Female writers dominate shortlists for Scotland’s ‘book of the year’ honours

Female writers are dominating the shortlists for Scotland’s flagship literary prizes.

An all-women shortlist has been revealed for the Saltire Society’s annual fiction book of the year prize.

Meanwhile, four of the five contenders in the best debut category for Scotland’s National Book Awards are women.

Fiction writers in the running include Sarah Bernstein, Ajay Close, Carys Davies, Margaret Elphinstone and Anbala Salam, while best first book contenders include Genevieve Jagger, Elle Machray, Jen Stout and Nuala Watt.

The late John Burnside has made the shortlist for poetry book of the year, months after he passed away. Other contenders include former Scots Makar Jackie Kay and newly-appointed Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen.

Scotland’s National Book Awards, which was previously known as the Saltire Society Literary Awards, dates back to 1937 and is one of the oldest competitions of its kind in the UK.

The best fiction, non-fiction, debut books, research and poetry collections of the year will be recognised at the arts organisation’s annual book awards in November, with the overall winner drawn from the winners in each category.

Previous winners of the main award include Muriel Spark, Edwin Morgan, Alasdair Gray, William McIlvanney, Michel Faber, Kate Atkinson and Kathleen Jamie. Debut authors previously recognised include Ali Smith, Liam McIlvanney, Louise Welsh, Jackie Kay and A.L. Kennedy.

A new lifetime achievement award, which was instigated in 2019, has been awarded to Alasdair Gray, Alexander McCall Smith, Douglas Dunn and Liz Lochhead.

Sarah Bernstein, who is originally from Montreal, in Canada and now lives in the Highlands, is shortlisted for best fiction book for Study for Obedience, which focuses on a woman who moves to a remote northern country to look after her wealthy brother after his divorce.

Set during the Highland Clearances, Clear, by Edinburgh-based author Carys Davies, sees two men form an unlikely bond on a far-flung island.

Galloway author Margaret Elphinestone’s Lost People, which is set in a dystopic future, sees a young child seek solace in the garden of a mysterious community.

The 1970s-set crime thriller What Doesn’t Kill Us, by Ajay Close, focuses on a feminist collective who decide to fight back in response to a series of murders, while Anbara Salam’s gothic literary mystery Hazardous Spirits is set in 1920s Edinburgh.

Best first book contenders include Genevieve Jagger’s novel Fragile Animals, which sees a woman forced to confront the memories of her religious past when she develops a relationship with a vampire, Elle Machray’s Remember, Remember, which reimagines the 17th century “Gunpowder Plot” to explore the issue of colonial slavery and Allan Radcliffe’s coming-of-age story The Old Haunts.

Also in the running for best debut are Jen Stout’s Night Train to Odesa, which recalls her experiences reporting on the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Nuala Watt’s poetry collection The Department of Work and Pensions Assesses a Jade Fish.

Watt, Radcliffe and Machray will all be discussing their work at a special event with The Scotsman critic David Robinson at a new St Andrew’s Book Festival being launched in London this month.

The latest books from Kirsty Logan, Laura Cumming, John Niven, Shakespeare and the late Carl McDougall will all contest the non-fiction prize.

Saltire Society director Mairi Kidd said: “This year’s shortlists showcase the dazzling variety of work coming out of Scotland today.

“There is an obvious poignancy in the presence of the last works of two very different writers who are no longer with us, but we are glad to pay tribute to them alongside so many other established and emergent voices.”