WORLD’S FIRST EBOOK LITERARY PRIZE AWARDED TO BUDDING WRITER FROM SOUTH WALES

Talented young writer Stefan Mohamed has been announced as the winner of the Sony Reader Award for Unpublished Writers at this year’s Dylan Thomas Prize for his novel Bitter Sixteen.

Stefan was presented with the grand prize by Welsh musician and radio star Cerys Matthews. His novel was chosen from a shortlist of three by a distinguished panel of experts including the ex-Catatonia front woman, screenwriter Andrew Davies, and BBC journalist Ceri Thomas.

As the grand prize winner, Stefan will receive £5,000 and the opportunity for his novel to be published in eBook format. This is the first award of its kind in the world, created specifically to support unpublished British writers under the age of 30. Electronic book formats have been used for the entire process, from submission of the entries through to judging and then publication.

Stefan’s novel, Bitter Sixteen, is the story of Stanley Bird, a solitary, eccentric teenager, who lives in a quiet town in Wales where nothing ever happens. Then, on his sixteenth birthday, he is gifted with superpowers. Under the tutelage of his talking beagle Daryl, he decides to be a superhero.

22 year old Stefan, who lives in Powys, said: ‘It is a huge honour to receive the Sony Reader award. This is the kind of rare opportunity that few new writers get. It’s something I’ve been working towards since I was a child – the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do is to be a writer – and winning the Sony Reader Award will provide the perfect boost I need to really kick-start my writing career.’

Of Stefan’s novel, Cerys Matthews said: ‘Bitter Sixteen was the freshest of the shortlisted novels. I raced through it like I was reading a comic book.’

Peter Stead, Chairman of the Dylan Thomas Prize, said: ‘The judging panel saw excellent qualities in all three entries but after a long debate, we went for the novel we thought was the most original and surprising.’

American poet Elyse Fenton has been awarded this year’s £30,000 University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize for Clamor, her striking collection of 21^st century war poetry. Clamor, which was written in part while Fenton’s husband was deployed as a medic in Baghdad, is the first book of poetry ever to have won the title. She is the third person to have picked up the award, following Nam Le with The Boat in 2008 and Rachel Trezise with Fresh Apples in 2006.

For further information, please visit www.sony.co.uk/reader