Women are dominating the shortlists for Scotland’s National Book Awards after the Saltire Society announced the people up for the prizes.
It’s one of the oldest literary prizes in the UK and celebrates exceptional talent across fiction, non-fiction, first book, poetry and research and recognizes and rewards the breadth of style, subject and individual flair on show in modern Scotland’s literary stage.
The shortlists were announced from the Saltire Society’s headquarters in Edinburgh Old Town by a representative of the panel of judges from each category with the event livestreamed online.
All five titles in the Fiction Book of the Year shortlist have been written by women, while the First Book award also sees a further four scribed by females.
The fiction award shows women from a diverse range of backgrounds who have created compelling and original work with all five now resident in Scotland.
One of them originally hails from Canada, one from Wales and two from England while the final of the five is of Scottish and Palestinian-Lebanene heritage.
The books up for the award are Sarah Bernstein’s ‘Study for Obedience’, ‘What Doesn’t Kill Us’ by Ajay Close, ‘Clear’ by Carys Davies, Margaret Elphinstone’s ‘Lost People’ and ‘Hazardous Spirits’ by Anbara Salam.
Creative Scotland sponsor the First Book of the Year award and it identifies rising stars to help them develop. The shortlist includes a ‘ground-breaking’ poetic depiction of disability and parenthood, a memoir from war-torn Ukraine, a feminist reimagining of the Gunpowder Plot, a modern gothic fiction exploring shared traum and a wistful story of coming of age amidst grief.
The authors up for this award are Genevieve Jagger, Ellec Machray, Allan Radcliff, Jen Stout and Nuala Watt.
On introducing the 2024 Shortlists, Mairi Kidd, Director of The Saltire Society, 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.
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“We very much hope that readers in Scotland and further afield will enjoy exploring the Shortlists and will join us via livestream in November as we announce the winners, plus Scotland’s overall Book of the Year.”
The shortlists
Fiction Book of the Year
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein (Granta)
What Doesn’t Kill Us by Ajay Close (Saraband)
Clear by Carys Davies (Granta)
Lost People by Margaret Elphinstone (Wild Goose)
Hazardous Spirits by Anbara Salam (Baskerville, an imprint of John Murray)
First Book of the Year
Fragile Animals by Genevieve Jagger (404 Ink) (fiction)
Remember, Remember by Elle Machray (HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd, HarperNorth) (fiction)
The Old Haunts by Allan Radcliffe (Fairlight Books) (fiction)
Night Train to Odesa by Jen Stout (Birlinn Ltd) (non-fiction)
The Department of Work and Pensions Assesses a Jade Fish by Nuala Watt (Blue Diode Press)
Non-Fiction Book of the Year
Thunderclap by Laura Cumming (Chatto and Windus, Vintage, Penguin Random House)
The Unfamiliar: A Queer Motherhood Memoir by Kirsty Logan (Virago)
Already Too Late by Carl MacDougall (Luath Press)
O Brother by John Niven (Canongate Books)
Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare (Harvill Secker, Vintage, Penguin Random House)
Poetry Book of the Year
QuickFire, Slow Burning, Janette Ayachi (Pavilion Poetry, Liverpool University Press)
RUIN, BLOSSOM, John Burnside (Jonathan Cape, Vintage, PRH)
May Day, Jackie Kay (Pan Macmillan)
The Wrong Person to Ask, Marjorie Lotfi (Bloodaxe Books)
Three Births, K Patrick (Granta)
The Cat Prince: & Other Poems, Michael Pedersen (Corsair (Little, Brown Book Group)
The winners in each category will be announced on Thursday 28 November along with the overall Book of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award.
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