Multi-award winning writers and household names Irvine Welsh, Sally Magnusson and Jackie Kay feature alongside emerging talents Mick Kitson and Christina Neuwirth in the shortlists for the 2018 Saltire Literary awards, unveiled last night.
The shortlists for six literary awards and two publishing awards were officially announced at an event hosted at the West End branch of Waterstones in Edinburgh.
Widely regarded as Scotland’s most prestigious book awards, the Saltire Literary Awards are organised by the Saltire Society, a non-political independent charity founded in 1936 which celebrates the Scottish imagination, and are supported by Creative Scotland.
The Fiction Book of the Year shortlist features books by writers previously shortlisted for the Saltire Literary Awards. On the list are Elsewhere, Home by Leila Aboulela, The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson and Dead Men’s Trousers by Irvine Welsh, along with The Great Chain of Unbeing by Andrew Crumley, who won the Saltire First Book Award in 1994. They are up against Manda Scott for A Treachery of Spies and Helen Sedgwick for The Growing Season.
In the Poetry Book of the Year Award category, debuts by Sophie Collins and Jay Whittaker are up against collections from stalwarts of the Scottish poetry scene, Jackie Kay and Robin Robertson, both previous Saltire Literary Award winners, and Roddy Lumsden, who was shortlisted in 2015.
Death is explored in two books shortlisted for the Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award, All That Remains: A Life in Death by Professor Sue Black and Waiting for the Last Bus by Richard Holloway.
Meanwhile two renowned Scottish writers are the subjects of shortlisted titles, Joseph Farrell’s Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa and Alan Taylor’s memoir of Muriel Spark, Appointment in Arezzo. Rounding off the nominations in this category are Moscow Calling by Angus Roxburgh and The Story of Looking by Mark Cousins.
Shortlisted in the Research Book of the Year and History Book of the Year Awards are a rich selection of books covering subjects as varied as a collection of essays on early cinema in Scotland, a biography on a forgotten Jacobean political figure and a comparative study of Scottish and Catalan experiences across the past five-hundred years.
The First Book of the Year Award features a varied shortlist ranging from Alex Boyd’s photography book, St Kilda: The Silent Islands, Mick Kitson’s acclaimed debut novel Sal, Christina Neuwirth’s novella Amphibian and Calum L. MacLeòid’s novel, A’ Togail an t-Srùbain, written in Gaelic.
The book awards for 2018 Saltire Literary Awards, each accompanied by a £2,000 cash prize to the winner, are:
- The Saltire Society Scottish Fiction Book of the Year Award
- The Saltire Society Scottish Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award
- The Saltire Society Scottish Poetry Book of the Year Award supported by the Scottish Poetry Library
- The Saltire Society Scottish Research Book of the Year Award supported by the National Library of Scotland. supported by the National Library of Scotland
- The Saltire Society Scottish History Book of the Year Award supported by the Scottish Historical Review Trust
- The Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award.
The winning book from each of these awards will go on to compete for the coveted Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award, which is accompanied by a £6,000 cash prize and is supported by Creative Scotland.
Alongside the Literary Awards categories, the shortlists for two publishing awards in partnership with Publishing Scotland were also revealed. In the Publisher of the Year Award category, last year’s winner Birlinn is in the running to reclaim its title and is up against 404 Ink, BHP Comics, Canongate Books, Historic Environment Scotland and Luath Press. The winner of the Award will receive £1000 to assist their business in its further development.
In the Emerging Publisher of the Year Award, two members of the Canongate Books team, Charlotte Brady and Megan Reid, have been shortlisted. They are joined by Alan Windram (Little Door Books), Carolina Orloff (Charco Press), Heather Palmer (BHP Comics) and James T. Harding (Stewed Rhubarb Press). Established in 2016, this award aims to recognise the work of an individual in the early stages of their publishing career, with the winner receiving a prize of £500.
The winners of all literary awards as well as the two publishing awards will be formally announced at a special ceremony at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh on the 30th November, supported by Creative Scotland.
Also announced at this ceremony in November will be the winner of a special award, “Most Inspiring Saltire First Book Award Winner”, to mark 30 years since the First Book Award was established in 1988.
A shortlist of six writers drawn from previous winners of the First Book Award has already been announced and the public has been invited to vote for the one they find most inspiring. Shortlisted for this award are poets Kate Clanchy and Jackie Kay and authors Michel Faber, A. L. Kennedy, Ali Smith and Louise Welsh.
Voting is open now on the Saltire Society website (www.saltiresociety.org.uk) and will close at midnight on Monday 5th November.
Sarah Mason, Programme Director at Saltire Society, commented: “Spanning poetry, fiction, non-fiction and academic research, once again the Saltire Literary Awards shortlists celebrate the diversity, quality and richness of books to come from Scotland over the past year.
“The Saltire Literary Awards have a proud history of celebrating and bringing wider attention to excellence in all literary forms and we would like to congratulate the writers and publishers who have been shortlisted this year. All of them have produced works that are testament to the wealth of talent in Scotland’s literary scene today and I wish them the very best of luck when the winners are announced in November.”
Mairi Kidd, Interim Head of Literature, Languages & Publishing at Creative Scotland, commented: “From Michel Faber to Ali Smith and Jackie Kay to A. L. Kennedy, past winners of the various Saltire Literary Awards include many of the best-loved names in literature today.
“The 2018 shortlists again demonstrate the wealth of established writing talent here in Scotland and the Saltire Society’s ongoing commitment to uncovering the major voices of the future. The Awards champion excellence with a hugely diverse and wide-ranging spread of themes, styles and experiences on the shortlists. Best of luck to all, not least the judging panels who face a difficult task again this year.”
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