Rising Star: Nam Le Author

Run from Swansea, the Dylan Thomas Prize for writers under 30 not only boasts a highly covetable cheque – at £60,000 – but local stardust in the shape of its "ambassador", Catherine Zeta-Jones.

This week the award went to Nam Le for his globe-trotting debut collection of stories, 'The Boat' (published by Canongate).

Born in Vietnam, he fled to Australia with his family and studied at that mid-Western factory for prize-winners, the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

His scrupulous and understated tales do recall the massacres and migrations of Vietnam's past, but also spread their wings around a planet of drastic transitions, from Colombia to Iran to Japan. In 2009, Nam Le will arrive at another exotic destination: UEA in Norwich, to work on his new book.