Alumna’s debut novel recognised at Wales Book of the Year 2025 Awards

Image of Gwennol Gwilym with the Llyfr y Flwyddyn prizes — Gwenno Gwilym

Congratulations to Gwenno Gwilym, a Web Content Officer at Bangor University and MA Creative Writing alumna, who has been recognised at this year’s Wales Book of the Year awards for her debut novel, V + Fo, published by Gwasg y Bwthyn. The novel won the Welsh-language Fiction Award and also received the Golwg360 Barn y Bobl Prize – the Welsh-language People’s Choice Award.

The winners were announced during a ceremony at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff on the evening of Thursday, 17 July.

Gwenno’s bilingual novel, V + Fo is an unfiltered portrayal of contemporary love and home life in bilingual Wales and has been described as ‘a unique and funny novel which jumps between two people and two languages.’

Gwenno said, "I’ve had an interest in writing since I was in primary school, but it's only since I studied the MA Creative Writing degree at Bangor in 2020 that I have started to set aside time for writing. I was delighted just to be on the shortlist so to then win the fiction category and the Barn y Bobl award was incredible. The whole evening felt very special, and it was a privilege to be a part of it. I'm grateful for all the support and encouragement from my tutors who gave me the confidence to take my writing seriously and share my work more widely.”

Professor Zoë Skoulding, Programme Lead for the MA in Creative Writing, comments, “It was exciting to see the development of Gwenno’s fiction on the course, and especially her innovative response to the bilingual culture in which her writing has since flourished. There has always been a tremendous warmth and wit in her work, and we are all delighted with this recognition of an outstanding new writer.”

Coordinated by Literature Wales, the Wales Book of the Year awards celebrate outstanding writing across four categories in both Welsh and English: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction, and Children & Young People.

As a category winner, Gwenno received £1,000, and for the Barn y Bobl Prize, she received a special artwork created by digital artist Awel Mari, who experiments with unconventional methods of expressing Welshness and feminist culture.