Still searching for the perfect summer read? Well, the list of winners from this year’s edition of the Wales Book of the Year Award may hold the key.
The Wales Book of the Year Award has been run by national charity Literature Wales since 2004 and works to spotlight and celebrate outstanding literary talents from Wales. There are four prize categories – poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and writings for children and young people – for both English and Welsh language works (making eight categories in total).
Each category winner takes home a prize of £1,000, with one category winner in each language going on to win the Overall Award, earning a further £3,000 and claiming the title of either Wales Book of the Year (for the English text) or Llyfr y Flwyddyn 2025 (for the Welsh text).
For the 2025 edition, the overall winner in the English strand of awards was Clear, written by Carys Davies. Set in 1843, the novel tells the story of a man living alone on a remote Scottish island, and the bond he builds with a stranger who he finds unconscious on the shore, despite the two not speaking the same language.
Clear is the third novel by Carys Davies, who originally hails from Llangollen in North Wales, following the publication of West in 2018 and The Mission House in 2020.
Speaking on behalf of the judging panel for the prize, Carole Burns said, ‘We 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’s true for this winning book.’
The overall winner in the Welsh category was Camu by Iola Ynyr. The book consists of a series of autobiographical essays featuring stories from Iola’s childhood right up to the present day. The book faces sadness and challenges honestly, but with the conviction that there is love lurking in the dark.
Speaking about their reasons for choosing Camu for the top Welsh language prize, the judging panel said, ‘This is a book that has managed to sustain us from the first line to the last page... Iola exposes herself completely when discussing her alcohol addiction, but it is a journey to recovery and a message for us all, no matter how old we are, to see value in ourselves.’
When not writing, Iola works as a theatre director and creator, specialising in children and young people’s productions.
Along with the cash prizes, both winners of the Overall Award category took home a special trophy designed and created by Welsh sculptor, artist and blacksmith Angharad Pearce Jones.
The list of other category winners from the awards ceremony, which was held at the beautiful Sherman Theatre in Cardiff, are detailed below.
English-language categories:
Fiction Award (as well as winning Overall Award): Clear, Carys Davies (Granta)
Poetry Award: Girls etc, Rhian Elizabeth (Broken Sleep Books)
Creative Non-Fiction Award: Nightshade Mother: A Disentangling, Gwyneth Lewis (Calon Books)
Children & Young People Award: A History of My Weird, Chloe Heuch (Firefly Press)
Welsh-language categories:
Fiction Award: V + Fo, Gwenno Gwilym (Gwasg y Bwthyn)
Creative Non-Fiction Award (as well as winning Overall Award): Camu, Iola Ynyr (Y Lolfa)
Poetry Award: Rhuo ei distawrwydd hi, Meleri Davies (Cyhoeddiadau’r Stamp)
Children and Young People Award: Arwana Swtan a’r Sgodyn Od, Angie Roberts and Dyfan Roberts (Gwasg y Bwthyn)
That’s enough books to last at least one holiday isn’t it?
Learn more about the famous wordsmiths who’ve come from Wales, or read about 10 killer crime novels set in the country.