Caroline Bird has made the longlist for the Dylan Thomas Prize with her collection of poetry, Trouble Came to the Turnip, which she wrote when she was just 19.

* Click here to sign up to free news and sport email alerts from Roundhay Today.

It is one of the world's largest international literary awards, with a £60,000 cash prize.

But being named as one of the best young writers on the planet is unlikely to faze the 21-year-old, who was only 15 when she had her first book published and has already nearly finished writing her third.

Caroline, studying English at Oxford University, said: "It's amazing -– a massive honour. I'm thrilled and delighted."
She knew from the age of eight she wanted to be a writer and was constantly asking her parents to listen to her latest literary creations.

Aged 13, she wrote her first book of poetry, Looking Through Letterboxes, and also picked up her first prize – the Poetry Society's Simon Elvin Young Poet of the Year Award.

She won a week-long writing course with other talented youngsters and said: "I came out of it and thought, 'Being a poet isn't such a crazy thing to want to do', and I've not looked back since then."
She won the accolade for the second year running in 2000 and went on to win the £5,000 Eric Gregory Award in 2002.

Her poems have appeared in PN Review, Poetry Review, The North magazine and in Carcanet's New Poetries III anthology (2002).
Trouble Came to the Turnip features poems on a variety of themes, ranging from strange fairy tales to social issues, comic writing and surreal ramblings.

Although Caroline gets "fidgety" if she hasn't written anything for a while, it's not the only pastime she enjoys.
She has trained as a windsurfing instructor and teaches poetry workshops to youngsters across London.

She said: "I definitely think poetry should belong to everyone.
"It would be nice to dispel that myth of it belonging to dusty scholars, I would like to think it was accessible."

The Dylan Thomas prize, sponsored by the University of Wales, is open to any published writer in the English language under 30 and the long-list of 16 features people from across the globe, including South
Africa, Kenya, North America, Iran and China.

The shortlist will be announced in September ahead of the award ceremony in November.