorgan University. He was born in 1952 in Delabole, Cornwall, the only son of a wartime refugee from Estonia, and grew up in Plymouth. He has written twelve poetry collections, including The Water Table which won the T S Eliot Prize 2010. He lives in Penarth. Simon Denison is a lecturer in the history and interpretation of photography at Birmingham City University’s Institute of Art and Design and the author of two photographic books, The Human Landscape (2002) and Quarry Land (2005). He lives in Shropshire.
