Philip Gross has had a great year as the Glamorgan university professor won the TS Eliot prize in the face of many well known names and last night he added the coveted Welsh Book of the Year award to his list of accomplishments.
Gross took home the TS Eliot prize for his mediation book The Water Table and also added the Welsh award to his list last night which includes a £10,000 prize for his collection of poetry titled I Spy Pinhole Eye. The collection was written as an accompanist to the photographs of pylons shot by Simon Denison.
Although the judges rewarded Gross for his work, the poet stated that the book would have never occurred if not for the amazing and inspiring photographs by Denison.
Gross said he is not the sort of writer that looks for strong issues and themes but instead believes that if you find a rock and look at it harder enough it will reveal some information which is what happened when he took a look at the python. According to Gross, it was not the python itself that stood out, but instead the lump of concrete that is about as basic as you can get.
Novelist and Judge James Hawes stated that it was a close battle for the top slot between Gross and authors Terri Wiltshire and Nikolai Tolstoy who also made the shortlist.
Hawes continued to say that anyone that thinks the prizes are handouts should have seen the debate in the room as the judges made their final decision. He added that he hopes Gross will realize that this was a very hard decision to make and that his work truly shone out at the top.
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