2009 overall winner | 2009 category winners | 2009 judges

The judges

Professor Alan Riach Alan Riach: Professor of Scottish Literature, Glasgow University; General Editor of Collected Works of Hugh MacDiarmid (15 volumes to date); poet (collections include This Folding Map, An Open Return, First & Last Songs, Clearances); author of Representing Scotland in Literature, Popular Culture and Iconography (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) and Hugh MacDiarmid's Epic Poetry (Edinburgh University Press); President, Association for Scottish Literary Studies; publishers' reader; author and presenter of radio series The Good of the Arts (Radio New Zealand Concert FM) and other radio programmes broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio Scotland, etc. Specialist in Scottish Literature, Modern literature; poetry; literature in education; literature, painting and music.

Lillias Fraser Lilias joined the SPL in 2003 after postgraduate research at the University of St Andrews on contemporary Scottish poetry, and a motley collection of arts and publishing jobs. She works on all manner of events programming with the SPL's core and outlying collections. Lillias is a Board member of the National Association for Literature Development. From 2007-2009 Lilias will be working on the Scottish Poetry Library's reader development project funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, including a new readers' website, librarians' training, Poetry Boxes and events with the outlying collections.

Pat Kane Pat Kane, 44, is a writer, musician, consultant and blogger. He is the author of two books - The Play Ethic: A Manifesto For A Different Way of Living (Macmillan, 2004), and Tinsel Show: Pop, Politics and Scotland (Polygon, 1992). Pat was a founding editor of The Sunday Herald newspaper in 1999, and has written for publications as diverse as the TLS, The New Statesman, The Guardian, the Observer and most Scottish titles. Pat is a currently a lead reviewer of books on technology for The Independent. His band, Hue And Cry, are currently recording and performing; their most recent album is titled Open Soul (on Blairhill Records). Pat remains quiveringly delighted that the leading Scottish poet David Kinloch once wrote a poem about him - 'The Tear in Pat Kane's Voice' - and wouldn't mind some more of that, please. www.theplayethic.com www.hueandcry.co.uk

Dr Gavin Wallace Gavin joined the Scottish Arts Council in 1997 as a Literature Officer before taking up his current post in 2002. He is a graduate and postgraduate, in English and Scottish Literature, of the University of Edinburgh. He has been active in many aspects of Scottish literature and culture as a teacher, lecturer, critic, journalist, editor, and broadcaster at home and abroad, and was an Associate Lecturer in Literature and the Humanities at the Open University in Scotland from 1991-2001. He has co-edited critical works on Scottish Fiction and Theatre, and was a co-editor of the journal Edinburgh Review.