Debut novelist Patricia Lockwood wins Dylan Thomas Prize for her examination of online culture No One is Talking About This

Also shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize and the Women’s prize for fiction 2021, Lockwood’s novel unpacks modern-day internet culture and its impact on the individual psyche with immense sensitivity and surreptitious humour.

On receiving the prize, Patricia Lockwood – who made it from the USA to the UK but unfortunately couldn’t be at the ceremony in Swansea due to ill health – said: “I’m sitting here in my London hotel room on codeine, and I’m over the moon — actually, a little more codeine and I could probably convince myself that Dylan Thomas were here with me.

"I can’t wait to see the prize itself — I don’t know if it’s a pyramid or a crystal ball or a reproduction of the great man’s head. Whatever it is, I’m looking forward to setting off security systems with it at the airport.

"I’d like to say a little bit more in the future about how Dylan Thomas’ writing shaped me, but for now I’d just like to offer my deepest respect and admiration to all the other finalists, and my thanks to the prize and Swansea University for supporting young writers. Sadly, I am no longer one of them. But maybe that’s why this was my year.”

Lockwood was awarded the prestigious £20,000 Prize for No one is talking about this (Bloomsbury Publishing) at a ceremony in Swansea University’s Great Hall on Thursday May 12, two days before International Dylan Thomas Day.

Chair of Judges, Namita Gokhale, said: “No One Is Talking About This is a vital reflection on online culture today. A deeply timely winner, Patricia Lockwood is the voice of a generation of new writers who grew up under the constant pressures of real-time news and social media.