Sasha Debevec-McKenney wins the 2026 Dylan Thomas Prize with a debut poetry collection
The American poet Sasha Debevec-McKenney has won the £20,000 Dylan Thomas Prize for Joy Is My Middle Name, her debut collection.
The American poet Sasha Debevec-McKenney has won the 2026 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize for Joy Is My Middle Name, her first collection. The £20,000 award was presented on 14 May 2026, International Dylan Thomas Day, at Swansea University's Great Hall. Fitzcarraldo Editions publishes the book in the UK, and Norton in the United States.
The judging panel was chaired by the writer Irenosen Okojie. The collection moves through history, ageing, addiction and popular culture, and was among The New Yorker's books of the year for 2025.
Five other books were shortlisted: To Rest Our Minds and Bodies by Harriet Armstrong (Les Fugitives), We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown (Chatto & Windus), Under the Blue by Suzannah V. Evans (Bloomsbury Poetry), Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt (Jonathan Cape) and Borderline Fiction by Derek Owusu (Canongate).
Why it matters: a poetry collection winning a prize that is usually dominated by fiction is a useful corrective to the idea that poetry sits outside the main prize conversation. The shortlist is also notable for the number of independent and specialist publishers on it, including a small press, Les Fugitives, alongside the larger houses.
Sources: Swansea University: Sasha Debevec-McKenney wins the Dylan Thomas Prize; Kirkus Reviews: Winner of the 2026 Dylan Thomas Prize.