£60,000 Dylan Thomas prize goes to globetrotting debut authorThe Vietnamese-born writer Nam Le Nam Le (born September 10 in Irvine, California) is a Vietnamese-American professional poker player from Huntington Beach, California. On March 3 2006, Le won the World Poker Tour (WPT) fourth season Bay 101 Shooting Star event. It was his first major poker win. has been awarded the 2008 Dylan Thomas prize The Dylan Thomas Prize is a new biennial literary prize, named after the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, "awarded to the best published writer in English under the age of 30 from anywhere in the world". , picking up a cheque for £60,000 at a ceremony in Swansea last night for his first collection of short stories, The Boat. The chairman of the judges, Peter Florence Peter Florence, MBE is a British actor and director, most notable for founding the Hay Festival with his father, Norman Florence, funding the first festival with winnings from a poker game. , hailed Le as a "winner worthy of Dylan Thomas Noun 1. Dylan Thomas - Welsh poet (1914-1953) Dylan Marlais Thomas, Thomas ". "Nam tackles his own background and circumstances as well as that of others with a clear eye, focused intelligence and wonderful use of words," Florence said. "He is, in this panel's opinion, a phenomenal literary talent, and I look forward to following his career as it progresses." Born in Vietnam and raised in Australia, the New York-based Le ranges across the globe with stories set in locations from the streets of Tehran to a tiny Australian fishing village. The opening story, "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice", grapples directly with his own heritage, with a young writer called Nam urged by his friends to turn to his father's experiences in Vietnam for literary inspiration. It is a theme he returns to in the collection's final story, also entitled "The Boat", a straightforward account of people struggling to escape from Communist Vietnam by boat. Le fought off competition from last year's winner of the Guardian first book award, Dinaw Mengestu, as well as Ross Raisin, shortlisted for this year's Guardian award. They were joined on the Dylan Thomas shortlist short·list also short-list n. A list of preferable items or candidates that have been selected for final consideration, as in making an award or filling a position. Noun 1. by the 22-year-old poet Caroline Bird, as well as debut novelists Ceridwen Dovey and Edward Hogan. The "original" Dylan Thomas literary award was established in the early 1980s, with a much smaller purse, but fell into abeyance A lapse in succession during which there is no person in whom title is vested. In the law of estates, the condition of a freehold when there is no person in whom it is vested. In such cases the freehold has been said to be in nubibus (in the clouds), in pendenti after funding was exhausted. The new prize, awarded once every two years by the University of Wales Affiliated institutions
It is intended to encourage creative talent in writers under the age of 30, and is open to works of fiction, poetry and drama in English - all genres in which Thomas wrote. The inaugural prize in 2006 was also won by a collection of short stories, Rachel Tresize's Fresh Apples. 
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