In a ceremony held at the Tramshed in Cardiff on Monday, 13 November 2017, two books selected for the Wales Literature Exchange Bookcase were awarded at the 2017 Wales Book of the Year Awards.

The 2017 Wales Book of the Year Awards are presented to the best Welsh and English-language works published in 2016 in the fields of creative writing and literary criticism in three categories: Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction and Poetry. The Award is administered by Literature Wales.

Caryl Lewis’s volume of short stories, Y Gwreiddyn (Y Lolfa), was awarded the best Welsh Fiction, and that volume is on this year’s Exchange Bookcase. Guto Dafydd won the Golwg360 People’s Choice award with his novel, Ymbelydredd (Y Lolfa), and that novel was on the Exchange Bookcase in 2016. Cynan Jones’s novel, Cove (Granta), which is on this year’s Exchange Bookcase, was shortlisted in the English Fiction category.

The winners of the main awards this year was Cofio Dic by Idris Reynolds and Pigeon by Alys Conran.

Each category winner was awarded with £1,000, with the main winners in both languages receiving an additional £3,000.

2017 Book of the Year Award Winners

• Welsh Poetry: Bylchau, Aneirin Karadog (Cyhoeddiadau Barddas)
• Welsh Fiction: Y Gwreiddyn, Caryl Lewis (Y Lolfa)
• Welsh Creative Non-Fiction and the Main Award: Cofio Dic, Idris Reynolds (Gwasg Gomer)
• Golwg360 People’s Choice: Ymbelydredd, Guto Dafydd (Y Lolfa)
• Roland Mathias Poetry Award: What Possessed Me, John Freeman (Worple)
• Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award and the Wales Arts Review People’s Choice Award: Pigeon, Alys Conran (Parthian)
• English Creative Non-Fiction: The Tradition, Peter Lord (Parthian)