New Book Awards sponsor confirmed as category shortlists announced
05/03/2009
Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book Awards, in partnership with the Scottish Arts Council
Scotland’s richest book awards have secured a new sponsor granting a generous increase for the overall Book of the Year prize to £30,000 and to category prizes of £5,000. Twenty shortlisted titles announced today (Thursday 5 March) are in the running for the awards across the categories of fiction, literary non fiction, poetry and first book.
The renamed Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book Awards are the next evolution of the Scottish Arts Council Book Awards which were first introduced in the 1970s]. The generous sponsorship by Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust represents a long term sponsorship commitment and celebrates the Trust’s Centenary year in 2009.
Commenting on the new sponsorship agreement Sir Donald Mackay Chairman of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust said:
“We are delighted to be involved. Supporting these prestigious book awards is a very suitable way for Scottish Mortgage to celebrate its centenary. By showcasing Scotland’s finest literary talent Scottish Mortgage hopes to shed light on its own intellectual and insightful approach to investment over the past 100 years”
Scottish Arts Council Chairman Richard Holloway added:
“We are delighted that Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust has agreed to support the awards. This new sponsorship will allow us to continue to celebrate the best writing Scotland has to offer. The strong shortlist announced today is a testament to the vibrancy and strength of Scottish writing.”
Minister for Culture Michael Russell said:
“Scotland is a literary and literate nation which has always produced great writing and great writers. These awards provide a fitting recognition to celebrate the best of Scottish writing. This year’s shortlist demonstrates the wealth of creative talent that exists across all genres and profiles some of the best modern Scottish books which inspire adults and children alike.
“I also welcome this new business sponsorship of the arts which is sure to bring benefits creatively and economically for both organisations.”
The Shortlist
The Book Awards continue to be a celebration of Scotland’s contemporary literary scene and offer awards to published authors from, or based in, Scotland. This year’s judging panel comprises: Professor Alan Riach, poet and Head of the Department of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow; Lillias Fraser, Readership Development Officer at the Scottish Poetry Library; Pat Kane, writer, musician, consultant and blogger; and Dr Gavin Wallace, Head of Literature at the Scottish Arts Council, who Chairs the panel in a non-voting capacity.
Together, the judging panel has whittled down a longlist of over 120 titles to comprise a shortlist of twenty across the categories of fiction, literary non fiction, poetry and first book.
Settings vary from a debauched celebration of the cabaret-era in pre-war Berlin, working in a fish factory, and life as an assistant to one of Scotland’s most cherished literary figures. The UK’s current bestseller, Edinburgh-based Kate Atkinson, has reached the shortlists, together with a host of other major Scottish literary figures such as James Kelman, Janice Galloway, and Robert Crawford, and poets from every corner of Scotland.
In addition an exceptional commendation has been given to poet Mick Imlah who died in January.
The full shortlist is detailed below.
FICTION
Kate Atkinson, When Will There Be Good News?, (Doubleday)
James Buchan, The Gate of Air, (Maclehouse Press)
Beatrice Colin, The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite, (John Murray)
Andrew Crumey, Sputnik Caledonia, (Picador)
Meaghan Delahunt, The Red Book, (Granta)
James Kelman, Kieron Smith,Boy, (Hamish Hamilton)
Kei Miller, The Same Earth, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Commenting on the Fiction shortlist Pat Kane on behalf of the judges said:
“This year has served up a shortlist of Scottish fiction marked by a fierce contemporary intelligence; a stylistic confidence that spans high modernism, ornate realism and low farce; and an easy global range of reference that indicates the ambition of this generation of Scottish writers.”
NON-FICTION
Kate Clanchy, Antigona and Me (Picador)
Janice Galloway, This is Not About Me (Granta)
Rodge Glass, Working with Alasdair Gray: A Secretary's Biography (Bloomsbury)
Sara Maitland, A Book of Silence (Granta)
Commenting on the Non-Fiction shortlist, Dr Gavin Wallace on behalf of the judges said:
"What unites these powerfully distinctive works is their bold defiance of categorisationand form as a necessary reflex to equally challenging material, themes, and subjects: the nerve-shredding vulnerability, terror and absurdity of childhood; the trauma of the refugee forming the solace of friendship; the biographer adopting the subersive fictional techniques of his subject to do justice to one of Scotland's greatest artists; a fusion of memoir, analytical essay, philosophical meditation, and provocation driving a passionate quest to reclaim our lost ability to understand silence. These are richly individual, urgently necessary books".
POETRY
Robert Crawford, Full Volume (Jonathan Cape)
Jen Hadfield, Nigh-No-Place (Bloodaxe)
Frank Kuppner, Arioflotga (Carcanet Press)
Tom Pow, Dear Alice (Salt Publishing)
In addition the judges agreed to make an exceptional commendation for The Lost Leader by Mick Imlah (Faber and Faber), whose death in January 2009 prevented him from being shortlisted.
Commenting on the Poetry shortlist Lillias Fraser on behalf of the judges said :
“The range of the shortlisted poetry collections is specially impressive. There's a vivid sense of physical places, from Dumfries to Shetland by way of Canada or Fife, in the books by Robert Crawford, Jen Hadfield and Tom Pow - while Frank Kuppner's extraordinary booklength poem opens vista after hypnotic vista on the Alternative World of Kuppner. This writing isn't only describing places in the physical world, but creating ideas of places through the fresh, superbly-crafted poetry: what does it mean to belong somewhere, to live side by side with history or tradition, but not accept what you see at face value? These four vastly different books are by poets at the top of their game, all using their formidable craft as a rock-steady foundation for adventures in form and imagination.”
FIRST BOOK
Elaine di Rollo, The Peachgrower's Almanac (Chatto)
David Knowles, Meeting the Jet Man (Two Ravens Press)
Andrea McNicoll, Moonshine in the Morning (Alma Books)
Greg Michaelson, The Wave Singer (Argyll Publishing)
Andrew Nicoll, The Good Mayor (Black & White Publishing)
Commenting on the First Book shortlist Professor Alan Riach on behalf of the judges said:
“This list is rich in unexpected pleasures: brilliantly accomplished thrillers, gently anecdotal stories, rich historical reconstructions with gripping narratives, lucid travel accounts in Scotland’s less familiar archipelagos. The world, it seems, from Thailand to the Baltic, is becoming increasingly explored by Scottish imaginations, while the under-explored facets of Scottish life and character, contemporary and historical, from Shetland to Aberdeen and Glasgow, are exciting the scrutiny and imaginations of our finest new writers.”
Following today’s shortlist announcement, a winner will be selected in each category in April (each receiving £5,000) and one of the category winners will then be selected as the overall Book of the Year receiving a total of £30,000. The overall winner will be announced, and all the awards will be presented, at an awards ceremony the Borders Book Festival on 19 June, the second time the Festival has hosted the awards.
Notes to editors
- Full biographies and synopses of the books are available at www.scottisharts.org.uk/bookawards
- Images of the authors and book covers are available on request.
- Full details of the awards and shortlist are available of the Scottish Arts Council website www.scottisharts.org.uk/bookawards.
- Four category winners will be announced in tandem with the launch of the Borders Book Festival in Melrose on the Wednesday 8 April.
- The overall Book of the Year award will be announced on Friday 19 June at the Borders Book Festival, Melrose.
- Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust is one of the oldest and largest investment trusts listed on the London Stock Exchange. The company has been managed by Scotland’s leading independent fund manager Baillie Gifford since its launch in 1909. It started life providing mortgages to the owners of rubber plantations in Malaya seeking to profit from the advent of the mass produced motor car. Today Scottish Mortgage invests on a global basis and looks to reward its investors by searching out strong companies which offer above average returns to their shareholders. As at 31/12/08 Scottish Mortgage had total assets of £1475m.
- The Scottish Arts Council is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) which was established by Royal Charter in 1994 and is also a Lottery distributor. The organisation serves the people of Scotland by fostering arts of excellence through investment, development, research and advocacy. Our corporate aims are: to support artists to fulfil their creative and business potential; to increase participation in the arts; and to place the arts, culture and creativity at the heart of learning. We invest £60m each year, including £15 million of National Lottery funding.
Contact email(s)
media.office@scottisharts.org.uk
Issued by: Scottish Arts Council
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