The Jury’s Out: The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize 2021

Namita Gokhale is an award-winning writer, publisher and festival director. She has written 20 books, including 11 works of fiction. Her recent novel, Jaipur Journals, was released in January 2020. Betrayed By Hope, a play on the tragic life of the poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt, was published in December 2020. A co-founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, Gokhale is keenly involved in curating intra-literary dialogues across languages and cultures. Syima Aslam is the founder and Director of the Bradford Literature Festival (BLF), which she established in 2014. A 10-day literary and cultural celebration, BLF welcomes more than 70,000 visitors to Bradford annually and is celebrated as the most socio-economically and ethnically diverse literary festival in the UK. Under her directorship, BLF has made a significant impact on the country’s literary landscape, hailed as ‘one of the most innovative and inspirational festivals in the UK’, bringing together literature from all genres, promoting int