The winner will be announced in October

The �60,000 prize to be announced in October is the largest literary award.

Open to published English language writers under 30, it has drawn entrants from around the world.

It includes two entries for author and poet Nick Laird and two authors from Wales, Rachel Tresize and Mathew David Scott.

The competition has attracted entries from Australia, North America and Africa as well as from home-grown authors.

Nick Laird who is married to the Orange Prize for Fiction winner Zadie Smith has two entries, his novel Utterly Monkey and a short book of poetry, To A Fault.

EDS DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE Susan Barker - Sayonara Bar Lucy Caldwell - Where They Were Missed Kira Cochrane - Escape Routes For Beginners Rodge Glass - No Fireworks Joey Goebel - Torture The Artist Ian Holding - Unfeeling Nick Laird - Utterly Monkey and To A Fault Emily Maguire - Taming The Beast Mathew David Scott - Playing Mercy James Scudamore - The Amnesia Clinic Talitha Stevenson - Exposure Rachel Tresize - Fresh Apples Liza Ward - Outside Valentine

Others include Rhondda-born Rachel Tresize for her collection of short stories, Fresh Apples and Mathew David Scott, a teacher in Cardiff, for his novel Playing Mercy.

American Liza Ward, Outside Valentine, and Belfast-born Lucy Caldwell, Where They Were Missed, are the youngest authors on the list at 25 years.

Schoolteacher Ian Holding from Zimbabwe was chosen for his first novel, Unfeeling.

Screenwriter and Bafta award-winner Andrew Davies, who is chairing the judging panel, said: "To say I have been impressed by the quality of writing from all the entries would be a huge understatement.

"This unique prize was established to celebrate young, talented writers worldwide and these fourteen works aptly showcase the excellence of creative writing that exists across the entire English-speaking world.

The prize was first unveiled jointly in Swansea and New York in 2004 on the 90th anniversary of the Dylan Thomas' birth, when it was said it would be open to writers of novels, poetry, plays and travel books.

Organisers said Catherine Zeta Jones would also be the award's international ambassador.

Swansea cultural critic Peter Stead first came up with the idea of the prize.

On a trip to Italy he discovered a town called Viareggio had introduced a fiction prize, and invited the six short listed authors to come to the town to read their work.