Saltire Literary Award shortlist 2015 announced

Scotland’s premiere literary awards, covering six major categories from the hotly-contested Fiction Book of the Year to Poetry Book of the Year, were revealed by performance poets Rally and Broad in Scotland, and Scotland’s Poet Liz Lochhead down in London. The Saltire Literary Awards are organised by the Saltire Society, a non-political independent charity founded in 1936 which has membership branches throughout Scotland.

Nominees for verse include former Makars Jim Carruth and Valerie Gillies, alongside award-winning poets Roddy Lumsden and Ryan van Winkle. Household names like Kate Atkinson, Michel Faber and Irvine Welsh jostle for attention alongside emerging talents like Fiona Rintoul and Peter Geoghegan in the literary section. The winning book from each category will go on to compete for the coveted Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award, which is accompanied by an £8,000 cash prize, supported by Creative Scotland. The winners of all six award categories will be formally announced at a special ceremony in Edinburgh on 26 November along with the winner of the Saltire Publisher of the Year award.

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The shortlists in full

Saltire Society Scottish Research Book of the Year Award
Clubbing Together: Ethnicity, Civility and Formal Sociability in the Scottish Diaspora to 1930 [Liverpool University Press], by Dr. Tanja Bueltmann
Microbes and the Fetlar Man: The Life of Sir William Watson Cheyne [Humming Earth], by Jane Coutts
The Voice of the People: Hamish Henderson and Scottish Cultural Politics [Edinburgh University Press], by Corey Gibson
The Native Woodlands of Scotland [Edinburgh University Press], by Scott Wilson

Saltire Scottish History Book of the Year Award
A Chasm in Time: Scottish War Art and Artists in the Twentieth Century [Birlinn], by Dr. Patricia R. Andrew
A History of Drinking: The Scottish Pub since 1700 [Edinburgh University Press], by Anthony Cooke
John Knox [Yale University Press], by Jane Dawson 
The Going Down of the Sun: The Great War and a Rural Lewis Community [Acair], edited by Donald A. Morrison

Scottish Poetry Book of the Year Award
Killochries [Freight], by Jim Carruth
Cream of the Well [Luath Press], by Valerie Gillies
Not All Honey [Bloodaxe Books], by poet Roddy Lumsden
The Good Dark [Penned in the Margins], by Ryan van Winkle

Saltire Scottish First Book of the Year Award
The People’s Referendum [Luath Press], by Peter Geoghegan
Airstream [Homebound Publications], by Audrey Henderson
On the Edges of Vision [Queen’s Ferry Press], by Helen McClory
The Leipzig Affair [Aurora Metro Books Ltd.], by Fiona Rintoul
Lie of the Land [Polygon], by Michael F. Russell
Sixty Degrees North [Polygon], by Malachy Tallack

Saltire Scottish Fiction Book of the Year
God in Ruins [Transworld Publishers], by Kate Atkinson
The Book of Strange New Things [Canongate], by Michel Faber. Read our recent chat with him here. 
Jellyfish [Freight Books], by Janice Galloway. She told us about her short story collection back in July. 
An Dosan [Acair], by Norma Nicleoid
The Illuminations [Faber & Faber], by Andrew O’Hagan
A Decent Ride [Jonathan Cape], by Irvine Welsh

Saltire Scottish Non-Fiction Book of the Year
Young Eliot [Jonathan Cape], by Robert Crawford
Adventures in Human Being [Profile Books], by Gavin Francis
Lifeblood [Freight], by Gill Fyffe
This is Scotland [Luath Press], by Daniel Gray and Alan McCredie

For full details on each of the books and authors, and further information about the Saltire Society, head along to saltiresociety.org.uk.